Safe Rooms (Mamad)

Roughly 56% of homes in Israel, close to 1.6 million dwellings, still have no code-compliant protected space. A shared shelter, even when it exists, is often too far for the short warning time and is not always maintained. A safe room solves exactly that: it is inside the apartment, reachable in seconds, kept up because it is used daily, and serves in routine as a bedroom, office, or children’s room.

Beyond safety, a safe room is an asset. It adds a room, raises the property’s value and demand, and gives a family real peace of mind in any emergency, from missiles to an earthquake.

• Reachable within the warning time, no distant shelter
• Serves as a full room in everyday use, no lost space
• Raises property value and market demand
• Multi-scenario protection: missiles, shrapnel, earthquakes, NBC events

The binding framework is the Civil Defense Regulations (shelter construction specifications) of 1990, and the Home Front Command is the authority that approves. A safe room is built as a monolithic reinforced-concrete box, cast as a single unit with no beams or columns, whose walls run continuously up the full height of the building and down to the foundations.

The dimensions and thicknesses are not open to interpretation: a minimum net area of 9 sqm and a volume of 22.5 cubic meters, a height of 2.5 to 2.8 meters, and a minimum width of 1.60 meters. Any deviation requires specific approval from the authority.

• At least 9 sqm net, 22.5 cubic meters volume
• External wall 25 cm, window wall 30 cm, internal wall 20 cm
• Ceiling and floor at least 15 cm, B-30 concrete per IS 118
• Two rebar meshes: inner every 10 cm, outer every 20 cm

Four components turn a concrete box into an approved safe room, and each carries a standard and an approval mark. The blast door opens outward and is gas-tight, and the blast window, just one, is made of an inner security window and an outer protective element, per IS 4422.

Since 2010 every safe room must have an NBC ventilation and filtration system per IS 4570, with two ventilation pipes of 4-inch diameter. At the end, an airtightness test per IS 4577 by a certified lab is a condition for occupancy approval. One non-compliant detail disqualifies the entire safe room.

• Gas-tight blast door, clear opening 70 to 80 cm, IS 4422
• A single blast window, sill at least 1.05 meters high
• Compliant NBC filtration system per IS 4570
• IS 4577 airtightness test as a condition for occupancy

Since October 2023 the permitting map has completely changed. For a single-family home or a building of up to two stories, a safe room can be built on a permit-exempt route: you submit to the Home Front Command alone, the answer comes within 14 days, and on completion you notify the authority within 45 days. The provision is in force until 25 October 2026.

For other buildings a short-track permit applies: a decision within 45 working days, and if the authority does not answer in time the request is deemed approved. The relief measures cut the safe room permit time from 9 to 12 months down to 4 to 6 months. We know exactly which route your project belongs to, and that is the difference between months and a year.

• Permit-exempt route: Home Front Command approval within 14 days
• Short-track permit: 45 working days, silence counts as approval
• Betterment levy exemption for a safe room up to 12 sqm
• Possible even on properties with existing building deviations

In a shared building, the consent of 60% of the apartment owners is enough to build safe rooms, a lower majority than a regular extension requires. The common solution is a safe-room tower: a column of safe rooms stacked up the full height of the building, with each wing founded separately.

Building for all residents together lowers the cost per unit, speeds up the permit, and upgrades the whole building. When there is no room in the yard, updated planning schemes allow building up to one meter from the plot boundary, which opens the option even in narrow yards.

• Only a 60% majority to build safe rooms in shared property
• A safe-room tower with separate founding for each wing
• Approach up to one meter from the plot boundary on the tailored route
• Joint construction lowers cost and upgrades the whole building

The process starts with a feasibility check against the existing structure and zoning, continues with architectural and structural design that integrates the safe room into the apartment without losing space or aesthetics, and moves to Home Front Command approval through the online permitting system.

During construction we supervise every detail that decides whether the safe room is approved: the rebar, the thicknesses, the sealing, the door and window and filtration installation, and concrete sampling during the pour. At the end we accompany the airtightness test and the occupancy approval.

• Planning and engineering feasibility check
• Full architectural and structural design
• Home Front Command approval and permit guidance
• Construction supervision through the airtightness test and occupancy