Demolishing an Air Raid Shelter

[John]

Picture (set) here

you can see there is a wooden shed attached to the shelter

[ransley]

If your house leaked you would fix it

[mike]

Yeah, I thought I remembered it too (and the fruitless search).

Is this it?

Google search does seem to be working again but "Levenshulme" was spelled differently in the old thread.

[Tim Watts]

John wibbled on Monday 01 February 2010 12:03

You lucky sod. I would *so* fix that up!

Seriously - it's all above ground. Damp proofing it would be easy. You could epoxy paint the floor if that's damp (probably).

There are probably a variety of ways you could reduce damp from the walls but I'll leave others to describe that 'cos I'm not an expert.

I wonder if the roof slab is the main culprit though - seeing as water sits on it (presumably). Again, a coating on top of something could fix that (thinking something along the lines of tar/shingle, felt, something paint on, fibreglass...).

Even if you felt the roof were too low (I agree it looks like it is just above head height), the most structural work I'd consider is kango-ing that slab off and replace with a proper roof, which could be a proper tiled pitched roof.

Totally a fixer-upper IMHO :)

Stick a solid door on it and you've got one majorly pikey resistant workshop!

:)

[Andy Dingley]

Tank it. If you buy the right materials (important!), from the right places (important! Factor of 10 pricing difference over the local DIY sheds), then it's quite easy to do and fairly cheap. It's probably easier to fix it then demolish it, especially if there's any poured concrete involved.

The only reason I'd demolish one would be because the headroom too low to be useful and the roof was poured concrete.

[dennis]

That doesn't look like an airaid shelter to me, just a brick built shed. There was a concrete panel shed at my dad's, built like Smiths houses were built, it had about 6" concrete for a roof.

[Dave Liquorice]

That looks in very sound condition but I'm not convinced it's an old air raid shelter the bricks don't look quite right for WWII and the roof is a bit thin. ICBWT.

Fit a proper door and frame set back under the roof a little, with a raised threshold to stop water running in. Produce some form of drip slot or ridge along the opening to stop water running in under the roof.

There might be a requirement for a bit of ventilation row of 1" holes along the top of the door and an airbrick somewhere.

[ARWadsworth]

Looks more like a coal bunker to me.

Adam

[Andy Dingley]

It could be half an air-raid shelter. Brick structure for structure, then a foot of soil on top. They were built that way early on, in urban locations with no space to dig and while bricks were still available, before the Andersons.

[Graham.]

Yeah, I thought I remembered it too (and the fruitless search).

Is this it?

Google search does seem to be working again but "Levenshulme" was spelled differently in the old thread.

That's the one, same OP. It would be interesting to know why he refers to them as he does. Sometimes expressions we use in everyday speech have relevance only in our own local community, and we don't realise that.

[js.b1]

Door excepted, that is 100% identical to a small TX (sub-station) down the road from an aunt :-)

- Fit a close fitting door.

- Cut out a hole for window (angle grinder with diamond disc, stihl saw).

- Cover the roof in Wickes "High Performance Acrylic Waterproofer", code 240148.

- Get power to it for a frost-stat controlled heater or dehumidifier.

Then re-evaluate re damp, the roof is probably the problem.

- Consider tanking membrane w/ O-ring-plug the walls or if triple brick just waterproofer

- Insulate with Seconds Celotex/Kingspan etc.

I guess you could remove the roof and put a pitched roof on it, not an easy thing to do.

[Andy Burns]

[Andrew Gabriel]

If it was a shed, it would have a half-brick wall, possibly with piers. The one-and-a-half brick wall is the giveaway as an air raid shelter. You wouldn't otherwise find that until you have 3 further storeys supported above, or in a basement to prevent soil pressure collapse.

[geoff]

That's where the mistake lies

It's from the Whalley Range meat pie wars (1963-1966)

[dennis]

If it were a shelter one and a half bricks wouldn't offer much protection, maybe a coal bunker as suggested by others ?

[jgharston]

Offshot.

JGH

[jgharston]

Looks like the garden is a bit too high, and damp is seeping in. In my concrete/brick shed I tanked the floor and used pallets as a base to put a slightly higher floor on. Bone dry.

JGH

[Jason]

That brickwork is gorgeous. You want to demolish it??

[Jason]

They only had to make people *feel* safe.

[Nightjar]

Domestic bomb shelters were only supposed to protect people from bomb splinters or falling shrapnel from the AA guns. None were intended to withstand a direct hit or even a near miss.

Colin Bignell