GOT A QUESTION?
Why are these shaped like this? It's about strength and your cost. It turns out that the most efficient shape for use of materials in an above-ground steel safe room is the cylinder, capped with a dome. A perfect-circle allows the greatest floor space per outside surface area, and the dome provides the most strength and natural head room. The drag coefficient of such a shape is 0.63 or about half that of a similar squared structure, which becomes important when winds approach Mach 0.4!
I'm terrified of storms, how do I know this will be safe? It used to be that there was no sure way to know if a storm shelter was any good. But during this past decade, some very smart people have developed the “ICC 500-2008 ICC/NSSA Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters”. This safe room was designed in accordance with that Standard, and a third-party evaluation was performed by McDonald-Mehta Engineers, LLP of Lubbock, TX. This firm is one of the world's most experienced in Wind Engineering, and their documents affirm that the New Day structure complies with this Standard. (This firm was responsible in part for the development of the Enhanced Fujita Scale.)
Are these certified by FEMA? The answer at the heart of this question is “Yes”. But actually, FEMA doesn’t certify storm shelters. These shelters are known to exceed the strength requirements of FEMA Publication 320, Taking Shelter from the Storm, which from 1998 has been FEMA’s primary construction criterion for residential storm shelters. Currently, the National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA) Standard is becoming the measuring stick for shelters in America. New Day is a Member of NSSA.
Is NSSA membership a big deal? Being a Member means that my company has promised to subscribe to and support the By-laws, Member Pledge and the Objectives of National Storm Shelter Association. As a Producer Member in good standing, no compliance issues are pending, according to the Chief Compliance Officer of the Association. Your shelter is sealed and certified, and your address and GPS coordinates are added to the storm shelter data base for use in case of a terrible storm.
What does the NSSA Standard actually cover? The Standard lays out criteria for structural resistance to combined wind and live loads effecting uplift, overturn and sliding, as well as debris penetration and “collapse, layover and rollover” hazards. It covers occupancy, access & egress, accessibility, locking, venting and labeling, as well as details about pressure and penetration testing. The Standard has several maps showing wind zones within the US, and my product is engineered for them all.
Aren’t you always safer underground? Accessibility is the key. Not everybody can run through a storm or climb steps. The most expensive and driest underground shelter is worthless if it is not quickly accessible when really needed.
What about claustrophobia? Someone uncomfortable in smaller spaces may dwell outside a safe room unless the storm actually gets serious. When it’s time to “seek shelter now”, no doubt the New Day will become occupied with gusto. The door could even be left open until it’s “scarier on the outside than it is on the inside!” It takes about four seconds to lock the storm out.
How big are these? The footprint in your garage will be 42” (3' 6") in diameter and it is 80” (6’ 8”) tall. Each one comes with an anti-fatigue mat on the floor, cut round to fit just right. As long as you can get in it, the smaller size has huge benefits. You see, the smaller a shelter is designed, the stronger it gets automatically, the less garage space it covers and the less it costs to manufacture and deliver.
Is this big enough for us? According to FEMA, it’s meant for up to three persons. The New Day concept acknowledges the skill of today’s meteorologists and their fantastic array of equipment. These people literally save you money, since you don’t need such a large shelter for the few minutes you will actually inhabit it. Gone are the days of huddling down in a “fraidy hole” for hours just waiting and wondering.
Where do we get a safe room for a large family? There are many good suppliers in this industry. Please contact me, and I will give you my personal recommendations for finding a larger safe room.
How are these fastened to the slab? I use only Hilti anchors for security to the slab, and in numbers which provide a safety factor well above the calculated requirements for resistance to uplift, sliding and overturn. Hilti is known as the very best at this kind of fastening, with their products being used in construction in most every country in the world. The exact anchor I use has been accepted by the Miami-Dade County Building Code Council.
How are the anchors installed? Using a Hilti hammer drill, a hole is drilled into the slab for each anchor bolt. These holes are cleaned out and the anchors driven into them. In a mulit-point star pattern, the bolts are tightened incrementally until the specified torque of 480 inch pounds is reached on all of them. The bolt pattern has significance because the forces acting against the bolts during a terrible storm are evenly spread out with none of what engineers call a “hinge line”. In other words, the stresses cannot line up on a series of points which make a straight line, thanks to this round pattern and distance between bolts.
