# Just how common are "panic rooms"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312 "2007-05-16T13:19:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/21 "2007-05-17T03:29:40Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar] Where the heck do you live that less than a million isn’t that expensive? I’ve assuming here that by less than a million, you’re not talking about a mere $300,000 house. [/QUOTE] Maybe $600,000. Not saying it’s cheap, but in the Tampa area there are houses that are much, much more expensive. There are certainly thousands of $500,000+ homes here. In New York City that’s a fixer upper. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/22 "2007-05-17T03:31:37Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Even more excitingly, you’ll occasionally encounter a house from the 1800s with one or more secret rooms for use by the Underground Railroad. One of the old churches in Cleveland even has a tunnel leading to the river, for boarding boats to Canada. [/QUOTE] That reminds me. One of Mrs. Shibb’s ancestral homes in southern Thailand has a secret passageway. It was built a couple/few hundred years ago in case of pirate invasion. Members of her family used it to escape the invading Japanese during WWI I and then lived on a boat for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/23 "2007-05-17T03:58:26Z")
[QUOTE=RyJae] It’s off an old root cellar, concreted and I-beamed… We had extra material, a root cellar already and boredom. [/QUOTE] Please conquer my ignorance - what is a “root cellar”? I come from a place where cellars below ground level are not the norm - almost no houses have them. The concept of a cellar I get. But what is a “root” cellar? What is rootilicious about it? I have never heard the term until I read this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/24 "2007-05-17T04:07:27Z")
There’s a page for everything. [The Root Cellar Home Page](http://waltonfeed.com/old/cellars.html) > [@](#): > > Root cellars are nature’s way of storing fruits and vegetables. And they can be excellent storage areas for other things as well. A hundred years ago root cellars were one of the few ways they had of keeping things cool. People not only put potatoes and carrots in their root cellars, but their preserved meat, milk and cream, fruits and vegetables - literally anything they needed to keep cool. Even though root cellars didn’t get nearly as cold as a refrigerator during summer months, root cellars generally were and are 30 to 40 degrees F cooler than daytime summer temperatures. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/25 "2007-05-17T04:55:15Z")
Thanks, X. Ignorance busted. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/26 "2007-05-17T05:10:32Z")
> [@](#): > > If I had space for an extra room, I would use it for something more fun like a home theatre, rather than a panic room. It’s not an either/or proposition. All a “panic room” is is a room with a secure door, solid walls, and a telephone. The rest of the room is whatever you want to make out of it. I would assume that most people make a panic room out of their bedroom. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/27 "2007-05-17T05:59:14Z")
[QUOTE=MrJackboots] I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article, back when I was in high school I think, about the fallout shelters (much the same) that were required in Switzerland for quite some time. “For every Swiss a shelter” was the motto. [/QUOTE] By law, every apartment built in Israel must have one room designated as a “apartmental protected space,” with reinforced concrete walls and steel shutters for any window, to serve as a bomb shelter. This even applies to high-rise buildings - the proected rooms are usually stacked one upon each other in the building’s central column. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/28 "2007-05-17T08:53:12Z")
I have a panic suite. The hallway to my two-bedroom/one-kitchen wing is steel with double larches on the inside. If I hear shots, make sure the front door is locked, turn off all the lights, close the panic door and go back to bed. I do not intend to come out until daylight. No way I am going to fall for the rescuers knocking on my door trick. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/29 "2007-05-17T10:46:52Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] I do not intend to come out until daylight. No way I am going to fall for the rescuers knocking on my door trick. [/QUOTE] What if it really is a dolphin? ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/30 "2007-05-17T12:22:40Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar] Where the heck do you live that less than a million isn’t that expensive? I’ve assuming here that by less than a million, you’re not talking about a mere $300,000 house. [/QUOTE] [One mere $300,000 house.](http://homes.sptimes.com/RealEstate/Sales/Listing.asp?lid=22-7246411) 3/2, 1,980 sq ft, built in 1976. [Another one.](http://homes.sptimes.com/RealEstate/Sales/Listing.asp?lid=22-7273374) 3/2, 2,072 sq ft, built in 1979. The housing market around here is what you would call “out of control”. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/31 "2007-05-17T13:53:30Z")
