Dropping A Bomb Shelter

Firstly, just to say that I really appreciate all the help and input I get from the participants on these forums - a knowledgeable and friendly crowd if ever there was one.

I have an air raid shelter built at the side of my house. It is solid but in a poor state, and needs to come down because we want to use the space.

I've been given a couple of estimates (£2,000 to £3,000) to bring this down and remove it from site. This is a big chunk of cash, so I am considering doing the job myself.

- What would be the best plan of attack?
- can I do this safely on my own?
- how long would it take, assuming I get more knackered each day?
- What should I watch out for?

Dimensions & construction:
4.5m long, 2m wide, and 2m tall. The roof is 8inch concrete, the walls are brick (1 brick thick on the length of the house, 2 thick on the other length, 2 thick on the width with door openings at both ends, one with a cracked concrete lintel). The floor is gently sloping concrete (depth unknown).

Location:
one side of its length has a gap of about 2 inches to the flank wall of our neighbours house. A 2-foot length of this gap is filled at one point with cement or similar so the Shelter and their house are connected. One short end opens to our back garden, and the other end abutts the back of our garage.

Contents:
boiler (asbestos cement flue), washing machine, bike. The main gas supply runs from the meter in the garage then back along the full length of the floor of the Shelter to the boiler. There is a drain manhole cover at the end nearest the garage. A rainwater pipe and the soil pipe are bricked into the supporting wall nearest the house. I am not sure how the shelter is joined (built) to the main house.

In an ideal world, I would like to continue to use the boiler after the structure has been removed - demolish around it (?) then put up a temporary structure. I would get a contractor to remove the asbestos flue, and our plumber to fit a new flue.

Any advice much appreciated.

Get down to the hire shop and see what they've got.
You need a petrol disc cutter, a breaker, sledgehammer, protective gear (boots, specs, hat) some trestles and boards to create a safe working platform so you're not working beneath it, and a comprehensive life insurance policy

Getting the roof off will be the toughest part, it'll likely be reinforced with steel bars, so ideally these will need to be severed before the roof actually comes crashing down, you'll probably end up nibbling away at the roof in chunks until the bars are exposed.
The brick walls not so tricky, but will also take ages.

*edit* the boiler needs to be removed and the supply disconnected, you can't safely remove an 8" roof around a boiler. No way! (You probably know that this part isn't a DIY job)

Thanks Deluks

Safe (independent) working platform - the only place for this would be at the back of the shelter, so I would then have to go underneath the structure and through the garage to take the rubble to the skip at the front. Or I could store the rubble at the back of the house till the roof is down (less ideal as storage would be down a little slope on the grass). Standing on the roof itself, taking it down in 'strips' from back to front and carrying the rubble over the top is not how a professional would do it then?

Is the disc cutter for chopping up the concrete, or severing the steel bars?

...before the roof actually comes crashing down

Click to expand...

This bit I do not like the sound of. I doubt my buildings insurance would cover for any repairs to next door's wall. Or mine, come to that.

Take your point about removing the boiler. Guess it needs to be removed, but a shame as means disconnecting all the water pipes as well as the gas supply.

...and a comprehensive life insurance policy

Click to expand...

Humour?

the brickwork will (should) also be 13" solid with steel rod reinforcement threaded through the mortar (which will be hard cement, not lime, mortar)

the wall rods will (should) be bent horizontal to lace with the steel mesh in the roof, and possibly also into the base.

the shelters are very hard to knock down, as they were intended to be.

would be nice if it was, as then it might come down in a more 'controlled' way rather than the roof just crashing off the walls. But I'm not sure it was built that way.

On the side adjoining the house, I can only see one run of bricks that the roof is sitting on, unless the roof has somehow been leafed into the exterior wall?

I posted a couple of pics, not that they tell me much of a story about how the thing is put together.

//www.diynot.com/network/lfnfan/albums/8052

is the roof made of concrete poured onto corrugated iron, or is it steel shuttering?

Hi JohnD

from looking, I cannot tell / don't know where to look

I can see the top of the roof from the landing window - it looks like a sort of rough screed (repaired with tar in one corner).

From the inside, it is smooth - plastered? Would the steel shuttering be under the plaster? I can take my bolster to it this evening

are you sure its a bomb shelter?

merlin50 said:

are you sure its a bomb shelter?

Click to expand...

well it`s in London and it`s still standing so I reckon it must`ve survived the Blitz . KDF, Kamerad

did people actually shelter in it during the Blitz - I can't answer that one. All I can tell you is that the previous owner (who moved in in the early 70s) said that was what it was used for.

is it constructed like you would expect a bomb shelter to be constructed - maybe not, by the sounds of it.

does it have brick supporting walls, a bloody thick concrete roof, and looks like it will be a PITA to take down - yes, alas. still, rather I take it down than the luftwaffe.

I thought this picture was the underside of the roof?
View media item 31394a shelter will not usually be plastered as it might spall off and hit the occupants.

a small shelter would have one L shaped entrance and all the walls would be over a foot thick. I do not think you have a shelter, so it should come down.

shame this chap has passed away,he might of been able to do this for you,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Dibnah

on a serious not,i would try and work out how long you think(safly)it will take you to didmantle,how many skips,how long for hiring tools etc.

then have a think if its worth your hard work?
or just hand it over to the peeps youve had quotes from?

sorry I should have given a bit of narrative. that is a shot of the outside of the shelter, from the garden side, looking in. What you see is a lean-to between the side of the house and the shelter, the covering is made from corrugated plastic. I guess the flash and the dark makes the plastic look steel-y.

I added another photo of the inside of the shelter, showing the roof. It's a smooth painted plaster-type surface.

View media item 31414
sorry for the misunderstanding.

ah, Fred Dibnah of blessed memory. I would happily have given him £3,000 to take it down. Bet he would have left the house standing too.


edit: my calcs show it would be 2 1/4 cubic metres of concrete and 3.5 cubic metres of brick assuming single thickness down one side and double down the other. say 6 cubic metres in total. Jeez.

then there's the tools, the platform (or can I just stand on the roof, guys?), the insurance (I am half serious), and the gas man / flue / reinstating a temporary boiler shelter (about which I am sure there are building regs).