Atlas Survival Shelters
Frequently Asked Questions
For an immediate quote on Atlas Shelters, please text message Ron at +1-323-353-3506 your desired shelter type + size or submit info in our contact form.
NO. The price shown does NOT include the installation or the freight from our factory to your job site.
We charge $125.00 per man hour plus expenses.
We charge $2000.00 per day plus travel expenses.
$3000.00 for a two man crew.
Yes you can! We have several videos on our YouTube Channel showing you how to do it.
30% of the shelter cost is a good estimate.
Trucking, excavation, concrete work, crane service, welders, erector, plumbers and electrician.
This depends on the shelter, but to give you a rough idea, the small shelters typically average around $5,000 and the larger shelters which are around 500 square feet cost between $15,000 – $20,000.
There will be a minimum of 20% restocking fee on all custom orders.
Our dealers typically install the shelter, but you can do it yourself if you're worried about people knowing where your shelter is. Our shelters typically do not require high-skilled workers to install them.
Atlas Survival Shelters ships shelters worldwide and also has a wide network of dealers in over 30 countries.
Atlas does not finance the shelter for you. We have a couple of banks that will finance the shelter for you as long as you have a FICA score of 620 or higher and the shelter is going on the property where the house is located. The bank will not finance a shelter that is going onto a barren piece of land.
If the shelter is in stock, you might have it within 2 weeks. Custom orders take 2-3 months usually. Larger projects that require poured in place concrete can take 6+ months. Our Texas factory tries to keep shelters in stock, so check in with our sales rep on available inventory.
It depends on the state and where you live. Typically if you live in the country in a place like Texas, you do not need a permit. If you live in a place like California, you need a permit to dig the hole only. Most people do not pull permits whether it is required or not.
Most shelters will ship from our northeast Texas plant.
Freight is about $3 per mile on long distance shipments, but we recommend you ask your sales person for a quote.
YES. The NBC Air Filtration System is included in the price on all shelters shown on our website.
The escape tunnel is standard on all the larger Atlas Shelter models. It is not included on the Nado Series and some of the smaller Atlas shelters. The way the escape works: You crawl through a 42-inch pipe and then you climb up a ladder that's installed into the escape tunnel. The escape box is full of sand that must be released before you open the door down into the escape tunnel. Once you get to the top of the escape box, you will have to punch through about 12 inches of earth to get to the surface.
What type of air system are you using? How are you preparing the surface to prevent rusting? Where will I store my food and water? Who is going to know where my shelter is being installed? How many people can my shelter hold? Do you have a recommended installer? How will I power my shelter? Is the shelter I want ok for my soil type?
Any properly designed and engineered nuclear fallout shelter will always have a shower present before you enter the shelter. If you enter a shelter covered in fallout, you will not only contaminate the shelter, but you will endanger the other people.
A 90 degree turn at the bottom of the staircase is vital to the survival of the people inside. The 90 degree turn will attenuate the gamma radiation so that it does not enter the shelter. Any shelter that does not have an L shaped or 90 degree turn at the bottom of the stairs is going to let in the prompt radiation at the time of the blast because the radiation will go right through metal as if it wasn't there. What is protecting you is the 36+ inches of earth on top of you, not the door.
The reason why doors should be gas tight is to keep out the carbon monoxide gases if your house catches fire. Also, if the shelter is not air tight, the NBC Air Filtration System will not create the proper suction to operate properly. Also, if your air system is turned off, you will lose the over pressure from inside the shelter, which is pushing air out. Once you lose interior pressure, gases, biological or chemical matter can be drawn into the shelter.
YES. Our larger shelters all include an escape tunnel, but our very small shelters do not because space is limited.
10-foot diameter galvanized culvert pipe in 12-gauge can be buried 42 feet deep. However, we typically bury the culvert shelter 10 feet below the surface.
You must have a minimum of 36 inches of earth between you and the surface if you wish to shield yourself from the radiation. If you wish to protect yourself from the climate, you need to be at least 6 feet under the surface to control the climate in the summer. If you are in the northern USA or Canada, you need to be at least 10 feet under the surface to protect the temperature in the shelter from the freezing ground, unless the shelter is underneath the house.
At least 2 meters under the earth is the NATO requirement for incoming artillery rounds.
Avoid any field that floods and avoid high ground water tables at all costs. A shelter is not a submarine although we can make a shelter with a water-tight hatch, but you should never be in a shelter when a flood is upon you.
Absolutely. If your shelter is not air tight, the NBC Air Filtration System does not function properly as recommended by the manufacturer. Also, if the house is burning above the shelter, the carbon monoxide gases will kill the inhabitants of the shelter. Biological and chemical matter can enter the shelter if it is not air tight.
There are a few primary systems that people use. Solar with a battery bank in the bunker is popular and now there is an EMP-proof model on the market. Second is an underground diesel generator in a separate generator pod, but this is strictly for large shelters. Third is an above ground propane stand alone generator that can also be used as the backup to your house but any power source above ground is susceptible to vandalism and high winds.
Absolutely not! Our air filtration systems are made by professionals who have been doing this for over 50 years. We only use Swiss or Israeli made air filtration systems. The only quality imported brands are ANDAIR, Bethel, Temet, and Lunor.
