In times of great uncertainty, it makes sense to want to take some extra steps to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your valuables. If you are planning to build a home, consider choosing a house plan that features a safe room. In this guide, we share featured house plans with safe rooms.
Benefits of Building Your Barndominium With A Safe Room
A safe room gives you a fortified and secure space in your house.
You can use it for:
- Protection in case of a natural disaster.
- Storage of essential supplies in case of supply chain disruptions.
- A place to hide yourself, your family, your pets, or even your neighbors.
At the time of this writing, civil unrest is already occurring at an increasing scale across the US. No one is entirely safe, and the situation seems likely to continue ramping up.
Supply chain disruptions, intruders, blackouts, blockades, and similar issues are well worth protecting yourself from regardless of your ethnicity, political affiliations or beliefs, or other demographics.
Why a Barndo?
Barndominiums are often the ideal types of homes in which to put a safe room. They tend to be spacious, making it easy to accommodate a secured, fortified room. The safe room is frequently located in the garage for easy access to vehicles. Quite a few barndo plans feature an extra large garage that has room for this special feature.
Key Considerations When Choosing Floor Plans with Safe Rooms
- Dimensions: Make sure the safe room will be large enough for your needs. Think about how many people may be in the room simultaneously, as well as supplies and equipment you may need to store in there.
- Comfort: You should be able to make the room comfortable enough to stay holed up in for at least a few days.
- Location in your home: Ensure that the safe room is located somewhere in your floor plan where you and your family can get to it quickly, including if intruders are already in your house. You also should be able to rapidly leave the room and your home altogether if necessary.
- Electronics: Ensure that you will be able to pick up a radio or cell signal in the safe room. In some scenarios, this may help you determine if it is safe to get out.
- Concealment: Given the increasing political and socioeconomic instabilities, it is ideal if your safe room is also a secret room.
- Fortification: Build the safe room out of materials that can stand up to earthquakes, explosives, etc.
- Soundproofing: Thick walls and internal soundproofing may help prevent the occupants of the safe room from being heard by those outside the room.
Featured Barndominiums with Safe Rooms
Now that you have some things to think about when choosing house plans with secret passages and rooms, let’s take a look at some featured barndo plans with safe rooms.
GJ-4402 Roosevelt Barndominium House Plan
This single story barndo plan features 2,100 square feet of heated space, plus 3,183 square feet of unheated space that includes the garage and porch. There are 3 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms.
The main living spaces are on the side of the home adjacent to the garage. The bedrooms are located on the far side of the house from the garage. The safe room can be found in the garage. It doubles as the mechanical/electrical room.
PL-64007 Brooke Barndominium House Plan
Another single story barndominium with a safe room to consider is the PL-64007 Brooke. It features 2,400 square feet of heated space, plus 2,540 square feet of unheated space, including the garage and porch. The house includes 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms.
The layout features an open floor plan combining the kitchen and living room as a shared space. The dining area is also part of this open flow of space, but it is set off in its own little nook. Across the foyer from it is a home office. The master bedroom, bathroom and closet are next to the kitchen. The other bedrooms are on the opposite side of the home, adjacent to the living room.
The garage is located on the same side of the house as the master bedroom, and can be reached via the laundry room. It has enough room for two vehicles, plus a mechanical room and a separate safe room. Judging by the way that it is drawn in the floor plan, it looks like it is intended to be a reinforced room.
PL-62324 Milford Barndominium House Plan
If you are interested in a two story barndominium with a safe room, the PL-62324 Milford is worth a look. It has 2,048 square feet of heated space on the first floor, and 1,665 square feet of heated space on the second floor, for a total of 3,713 square feet. In addition, you get 3,037 square feet of unheated space, including a 1,700 square foot porch and a 1,337 square foot garage for three vehicles.
This home has 4 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. The great room, family room, kitchen, and butler’s pantry are all downstairs, along with the master bedroom, bathroom and closet, plus the laundry room. The second floor is open to the floor below above the great room. It features the other bedrooms, plus bathrooms and dressing rooms, as well as a loft/flex space.
The garage includes a separate workshop room, which in turn also contains the mechanical room. Downstairs doors lead to the master bedroom and laundry room, while a staircase in the shop lets the people upstairs descend straight to the garage from above.
The safe room is also located in the garage, across from the shop, in the back corner. The thick walls in the floor plan drawing suggest it is intended to be a reinforced room.
The fact that there are three ways to get into the garage from various rooms in the home is a nice feature from an access standpoint. If there is an emergency, and family members need to get into the safe room quickly, being able to reach the garage rapidly makes it more likely everyone will be secured in time.
LP-2804 Legg Barndominium House Plan
2,000 sq ft heated · 4 bed / 2 bath · 1 story · 50′ × 40′ · 1,200 sq ft two-car garage with a storm shelter · 1,224 sq ft of porches · $849.99 PDF · $1,099.99 five printed sets
The Legg is the only metal-shell plan on this page, and the designer calls the storm shelter the feature you will love most. The shelter room sits in the 1,200 sq ft garage, which is drawn as a separate building from the 50 by 40 foot house, so the heavy walls never touch the living space. Inside the house are four bedrooms and two baths on one level, with 10-foot ceilings, plus 1,224 square feet of porches.
