From an air-raid shelter a vault
A safe in your own home? A perfectly sensible investment if you store valuable items at home. But an entire vault? Some people will probably raise their eyebrows and ask themselves, firstly, who needs such a thing and, secondly, whether you can even afford it. Yes, you can! In addition to strongrooms that are customised to the customer’s needs and built using modular elements, there is also the option of converting the air-raid shelter in your home into a strongroom. All you need is a certified armoured door. Would you have thought it?
Admittedly, the scepticism is no coincidence: the word “vault” probably catapults some people into the Scrooge McDuck universe and they see a room full of coins and gold bars in front of them. It’s quite clear that this idea seems exaggerated. But just because you don’t store tonnes of gold bars in your home doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t benefit from a strongroom.
Preserved function of the air-raid shelter
Back to the beginning. How can an air-raid shelter also be used as a safe and panic room and what are its functions? The most important information first: the function of the air-raid shelter is fully retained when it is converted into a safe or panic room. On the one hand, this is important by law, as it stipulates which houses must be equipped with an air-raid shelter: Air-raid shelters built from 1987 onwards must be maintained by the homeowners because they are part of the civil defence concept. However, since 2012, anyone building a detached house today is no longer legally obliged to build an air-raid shelter and is therefore exempt from the shelter obligation or has to pay fees for a centralised air-raid shelter. Either way, you don’t have to compromise or make any serious decisions if you decide to upgrade to a safe room.
Wertschutz- und Panikraum in einem
Damit Sie ihren Luftschutzraum nach der Umrüstung nicht nur als Wertschutzraum, sondern auch als Panikraum verwenden können, empfiehlt es sich ein doppeltes Türschloss mit Notmechanismus zu wählen. Somit können Sie den Raum sowohl von aussen verschliessen, um ihre Wertgegenstände darin sicher aufzubewahren, aber auch von innen, wenn sie sich darin zu ihrer eigenen Sicherheit einschliessen möchten. Das sind übrigens auch die beiden wesentlichen Unterschiede zwischen einem Wertschutzraum und einem Panikraum: Ersterer hat die Hauptfunktion, immer geschlossen zu sein, damit die zu schützenden Güter sicher aufbewahrt werden, während der Panikraum offen bleibt, damit man sich darin so schnell wie möglich vor einer drohenden Gefahr in Sicherheit bringen kann. Die Kombination von Wertschutz- und Panikraum wird durch eine zusätzliche Bedieneinheit im Rauminneren ermöglicht. Somit kann man die Türe jederzeit auch von innen wieder mit dem Code öffnen.
The function of the shelter is not affected by the installation of an armoured door.
Quick and painless installation
The armoured door, also known as the safe room door, is simply mounted on the inner wall of the air-raid shelter so that it does not interfere with the function of the concrete door of the air-raid shelter. Installation on site usually takes around one working day. This means that your air-raid shelter can be converted into a safe room in a very short time and with little effort. Incidentally, an armoured door can also be installed in other rooms in the basement to create a strongroom. The prerequisite for this is load-bearing concrete walls with a thickness of at least 20 cm. If this is taken into account in a new build, the level of security in the home can be increased considerably with relatively little effort. Compared to a strongroom in modular construction, where additional wall elements are erected and welded together, fitting an armoured door not only saves time, but also money. Depending on the degree of protection and additional options, the costs are in the lower five-figure range, whereas a modular strongroom costs many times more.
A long-term investment
Anyone thinking about upgrading the functionality of their own air-raid shelter and thus significantly increasing the level of security in their own home should seek advice from a competent and experienced security company. Waldis Tresore AG from Rümlang has been dedicated to the topic of security for over 40 years and has already equipped numerous private individuals and companies in Switzerland and abroad with its Swiss quality products. “When it comes to security, it is extremely important to work with stable and sustainable companies. Security is a long-term investment where it is important to be able to rely on a dependable partner at all times — whether today or in 20 years’ time,” says CEO and owner Markus Wirth.
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