[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer] …The housing market around here is what you would call “out of control”. [/QUOTE] I see what you mean. The first one has already sold! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/32 "2007-05-17T13:54:50Z")
[QUOTE=boytyperanma] What if it really is a dolphin? [/QUOTE] On the other hand, good thinking. It might be a landshark. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/33 "2007-05-17T14:07:55Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] I have a panic suite. The hallway to my two-bedroom/one-kitchen wing is steel with double larches on the inside. If I hear shots, make sure the front door is locked, turn off all the lights, close the panic door and go back to bed. I do not intend to come out until daylight. No way I am going to fall for the rescuers knocking on my door trick. [/QUOTE] Yikes! What’s the actual scenario you’re describing here - terrorists attacking and killing foreigners? How will you know when the building is actually secure and it’s OK to come out? Or are you planning a Butch & Sundance type exit after sunrise? ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/34 "2007-05-17T15:01:59Z")
I knew some folks that had a Bomb Shelter. I never got to go in it. My Grandmothers friend bought the standard retirement double-wide in the country, added on a porch and a hurricane shelter. Her friends make fun of her, because it has windows and opens with a normal door to the rest of the house. However, manufactured housing folks are making models that have hurricane/tornado shelters/panic room type things. All the reason we can have hidey holes in our houses: prohibition, underground railroad, red scare, pot growing, root cellers. It’s a damned wonder we don’t all have one. As an aside, the neighbor with the bomb shelter said it hid out people fleeing the Rosewood Massacre. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/35 "2007-05-17T15:37:31Z")
[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer] [One mere $300,000 house.](http://homes.sptimes.com/RealEstate/Sales/Listing.asp?lid=22-7246411) 3/2, 1,980 sq ft, built in 1976. [Another one.](http://homes.sptimes.com/RealEstate/Sales/Listing.asp?lid=22-7273374) 3/2, 2,072 sq ft, built in 1979. The housing market around here is what you would call “out of control”. [/QUOTE] That’s nothing. $200,000 in London will just about buy you a [parking space](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3516023.stm). ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/36 "2007-05-17T15:50:44Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast] As an aside, the neighbor with the bomb shelter said it hid out people fleeing the Rosewood Massacre. [/QUOTE] They had a bomb shelter pre-1923? Wow, talk about leading edge. Bombing had just barely been invented. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/37 "2007-05-17T15:59:56Z")
[QUOTE=Noel Prosequi] Please conquer my ignorance - what is a “root cellar”? I come from a place where cellars below ground level are not the norm - almost no houses have them. The concept of a cellar I get. But what is a “root” cellar? What is rootilicious about it? I have never heard the term until I read this thread. [/QUOTE] We have one. You store roots in it (carrots, potatos, etc.). It’s cool and usually has a dirt floor. Ours has a cement floor, but who knows when that was put in. You can only access ours from the outside. We have no survival items of any kind in our possession. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312/38 "2007-05-17T17:16:22Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] Yikes! What’s the actual scenario you’re describing here - terrorists attacking and killing foreigners? How will you know when the building is actually secure and it’s OK to come out? Or are you planning a Butch & Sundance type exit after sunrise? [/QUOTE] Worse case scenario? A small group of three-or-four intruders in military uniforms with military weapons. The might scare off our local security force and it would take maybe an hour to organize a rescue force. Of course then there is the bomb scenario, for that we got a double wall and lots of concrete barriers. Also we are surrounded by Saudis, so you can’t get us without killing them. Or so goes the theory Anyway, you pay your money, you takes your chances. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-common-are-panic-rooms/404312.md?page=1)