Minor modifications are $400 for up to three changes and major modifications are $1,000 for up to five, if you want the shelter moved into the house. Finished barndominiums typically run $65 to $160 per square foot, so the heated area works out to about $130,000 to $320,000 before land, site work and the garage.
PL-2850 Joseph Barndominium House Plan
3,456 sq ft heated · 3 bed / 2 bath · 1 story · 72′ × 74′ · 2,116 sq ft garage · 1,768 sq ft of porches
$1,349.99 PDF · $1,599.99 five printed sets
The Joseph puts its safe room inside an angled four-car garage, joined to the house by a 425 sq ft covered breezeway with a mechanical alcove. It is the largest plan on this page: 3,456 heated square feet on one level with 10-foot ceilings, three bedrooms, two full baths and 1,768 square feet of porches, drawn as a post-frame building on a slab. The images are renderings, not photos of a build. At $65 to $160 per square foot, the heated area works out to about $225,000 to $553,000 before land, site work and the garage.
Safe Room Vs Storm Room Vs Storm Shelter
People search for house plans with a storm room, a safe room or a storm shelter, and they usually mean the same thing: a small, reinforced room inside or attached to the house where the family can ride out a tornado. The words are not interchangeable in the standards, though, and the difference matters when you read a plan set.
- Safe room is FEMA’s term. FEMA P-320 covers safe rooms for homes and includes prescriptive designs you can hand to a builder, and FEMA P-361 covers the full design criteria for residential and community safe rooms.
- Storm shelter is the building code term. The standard is ICC 500, and the International Residential Code, in section R323, says that storm shelters, when provided, must be built to it. The code does not require a shelter; it sets the bar for one you choose to build.
- Storm room is an everyday name, not a technical one. A plan that labels a room this way is telling you where the room is, not what it is built to withstand.
For tornado protection, FEMA’s criteria design a residential safe room for 250 mph winds wherever the house is built, and test the walls, roof and door against a 15-pound 2×4 flying at 100 mph. That is why these rooms are usually solid concrete, filled concrete block or a steel-lined frame with a rated door, rather than an ordinary closet with extra studs. Plan on roughly 3 to 5 square feet of floor per person for a short tornado stay.
Before you buy, check what the drawings actually specify for the safe room. If the plan set details it to ICC 500 or FEMA P-320, your builder has what they need. If it only shows the room on the floor plan, budget for an engineer to design the walls, roof, anchoring and door, or for a manufactured shelter tested to ICC 500 that fits the space.
Where The Safe Room Sits In These Plans
In every plan on this page, the safe room is in or next to the garage. A garage slab is an easy place to anchor a heavy room, and it keeps the thick walls out of the living space. The trade-off is the walk: at night in a warning, you have to get from the bedrooms to the garage, so look at the route on each floor plan. The alternatives are a reinforced interior closet or pantry in the middle of the house, or a basement, and both are changes a designer can make to a stock plan.
Safe Room FAQ
What Is The Difference Between A Safe Room And A Storm Shelter?
Mostly the standard behind the name. Safe room is FEMA’s term, with design criteria in FEMA P-320 and P-361. Storm shelter is the building code term, and the International Residential Code says a storm shelter, when provided, must meet ICC 500. Both are built to protect people from tornadoes and high winds, and a room designed to either set of criteria is far stronger than an ordinary interior room.
Do House Plans With A Storm Room Meet FEMA Standards?
Not automatically. Storm room is an everyday label, and a stock plan can show a storm room or safe room on the floor plan without detailing it to FEMA P-320 or ICC 500. Check the plan set for the wall, roof, anchoring and door details. If they are not there, have an engineer design the room, or fit a manufactured shelter that has been tested to ICC 500.
How Big Should A Safe Room Be?
For short tornado sheltering, the guidance works out to roughly 3 to 5 square feet of floor per person, so a family of four needs as little as 12 to 20 square feet. Most people build larger, because the room also stores water, a radio, a first aid kit and important papers, and a bigger room is easier to use for storage the rest of the year.
Where Is The Safe Room In These Barndominium Plans?
In or beside the garage in every plan on this page. The Legg puts its storm shelter in a separate 1,200 sq ft garage, the Joseph builds it into an angled four-car garage, and the Milford puts it in the back corner of the garage. A garage slab is a good anchor for a heavy room, but check the walking route from the bedrooms on each floor plan.
Can I Add A Safe Room To A Plan That Does Not Have One?
Yes, usually. On the PL and LP plans on this page, minor modifications cost $400 for up to three changes, and major modifications cost $1,000 for up to five changes or anything that alters room sizes. A reinforced closet or pantry in the center of the house is a common choice. The safe room itself still needs structural details to FEMA P-320 or ICC 500.
How Much Do These Safe Room Plans Cost?
The Legg LP-2804 costs $849.99 for a single-build PDF or $1,099.99 for five printed sets. The Joseph PL-2850 costs $1,349.99 or $1,599.99 printed. The plan set is a small part of the budget: finished barndominiums typically run $65 to $160 per square foot, which puts the 2,000 sq ft Legg at about $130,000 to $320,000 before land and site work.
Get Your Own Custom Barndominium with Safe House Plan
Homes with safe rooms can help their owners to protect their families and valuables during civil unrest, earthquakes, harsh weather, supply chain disruptions, and other dangerous events. Click on any of the links in this post to get plans to build your barndominium with a safe room.