Posted: 11/19/2007 8:59:49 PM EDT
| So the basement is a blank slate and I'm putting together the plans for finishing it. I want to make one room the prep/safe room. I've been looking at lead shielding to put under the drywall but I can't find any good information on how thick it should be. 1/8 inch sounds like enough but it's 8 pounds a square foot, I'd worry it would pull down the ceiling. Anyone have any references or advice that can help me out? |
|
What are you trying to shield against? Lead is a very poor choice in building materials and is toxic to boot. ETA: from the looks of the link ("xray grade lead") I think I know where you're going... if you're even contemplating this for a radiation/fallout shelter you need to seriously adjust your thinking. Radiation is stopped by mass, not by some magical property of lead. Lead is just commonly used because of it's high density, easy handling and cost (cheap). You need vastly more protection than what 1/8" of lead would provide. Economical fallout/radiation shelter construction would entail lots of concrete and with thoughtful design, use of distance and earth mass as well. |
|
You don't need shielding on the walls of a basement as you have concrete and earth there already. You have the house above you to provide some overhead protection; you could easily increase this with sandbagging. Click here FEMA basement shelter plans Why go with lead? There are plenty of other materials that will provide shielding. Pick up a copy of Nuclear War Survival Skills if you are worried about a nuke attack. |
| I wasthinking sheeting because I can build it into the walls so you can't tell it there and them if something should happen we throw the pets in grab a few last minute supplies and shut the door. I didn't want to set it up so that there's a lot of perp after an incident. We're an hour from Denver and have a few missel silos in the area. So if something happens I want to be able to shut the door in maybe ten minutes or less. |
|
Lead sheeting also doesn't oxidize so well. It can be used almost indefinitely as a sealer outside your buried bunker if you fuse the sheets into one big piece. In wet areas (like most of Michigan) it'd keep water from coming up through the floor and walls as your concrete developed cracks with age. |
|
Your basement walls should be concrete with a waterproofing barrier then earth- no need for more shielding. Read the book and also check out FEMAs sites for building shelters (independent of your home or part of it)- I posted one of them, but they have several designs available as PDFs that are free to download. You need to worry about ventilation and waste disposal too. Nuclear War Survival Skills talks about all of this in plain English; it's just one of the realistic books out there that have decent info. here- found it for free on-line Nuclear War Survival Skills |
|
Lead is used because it is 1) death to low energy gamma rays, and 2) lead is easy to obtain 100% coverage with. Grouted masonary will have voids and plaster may develop them. Poured concrete walls are hard to design into a building, particular a remodel. Making the transition to doors and windows is much easier also. I've been in major government command and control facilities and never seen lead outside a medical clinic. Concrete, earth, and air are the shielding of choice. |
1/8" of lead isn't going to have any notable effect on fallout-level gamma radiation. You need to be thinking in terms of a foot or two of concrete, or 3' or so of dirt or sand fill. |
|
As others have said, you don't need shielding on the outside walls - there's enough dirt and concrete there to prevent virtually all radiation. Also, lead isn't a "magic" material when it comes to absorbing radition. I believe that 100 pounds of lead will absorb the same amount of radiation as 100 pounds of dirt (or feathers). Lead is just convenient for shielding because it's dense so it doesn't take up much space. BTW, if you're a member of this forum, you should be able to make a lead wall out of bricks of .22lr ammo.  That comment is only partially tongue-in-cheek. Think about it. If you needed shielding from radiation, set up in a corner of your basement. The two exterior walls will protect you from radiation in those directions. Now you need a barrier to the inside and above. Drag your gunsafe and your ammo boxes and make an ammo fort. Your water storage buckets and canned food can be used too. (Obviously, don't let things get "tippy."). Put some sandbags on the floor above your ammo fort and, presto, short term radiation shelter. |
That's my plan. Don't have a basement, but we have a good spot in the very center of the house where we could build a shelter. You have a little time before the fallout actually starts coming down. Also, if you're worried about a terrorist nuke, those are going to most likely be kiloton nukes, not megaton nukes. So the chances are pretty slim that you'll actually be in the blast area, especially if you are outside of the city. I have enough cement blocks that I can build an expedient shelter in very short order. Blocks can be quickly loaded onto a hand truck for transportation inside. Holes in the blocks can be filled with sand and/or dirt for additional mass. Have some spare 4x4's and plywood for the shelter "roof" that would allow for blocks overhead. My 55 gal water drums can also be moved inside with a little work for additional mass/barriers. But, to answer your question: These guys have lead lined drywall and lead lined plywood: Radiation Protection Products There was also an interesting article that I read recently that was talking about some new composite materials that were alternatives to lead shielding, but I can't seem to find it now. :( |