Home Systems Design Assoc., which has created 15 to 20 safe rooms for Massachusetts homeowners, is headquartered at 76 Accord Park Drive in Norwell.
On the movie screen, actress Jodie Foster runs to the panic room – a specially designed secure room – when burglars invade her home.
In real life, some of the country’s wealthiest homeowners are turning to similar so-called safe or secure rooms for added protection against criminals, terrorists or devastating storms.
“People are paying more attention to security,” said Dennis Macleod, founder and president of Norwell-based Home Systems Design Assoc., which installs safe rooms. “They’re asking more about it early on in the [homebuilding] design process.”
For the past five years or so, Home Systems Design has created 15 to 20 safe rooms for homeowners in the Bay State and other parts of the country. Most of the safe rooms have been installed in newly constructed homes with high price tags.
The rooms, which can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 to design and install depending on their size and features, are engineered to offer homeowners peace of mind during emergency situations. They can include everything from bullet-proof walls to sophisticated communication and ventilation systems and camera surveillance equipment.
“People are much more security-conscious,” said Michael L. Durkin, a Realtor with Carlson GMAC Real Estate in Marlborough who recently attended a presentation on secure rooms at a National Association of Home Builders conference in Atlanta.
While Durkin hasn’t encountered homebuyers who are interested in having a secure room installed in their new homes, many of his customers are asking about extra security measures like built-in safes.
“We haven’t seen it [safe room installations] yet, but we are getting requests” for extra security measures, he said.
Durkin will soon be marketing a $2.5 million, 8,000-square-foot home that is being constructed in Southborough, and thinks the home would be a perfect candidate for a safe room.
“I really think that a secure room is a really good feature for that kind of home,” said Durkin.
The safe room is the central focus of the recently released movie Panic Room. In the movie, Jodie Foster, who plays a divorced mother, retreats into the panic room with her daughter when burglars break into her home in the middle of the night.
According to one estimate, approximately 5 percent of the U.S. population is using some type of safe or secure rooms.
Macleod said that given the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, more homeowners may be inclined to install secure rooms after seeing the demand that was placed on fire and police departments and other public services.
Thick as a Brick
At Home Systems Design, the typical safe room client tends to be male, in his mid-50s, and is a well-known and wealthy business owner or leader who owns multiple homes. He also tends to have a family and travels extensively, said Macleod.
Typically, a homeowner’s architects, builders or security advisers are the ones who recommend the installation of a safe room, said Macleod.
Outfitting a home or office with a safe room can be as simple as fortifying the walls in a 6-by-6 closet, explained Macleod.
“It doesn’t have to be a big elaborate undertaking,” said Macleod.
Yet, safe rooms can be technologically advanced, with many layers and options, including round-the-clock monitoring of fire and burglar systems.
Once the homeowner decides to have a safe room created, the first consideration is what kind of construction materials to use.
Macleod said that materials like brick and concrete block can be used and fortified with extra layers of wire mesh or other materials. Each added layer adds to the expense of the overall room.
The rooms installed by Home Systems Design have generally been a 10-by-12 footprint, with steel insulated doors, an electric lock with security key pad, a triple deadbolt lock system on the inside, some type of ventilation and wireless communication system. The rooms also include first-aid kits, water and blankets.
Macleod said safe rooms often serve dual purposes for homeowners, who sometimes use them as walk-in safes. Many homeowners choose to store sensitive documents and valuables in them.
In addition to specializing in the installation of higher-end security systems, Home Systems Design also installs high-tech lighting and entertainment equipment.
The 12-year-old company, which has a satellite office in Nantucket and a showroom in Pembroke, has done work for various architects, homebuilders and remodeling companies in this state, including F.H. Perry Builder in Hopkinton.