Do you drill through the slab? I use the full thickness of a standard slab, without punching through.
What is on the inside? Like the flesh side of football gear, half-inch foam padding wraps the circular wall.
So what's the padding all about? It’s like an assuring hug for the occupants inside. The interior design and colors are meant to help people feel welcomed, so they and their pets will enter gladly. The cushion effect makes for a user-friendly enclosure especially if it becomes "over-occupied". I believe mine is the only design on the market with this feature.
Is there a place to sit? Yes. With your shelter, you receive a small folding chair, especially selected for the unit. Seated, standing, sitting on a lap, as long as you’re inside, you’re good.
Will my dog go in there? In my experience, dogs and cats are usually glad to be with their owners during a storm. They seem to know by instinct what this is for, and if the door is ajar, they may even occupy the safe room before their humans get there.
Is there breathing air inside? Yes. A metered gap around the door provides the breathing air per occupancy that is recommended by the National Storm Shelter Association. Also, a two-speed fan with batteries is mounted on the door to keep cool air flowing, and the stream of air can be directed up or down as desired. It comes with "D" batteries which last a day or two when on HI.
Is there light inside? Your safe room comes with a powerful LED lamp and batteries, mounted by magnet to the shelter dome. By selecting the spot on the arc above, the light is directed at the door, or you can stick it onto the door if you want.
Where would we put this safe room? Because of its small footprint, the New Day shelter fits in most garages without any fuss. There, you could escape the storm without getting your socks wet. The Hilti anchors around the inside perimeter hold the shelter securely to an existing “code compliant” garage slab. If you have a substantial covered patio or carport, I will need to personally determine whether the concrete is of the mass and quality needed for this purpose.
What if I have no garage? New Day shelters come with “Indoor” or “Outdoor” anchorage, both above-ground. For any home, this safe room could stand waiting just beyond the back door, being anchored directly to the earth. I feel that no one should pay more for being without a garage, so the price is the same outside with the patent-pending anchorage. And you save all the expense of building a special slab. You see, the outdoor installation has a concrete floor of its own, and special anchorage which holds it tightly to the earth.
How is the outdoor model secured down? My outdoor anchorage uses a proprietary deep-anchor system, which is proof-tested on site. With a tensioning mechanism coupled to a digital load cell, both the anchorage and indeed, the entire safe room structure are subjected to a load well beyond what is necessary to resist the worst storm, and held there for a specified dwell time. Only after the anchorage passes this rigorous test is it approved for service.
What gives this such strength? A combination of the shape and material thickness give this structure its resistance to deformation and penetration, which are “off the charts”. Consider how commercial aircraft are shaped, which operate in a pressure differential of about 1,300 pounds per square foot. This thick shell structure has been tested to withstand forces of over 25,000 pounds per square foot. And the hemispherical dome is the optimal shape for the resistance to gross impacts from above.
What are they made of? The entire body, top and door are all SA-455 carbon steel with a tensile strength of about 85,000 psi. This exceeds the strength of “normal” A36 steel by about 23%, and at 3/8" thick, is double the mass of the walls of many storm shelters on the market today. Coatings are durable, inert masonry-derivatives and non-atomized, low-VOC paints.
How much to they weigh? The indoor model weighs 1,085 pounds and the outdoor model weighs 1,390 pounds, and hold-down strength is many times their own weights.
Are they “bulletproof”? Yes, to IAC Level III or greater.
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Should we use it for a fire or flood? No.
It’s metal, what about lightning? Inside an all-steel safe room is the safest possible place to be in case of lightning. Something called the "Faraday Cage Effect" causes a car, plane or metal building to shield you from lightning, because “high voltage and high frequency electricity travel along the outward surface of a conductor” and to the ground. Inside a New Day shelter attached to the earth, you can know you are protected even from a direct lightning strike. And the interior padding on the wall serves as a further insulator from any such risk.
Do cell phones and radios work inside? Yes, unless the signal before entering is quite weak. The same Faraday Cage Effect may cause certain radio signals to be reduced. But “short wavelength” signals like cell phones should work better than longer wavelength signals like AM radio. Just try it out. Regardless, you can set a radio outside the door and you should be able to hear it inside just fine. Once again, one might just leave the door open while waiting for the brunt of the storm to arrive.
