Walked through an old hardware store in El Paso and spotted something wild

I was browsing Ochoa's Hardware downtown last Tuesday and noticed they still sell those old steel blast doors from the 60s. The hinges were massive, like 8 inches long, and the guy said they were leftover from a nearby missile silo that got scrapped. Has anyone ever tried retrofitting one of these into a basement shelter?

4 comments

4 Comments

carter.joseph15d agoMost Upvoted

Man those silo blast doors are usually rated for like 50 psi overpressure which is way overkill for a basement shelter. What nobody thinks about is the hinge weight though. You'll need to reinforce the floor joists above or the whole frame will sag and bind up over time. Friend of mine grabbed one from a decommissioned Atlas site in Kansas and the concrete anchor bolts alone weighed 12 pounds each.

wade25015d ago

Buddy of mine scabbed one into his garage ceiling and six months later the door ripped a floor joist clean in half while he was underneath it. Lucky he wasn't standing there when it let go.

pat78114d ago

Holy crap, that's a nightmare scenario. Ngl, I'd be more worried about my garage door turning into a guillotine than a shelter at that point. Tbh, your buddy might've been safer just digging a hole in the backyard and calling it a day.

ivanbell14d ago

Yeah no kidding on the hinge weight thing! I helped a buddy install one in his shop a few years back and we ended up having to sister two extra beams up there just to handle the static load. You're spot on about that binding issue, @wade250 your story about the joist snapping is exactly why we spent a whole weekend reinforcing before even hanging the door.