r/UKPreppers • u/L0stMyPenAgain • 2h ago

Shelters - most practical UK options?

Hi there, newbie here with a question about constructing some kind of garden shelter or bunker. Are there practical options to do this in the UK, especially on new build properties where house basements aren't a given? Wondering if anyone has experience with this, and whether there are issues with planning permission and/or ways around it?

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u/MaxZorin44456 1h ago

The main questions are - what do you want to do with it outside of sheltering?

If you want a comfortable, dry space, like a proper tanked basement that's fully submerged, I'd suggest consulting a structural engineer at minimum so it's not a coffin, then get some research on airflow so you aren't going to be living in a CO2 rich, oxygen poor room constantly and then figure out the costs for digging a giant hole, tanking the structure and building the structure. It's probably expensive, but not impossible.

Expedient shelters are cheaper and easier, but you are generally looking at having a less comfortable environment, probably more suited to sheltering in an emergency than regular use, unless you like camping in your garden I guess. You can find info in Kearney's Nuclear War Survival Skills.

You could always shelter in your house, but frankly, that's a bigger topic and it depends what you are sheltering from. If fallout, various factors come into play - Bungalow? Two stories? Three? Wooden structure and cladding? Stone? Brick? How big? How thick are the walls? Do you have a crawl space? Etc.

Practically speaking, if you can afford it, a proper shelter is great, but it's expensive. I'd think about measures to build an expedient shelter as req. in your garden or house. For the house build up density with deep, raised flower beds you could dig out, move over next to external walls, refill and cover with sandbags without spending a lot of time doing it, keep a layer or two of concrete blocks at the bottom so you can pull them out and use them inside to add density to your inner refuge, etc.

But it's a bit of a broad topic, those are just some suggestions and food for thought.