Will this thing withstand an EF-5 tornado? Yes is the short answer. My shelters are certified by third-party engineering to be in compliance with the ICC/NSSA Standard, thus complying with the requirements of many military and civilian jurisdictions, and with FEMA, ANSI, IBC, ASCE, ASTM, NIST, NFPA and the Wind Science & Engineering Research Center (WISE) at TTU. That means it’s built for the big one.
Has one of these taken a direct tornado hit? As odd as it seems for me to say, the chances are very slim for any given location to be hit by a tornado, and no, the units I have placed so far have not been hit. If I were to offer a storm shelter based on statistics alone, then nobody should buy one. (What?) Perhaps 80 persons per year are killed in the storms compared to over 40,000 in car accidents. But the natural anxiety that blackened skies create is reason enough to acquire one of these, as a stress-reliever and if necessary, a life-saver.
Will the door stay locked? Yes. The three large lock bolts have the classic "up-over-down" latching action to keep them in either the locked or unlocked position.
Can a little kid get himself out? The door magnet is light and easily overcome by the force of a little hand pressing the unlocked door outward. If for any reason the locked door needs to be opened from the outside, there is a method of doing so that I can explain when you receive your shelter. Just a note, there is a hole in the very top center of the dome for several reasons, one being just in case a parent needs to look inside.
What if debris keeps the door from opening? The raised threshold would allow the door to clear debris up to 10" deep. Otherwise, an emergency door-opening tool is ready to use, being attached to the inside of the door. The leverage built into this tool allows for easy use, without having to be a weight-lifter to remove the entire door, and get yourself out. Like the exit over the wing of an airplane, you just let the door drop and you're out.
Are they guaranteed? Except for their paint and peripherals, they are guaranteed for as long as you own it, to be built without defect. But know that like any life-saving device, (life preserver, helmet, flak jacket), storm shelters are not guaranteed to protect from every possible hazard while in use. The highest level of safety this industry has to offer has been designed into your New Day Tornado Shelter for a very high degree of protection from severe wind events.
Where are these manufactured? In Rogers County, Oklahoma, USA. For military and other governmental uses, the New Day shelters are made in accordance with the Buy American Act of 1933 (BAA -41 U.S.C. 10a-10d). Over 99% of their material is sourced in the USA.
What colors do they come in? The earth tones selected seem to blend with most any surroundings. The light blue, yellow and tan interior was also selected from among thousands of colors to contribute to a soothing effect for you. The appearance with the "sun" on the door was specifically meant to evoke anything but fear! You already have a healthy respect for the storms, and I make it a point not to add undue anxiety to my marketing, or to the appearance of the safe rooms. Have you noticed that you are currently viewing perhaps the only storm shelter website on the planet with no scary pictures?
What if those colors clash with the surroundings? Paint over them! It’s easy to do with a high-quality latex paint.
Is New Day an Oklahoma company? New Day is the DBA of “The SafeDome Company”, an S Corp. registered in the State of Oklahoma, EIN 26-3740372.
What is the designer's background? Thousands of military and civilian families have certified, above-ground shelters designed by me or with my help. My background in commercial aviation structures has been useful in the aerodynamic aspect of this safe room design. As well, the mindset of optimization so necessary in aviation transfers to the storm shelter industry. “An airplane is made of everything you need and nothing you don’t need to do the job.” An optimized safe room is the same in that way, giving added value to the end user.
Are these patented? A patent is pending at the USPTO. I’m sure there are ways around most any patent, but out of respect, please don’t steal my hard work.
How much is it, anyway? MSRP is currently just $3000 in our home market of NE Oklahoma. No surprises. That amount includes not only the delivery and installation labor, but the anchors, anti-fatigue mat, special chair, lamp, fan, batteries, wall padding, exit tool, NSSA Seal, Certificate and registration, and even OK sales tax, no matter what the tax rate in your city.
What if we live outside of northeastern OK? Your price is still just $3000, but we will need to add some for delivery. Here is a calculator so you will know the exact delivery cost. Simply enter your zip and read the driving miles from 74112, and that is how many dollars I add for delivery. One dollar per mile, one way. If it’s within 100 miles, zero dollars.
