New construction: I live just outside of the city limits. The town has a population of about 15,000. A great majority of them are Hispanic, with more and more Sudanese showing up due to a major employer. I am concerned about my family’s safety also.

I built a house back in 2001. My basement is LITEFORM. I had a safe room designed into the basement. My basement is 9’ deep and the walls are 8” of poured concrete reinforced with #5 coated rebar. In one corner I had 2 additional walls poured to form the room. These interior walls were only 4” and were reinforced with #3 rebar. I now have a 12’x12’ safe room. I have yet to attach a door, as I wish to keep it as inconspicuous as possible; perhaps a moveable bookcase or something.

Had I known more about LITEFORM construction, I would have designed the first floor to use this building method. I could have had 6” concrete walls sandwiched between 2” Styrofoam. After the walls had set, either the inner or outer Styrofoam sheathing could have been carved out and steel plate could have been inserted next to the foam.

The only weakness to the home would have been the roof, but that could have been minimized by installing a decorative steel roof. They last 100 years and have a shingle pattern pressed into them.

Current home: I try to keep the outside as ‘normal’ looking as possible. Planting roses under each window is a deterrent to burglaries. A small decal from an alarm company will keep intruders away. Make sure it is a small one visible only when extremely close to the window. A larger one that can be read from the street will only confirm that you have something worth stealing.

Replace glass windows with Plexiglas, or add it to existing windows.

Cut plywood to fit over windows and frames. Attach channels to the house so all you’ll need to do is put the plywood in place and add one side of the channel. It’s faster this way.

Install a couple of figure 4 brackets on either side of the front and back doors. These are the ones that allow you to drop a 2x4 into them to resist forcing the door open. Using 2x4 rectangular steel will work much better than 2x4 pine.

A hedge of Russian Olives will work better than barbed wire in a couple of years.

An alarm system hooked up to a siren in the attic will notify neighbors of trouble.

I have quartz flood lights on the corners of the house. They are aimed down each side of the house and across the back of the house. I have 3 switches to control them in the garage, the master bedroom and the 3 season porch.

All utilities are underground. I keep 200 gallons of water in drums in the basement.

Radio antennas are in the attic so no one can see them. I have a small generator in the garage a bank of 8 small emergency lighting batteries to run my radios.

As for adding a saferoom to an existing home, you'll keed to do some work to your basement floor. You'll need to put in footings where none existed before. This will involve cutting and breaking the floor. Poured concreat will weigh several tons so make them wide and deep.

If you decide to use concrete block the walls won't be as strong for lateral pressure but will be lighter and easier to build as you get closer to the ceiling.

You might also look into using 2x4 framing and cover with 3/4" or thicker plywood and sheetrock. Fill the space between the plywood with rebar and concrete.