The shelters that are all welded like a barge are considered water tight and can be buried in a high ground water situation. The culvert shelter is water-proof, but is not classified as water tight and should not be installed in high water tables. Shelters are prone to flooding in high water tables in flood zones. If you order a water-tight shelter, it should not flood. Any shelter that is all welded construction should be water-tight and protect you from high water tables. An anode should be attached to your shelter to prevent rust. If your shelter ever does flood, it is not a total loss, but you will have to replace all the electronics and the air system.
Atlas is famous for providing underfloor storage for all bunkers with built in water tanks.
It is easier for you to store backup electronics in aluminum Faraday cage than it is to try to make the shelter EMP hardened, but we can do it at an additional cost. The shelters need to have 2 doors leading to the bunker to be EMP-proof. The first door must be metal on metal and the second door needs to be gasket against metal to protect you from biological, chemical, and gases. If you have only 1 door, it's better to make sure the shelter is gas tight.
First and foremost, our shelters have redundancy systems in all of them. If power is lost, our air systems all have manual backups. Some of our competition does not have a manual backup to their home made air system!
It does not raise the tax value of the house, but you will get more for a house with a shelter than without one. Therefore, it does add value to the house.
Yes, but you need to only consider water tight shelters or above ground shelters made from concrete.
The answer is in most cases 2-30 days. It really depends on the fallout. If you are upwind of a nuclear blast and there is no fallout, you will be safe to leave your shelter immediately. If you are downwind of a nuclear blast, you will be in your shelter for approximately 28 days. After 28 days, 99% of the radiation emitted by the fallout will have decayed and you can leave your shelter and try to resume a normal life.
You can stay in a bunker as long as you have food and water. All our shelters will hold enough food and water for a minimum of 30 days at the capacity listed. Our larger shelters with under floor storage can hold up to 6 months of food and water, and some can even hold more.
It depends on what part of the country you are in. Texas has a higher average ground temperature than a state like Minnesota. So the temperature in a shelter that has not pulled in any exterior air should be between 56 and 62 degrees when you open the door to the living quarters.
Probably not. Not even the military bunkers that are deep underground will protect the soldiers inside from the massive 100-megaton nuclear bombs that the Soviet Union possesses. However, having no shelter is a good way to guarantee you have no chance of surviving.
It depends on the size of the bomb, but the strategic nuclear-tipped missiles that our enemies would use against us would be in the neighborhood of 15 kilotons to 1 megaton, which is 65 times bigger than a 15 kiloton, yet would only create about double the damage. The fireball from a 1-megaton can reach out to about a 4-mile diameter, therefore you want to be as far away as possible from a military target.
YES. The round culvert shelter is specified by the United States Air Force and is installed on several bases.
YES. The Round Culvert shelters have a United States patent on them as well as the Modular Square Shelters. Atlas Survival Shelters owns other patents as well on its air pipe entry systems which is now specified by the US military as well.
We don't even know the last name of most of our customers. When a shelter ships out, it goes to a fictitious address near the customer's town. Once the shelter arrives to the address on the bill of lading, the customer will verbally give directions to the driver where to deliver his load. There are no laws that require us to keep a customer's information, therefore we don't even ask for real addresses or names.
Alpha – fast moving helium atoms stopped by a few inches of air or paper. Beta – fast moving electrons that can penetrate several feet of air or millimeters of plastic. Gamma – photons of much higher energy that can penetrate several inches of lead depending on energy level.
It generated a blast yield equivalent to 16 kilotons of TNT. Destruction was observed till a radius of about 1 mile but shock-waves traveled even longer as the plane that dropped the bomb felt the shock-wave after flying for 10 miles.
The rule for nuclear explosions is 7 times 7 times 7. After 7 hours, 90% of the radioactivity is gone. Nuclear waste remains radioactive for eons, but after about 3000-20000 years nuclear waste is only as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium ore.
For the survivors of a nuclear war, this lingering radiation hazard could represent a grave threat for as long as 1 to 5 years after the attack.
Today, the background radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the same as the average amount of natural radiation present anywhere on Earth. It is not enough to affect human health. Part of the answer is that these bombs exploded high up in the air and all the radioactive material blew or rained away.
Blast, thermal radiation, and prompt ionizing radiation cause significant destruction within seconds or minutes of a nuclear detonation. The delayed effects, such as radioactive fallout and other environmental effects, inflict damage over an extended period ranging from hours to years.
The health effects of nuclear explosions are due primarily to air blast, thermal radiation, initial nuclear radiation, and residual nuclear radiation or fallout.
Strontium-90 and cesium-137 have half-lives of about 30 years. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years. A nuclear bomb does not create nuclear waste.
The gamma rays produced in fission and as a result of other neutron reactions and nuclear excitation of the weapon materials appearing within a second or less after a nuclear explosion.
Alpha particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper. Beta particles can travel a few feet in the air and penetrate skin, but can be stopped by a thin sheet of metal, plastic, or wood.
Beta particles can be blocked by a sheet of aluminum, but gamma rays require several inches of lead, concrete or earth to be stopped.
All types are caused by unstable atoms which have either an excess of energy or mass (or both). In order to reach a stable state, they must release that extra energy or mass in the form of radiation.
Gamma rays are often considered the most dangerous type of radiation to living matter. Unlike alpha and beta particles, which are charged particles, gamma rays are forms of energy.
Alpha radiation is the least penetrating — stopped by paper. Beta radiation can penetrate air and paper — stopped by aluminum. Gamma radiation is the most penetrating.
It's even possible to survive a nuclear blast near ground zero if you happen to be inside a robust building, such as a fortified structure or an underground facility.
Contact us today and we'll help you find the perfect shelter.