Did you say there were discounts? If you are a first-responder or a Veteran, I want to say “Thank you” with a $100 discount. (If you are a Veteran of World War One, 95% discount!) Also, if you live in a mobile home, I remember watching the skies from one, and want to help you get a tornado shelter! If these don't apply, ask about my "high anxiety" discount.
Will you take payments? I’d rather receive full payment after installation, but I’m here to help. If you want one but don’t have all the money at once, perhaps I can work something out with you. It would be “in-house” and without interest.
Can they be leased? What about Rent-to-Own? Yes and yes. Please contact me for terms. I want you to be taken care of even if you are in the region temporarily, such as a student or a company-sponsored professional might be.
Can we work the price into our new mortgage? Probably. Just introduce me to your banker and we’ll see if we can get you this without anything out of pocket. With regard to closing, the safe room can be delivered whenever is best, and interest on it will be tax-deductible.
What if we want to move? Whether indoors or outdoors, the New Day shelter can be moved to your next home. You may call me with the “to and from” zip codes and I will give you an exact, reasonable quote for this service. Yes, it will relocate when you relocate. Or sell it with the house and I’ll provide one “fresh out of the box” for your next home.
Can I get a FEMA rebate? If you live in or around Lubbock, TX, you might get a rebate, call Kaysey Pollan at (806) 762-8721. In west-central TX, call Wendy Stovall at (325) 672-1197. If you are an Arkansas resident, contact ADEM at (501) 683-6700. If you are a Chickasaw Indian, call Terry Davis, (580) 421-8800. Check with your county's Emergency Management office to see if there is such a rebate available to you. To find it, your state office could direct you. Yes, my products are worthy of these rebates, and I will help you with the paperwork. If there isn't a rebate available, know that when they come around, they usually have a clause allowing for a retroactive installation date.
Is New Day a “green” company? Very green. If you have a need to know, I can document details of our manufacturing and delivery processes which are very earth-friendly. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! One of our shelters is installed in the Silo-Eco Home at Greensburg, KS.
Are these cheaper by the dozen? Yes. I can provide for Native American housing or military base neighborhoods. If you are a builder or landlord, let’s talk.
I know someone else who could use one. I will give you a $100 “Thank You” for every family or friend you connect with me, who receive theirs within a year of your installation date. Please make your connection clear to me before the sale, and the gift will come after completion of the transaction. Show off your safe room over and over so I can say thank you over and over!
How much is the deposit? Zero. I don’t want a nickel of your money up front. Only after you’re completely happy with your new safe room, with the installation and with how you were treated, then, of course, I would like to be paid. But not before!
How long will it take to get one? My goal is get yours installed within 7 days of the order. Some have been installed within an hour of “the nod”. Quick story: Man calls, storms are approaching. Dirk drops everything and installs unit. Sirens wail same night, family happily uses shelter. Dad sends Dirk "thank-you" text the next morning. I love it.
How long does the installation take? The entire process takes an hour or two. On site I make a little noise and a little dust, but it's not too bad.
What do others think? People just feel so much better having one. Ms. J in Collinsville OK, “I actually slept through the last storm, and that never used to happen.” Ms. W in Mena, AR “My dog went right in and didn’t want to come out.” Ms. S in Claremore OK, “We used to look at each other and say, ‘Where ARE we going to go?’ “Now we have peace of mind every time.” Mr. P in Manhattan IL, “I’m a first-responder and now I don’t have to worry about leaving my wife and baby during the storms.” Mrs. B in Bartlesville, OK, “With my arthritis I can’t use our underground shelter, but I can get right in this one.” Mr. L in Owasso, OK, “I feel so relieved, thank you so much.”
How should I pay? Although I can take cash, I prefer your personal check or bank draft made out to New Day Tornado Shelters…only after you are completely happy with the installed product. Sorry, I have decided not to take credit cards. If you need payments, we might work that out between us.
I’ve got bags of money, want to work together? Let’s talk. You know these things should be marketed all over the place!
I want one, now what do I do? Go to the "Contact Me" button above, or you may call or email the info. I just need to know that you want one and I'll take good care of you.
Dirk DeRose
New Day Tornado Shelters
9265 Mockingbird
Talala OK 74080
