Air Raid Shelter

emmaw5782 · 18 Feb 2008

Hi there

I have been searching the internet and cannot find any advice regarding this, so hope someone on here might be able to help!

At the end of our garden we have an underground air raid shelter - and the roof protrudes approximately 1ft off the ground.

At present, two-thirds of the width of the garden is flat and level and has a single pre-fab garage on it. We want to flatten the last 1/3 where the shelter is to allow for a double garage.

I guess the top of the shelter is re-inforced concrete so how would I break it up? We're hoping to knock it in and fill in the void with hardcore before levelling the top off. Sound sensible?

Any advice on how to break and opinions on what we're doing would be much appreciated!

Emma

marshman · 19 Feb 2008

you would be best to phone your local plant hire company and get a jcb 180 with a pecker ( big breaker ) and driver for the day,
he would should be able to do it in one day, I don't know if BC will let you build over it with it just being back filled with hardcore, they might want you
to build over it using a raft or insist that its bulk filled with concrete.
It might be best to talk to BC first, that way the jcb would break it up and load it away all still in one day, the plant hire company would / should
arrange the lorry.

JohnD · 19 Feb 2008

air raid shelters are very hard to demolish (duh!) so you might consider raising the floor level of the part next to it, and using the shelter roof as your ground slab.

there are a few people on here who would be very pleased to have an underground garden room

how about a pic?

emmaw5782 · 19 Feb 2008

I think it would use less concrete to bulk fill it than it would be to raise the rest of the garden. The garden is approx 7metres wide and the shelter is less than 2 metres of that.

Although fascinating, it's not a useable space. There is no head-height, it's only about 5ft deep. We did think about using it as an inspection pit but we don't really have any cause to use that.

The only other option would be to just leave it and build over it - it would just mean that a portion of the garage would be unusable for a car.

Many thanks for your advice. We'll probably see if we can find a builder willing to take it on and at what cost. If it's going to prove pricey I guess we'll have to leave it.

Emma

Deluks · 22 Feb 2008

I wouldn't have thought driving a car over it would have any negative effect at all. Like John says, just build over/around it and make the rest of the floor level with it. Is it a ww2 shelter or a cold war one?

emmaw5782 · 22 Feb 2008

I suspect it's a 2nd world war one as we know the main property was so badly damaged in the war that it was re-built.

Many thanks for advice - perhaps we could make a ramp onto it so it would be more useable.

JohnD · 22 Feb 2008

how about some photos?

Mikepeters · 31 Mar 2008

Could you break the walls down by digging around the edge and let the roof drop into the hole you have made???? (you only have to remove 12" of bricks , Kinda thinking Fred Dibna shore it up with wood and burn the bugger. Or maybe find a WW2 bomb..... ;-?

breezer · 31 Mar 2008

posh air raid shelter then

most were just coregated iron covered in soil

WabbitPoo · 1 Apr 2008

Old-ish thread so maybe not much point in replying. Doh! I just did!

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Air Raid Shelter

breezer

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