Hidden In Plain Sight

Hidden rooms, safe rooms, panic rooms, shielded rooms, disguised passages and exits, candlesticks that turn and cause a bookcase to move. Stuff of legend and movies (Panic Room by David Fincher, 2002, starring Jodie Foster) or modern day necessities for some?

While much of what you may know about these features comes from legends and movies, there is a very real need for them in today’s world. Collectively, we call them ‘features’ and we will explain their major types and purposes. Features can be as simple as a hide-away under the stairs for kids to elaborate underground structures encompassing thousands of square feet with all the amenities one could imagine, and maybe hidden in plain sight!

We can divide features this way: rooms, safes/vaults/niches, and movable structures. The common theme to most of these features is that they are hidden or disguised. So let’s take a peek at what each of these look like and what their purpose could be. This is just a quick overview and all components and considerations of these features ARE NOT included here.

ROOMS. Safe rooms, panic rooms, security rooms, shielded rooms, play rooms, passages, stairs, and exits. All can be hidden but the purpose defines its accessibility. Some of these rooms can be multi-purpose, but again, the primary purpose determines whether the room and access is hidden.

Safe rooms are primarily used for protection of the occupants during times of fire, floods, blizzards, or tornadoes. These rooms can be outfitted with generators, provisions, sanitary facilities, and communications equipment enabling the occupants relief from disaster for relatively short periods of time. Location and construction methods of the room are dependent on the type of catastrophe typically expected. Safe rooms can also be used for the occupant’s protection from nuclear and chemical infiltration and may allow for occupancy for months or more.

Panic rooms, on the other hand, are designed primarily for the security and protection of the occupants from home invasions, kidnappings, and violent robbery. These rooms must be easily and quickly accessible to the home’s occupants and allow for immediately securing of the access point. In most cases, the amount of occupancy time is limited and how the room is constructed and outfitted is critical. At a minimum, walls should be able to withstand bullets and destruction from the exterior of the room. Doors may be outfitted with electro-magnetic locks or class 1 latching hardware. Preferably, the room should be soundproofed to eliminate taunting by intruders and a fully charged cell phone or other communication devices not easily disrupted by intruders is necessary to summon aid quickly. Video surveillance of the house, water, sanitation facilities, and food may or may not be required and depends on the level of threat the occupants consider possible. A generator installed within the room structure and vented to the exterior can provide electricity should service to the room be severed. Dummy power, phone, cable lines, and vents to the room can foil attackers into thinking they have cut you off from the world.

Security rooms are typically used for the safe-keeping of valuable artwork, collections, financial instruments, weapons, and other valuables. Access is generally hidden and may require retinal or fingerprint scans for entry. These rooms may be climate controlled, have a monitored alarm, high voltage or other types of deterrent devices, and may serve a dual purpose. They can be hardened structures but are generally larger than a typical vault.

Shielded rooms typically are designed to contain or repel electronic frequencies, stop snooping, and protect sensitive materials and equipment from damage from outside sources. Proper shielding of the floors, walls, and ceiling is critical to ensure no leakage in or out. EMI/RFI & microwave aluminum foil shielding is one such method although there are several solutions depending on need.

COOP (continuity, or contingency of operations) rooms, are specifically designed to accommodate the off-site operational needs of defense contractors, government agency staff, corporate executives, and others during times of national emergencies.

Play rooms are just that. Some people want what they believe no one else has. The ultimate toy. This could be a hidden room with a hidden access but is used only for the ‘boys’ night out’. A playroom for the kids that is constructed in this manner is out of the ordinary and makes for interesting conversation. An office where work can be done securely and quietly. The possibilities are endless.

Passages, stairs, and exits can serve many purposes. Occupants may need to exit a home quickly or move from one are to another without being detected. Primarily these features are for safety and security but could serve a purpose as a separate entrance to the home but not allowing access to the home. A way to ‘trap’ an intruder.

SAFES, VAULTS, and NICHES. Wall, floor, basement, ceiling, hidden, or visible but disguised. You move a vase on a small table and a wall niche rises up into the wall to reveal a hidden cavity or safe. Press a certain brick and the fireplace swivels to reveal another safe, or maybe a passage to another room. Safes and vaults can be small and simple or as secure and substantial as a bank. You think we don’t know about the wall safe behind the picture? The one that can be cut out of the wood wall in less than a minute? Today’s repositories of valuables are sophisticated and usually well hidden. Construction methods may entail building a concrete structure when the house is first built and embedding a safe or vault in the concrete. Retinal and/or fingerprint scanners are typically used to control access. Monitored alarm systems, deterrent devices, and dummy doors are usually included.

MOVABLE WALLS and OTHER STRUCTURES. Don’t want to have to remove you artwork from the wall every time you leave the house? Press a disguised panel or turn a vase and up comes a new wall from the floor. Locks into place, built like any other wall, and you can even have artwork hung quickly. Being only inches away from the original wall, no one can tell there is a ‘valuable’ void space behind the wall. Concerned that intruders could kick your front door in? One button pressed on a remote control immediately closes solid pocket doors accessible from the foyer allowing you time to retreat to the panic room. Pantries that hold food yet open to a stair to another level. Dressers with drawers that swing out revealing a small cubby hole allowing a child to hide until danger passes. Architectural wall panels that open to reveal a passage between walls to a panic room or a disguised exit to the exterior. Hide a pool table below the floor to provide more room for an event.

The possibilities, and needs, of features such as we have described are endless. While some features are for fun and others may never be needed, it is imperative that an experienced and professional contractor accommodate your needs. When it is your life, and the life of your family at stake, going cheap could be going dead. We work with experienced designers, or we work with your plans, so that you realize the benefit of a professionally designed and constructed feature; whatever it may be. Call us, we are always available to assist you.

Phone: 703-966-6092
Send us an email: Homestead Renovations