Building a "Gun Room"?

[deker]

So, I just moved into a new house and have an interesting possibility that I figured I'd ask you fine folks about. I've got one room in the house with a sunroom over it which used to be an outdoor patio. Because of that, the ceiling is a concrete slab and all the walls are sheetrock/cinderblock/sheetrock to hold it up. I'm toying with the idea of replacing the doors (one external, one internal) with steel doors with very solid locks and installing 1" lexan/plexi in a steel channel lag bolted into the walls. Both doors open into the room so barring them isn't out of the question either (could make for a good "panic room", and we'd be well armed ).

My questions are pretty much:

- Does this sound reasonable/feasible as an alternative to gun safes?
- Assuming I can do most of the work myself, does it sound on par with the cost of a decent safe?
- What type of locks would be recommended for this type of setup? Would combo be available to eliminate the need for a key to enter from inside the house?
- Any thoughts on making the interior door look mostly "normal" and a match to other interior doors in the house? I don't want it to be ugly or draw too much attention.
- Any other thoughts?

-d

 

[MechAg94]

If you use a deadbolt, I would imagine it would draw attention. Don't know if you can help it much.

Sounds like a good deal. Good place to store and clean them anyway since the cinder block walls would prevent possible discharge from passing out of the room. I don't know if I would like having a concrete ceiling over my head. Good for safe room for robbery, not for bad weather. Might reinforce the support if you have the time. Better yet, buy a tall safe for each corner and fill with guns just in case the walls give way. More guns make the safe stronger you see.

 

[pax]

- Does this sound reasonable/feasible as an alternative to gun safes?

Yes, if done right.

- Assuming I can do most of the work myself, does it sound on par with the cost of a decent safe?

Probably more expensive, but since it is considerably larger you might be able to justify it on a "# of guns stored vs cost" basis.

- What type of locks would be recommended for this type of setup?

Dunno about externals, but internally I'd add a simple keyless deadbolt, and a phone jack, to make it a good safe room -- oh, and does your cell phone work there? Ceiling sounds like it might block signal. Something to check.

Would combo be available to eliminate the need for a key to enter from inside the house?

Hmmmm, that'd conflict with ...

- Any thoughts on making the interior door look mostly "normal" and a match to other interior doors in the house? I don't want it to be ugly or draw too much attention.

... but depending how the geometry works, you might consider adding a faux outer door.

pax

 

[JamisJockey]

No suggetions for the work, but to hide the room, Make it disappear
http://www.hiddendoors.com/

 

[Firethorn]

Interesting thread. I've been seriously considering building a vault when I get/build a house.

At least in my area, and I think most areas, a nice deadbolt exterior door would probably be the least attention getting. Especially if it's a side or back door, you should be able to get away with a solid(but for a peephole) door. Getting a wrought iron 'screen door' can fancy it up and add even more strength. For both interior and exterior, don't forget to reinforce the frame! Even without reinforced doors, half the time when a door is kicked in it's the frame that breaks. Barring the door sounds like a good idea.

On the inside, yes, a deadbolt is going to look strange. If you have a burglery, it's going to scream 'valuables' to the burglers ransacking the rest of your house.

Onto the walls. Cinderblock isn't the toughest material normally speaking. A few minutes time with a hammer or mallet will quickly break through. Were the walls reinforced with rebar and filled with concrete? If they were, you have a strong wall, otherwise a hammer can quickly punch a hole.

One concern: Is this your only backdoor? Fire code will probably look down on losing an alternative exit. It'll almost certainly look down on a room that you need a key to leave.

At last, I'm probably not thinking straight, but what's with the plexiglass?

 

[Father Knows Best]

I don't understand the plexiglass, either. It doesn't accomplish anything, and it's very expensive.

If the cinderblocks are hollow, they provide little protection -- against intruders or a negligent discharge (many rifle bullets can pass through common cinderblocks).

I'm going through this right now, too. I have a walk-out basement that makes up half of my house's foundation. The front half of the foundation is crawlspace, but much of it is about 6 feet high. I'm toying with the idea of putting in a door, excavating part of the dirt floor to get more headroom, pouring a slab, and turning what is currently crawlspace into a vault/gun room. It ain't gonna be cheap, but it will be secure if I do it right, and I'll also have a safe room in case of tornadoes, SHTF, etc. I've gotten real serious about the idea since watching what happened in NOLA after Katrina hit, because we live very close the New Madrid fault and have been told to expect a major earthquake at any time.

 

[Tokugawa]

deadbolt a bunch of othe interior doors too. like the bedrooms. useful in the event of home invasion and forces a burgler disperse his efforts.

 

[deker]

I don't think the walls were rebar reinforced and they're not filled as I've been able to punch a small hole or two for running cables (it's also going to be the "server room"). There is 1/2" sheetrock and wood panelling on both sides of the block so that adds a little extra PITA for any would-be thief.

As for deadbolts on interior doors...we already have many. One bedroom has one, the attic has one, etc. I think this is due to the fact that the woman who lived here previous to us used to have foster children and so wanted to lock up parts of the house. So, a deadbolt wouldn't look totally out of character for the house. As for the interior door "blending" into the house I'm more concerned with aesthetics. All of our interior doors are beautifully grained wood (I think they may have been handmade by my next door neighbor. He's a cabinet maker and built this house for his mother) and I'd like to not disturb the look of the house. I like the false door idea though. If I re-hang the one interior door to open OUT of the room and build up a nice, strong frame for a steel door BEHIND it, everybody wins.

To those confused about the plexi...There is a window in this room (only drawback really). So i figured that blinds/curtains could disguise what's inside, but I don't want to have a weak point for entry. I'd rather not brick up the window and thought that properly installed "bulletproof" glass of some sort might serve as enough of a barrier to thwart entry from the window. They could break the outside glass, but getting through the lexan/plexi would slow them down quite a bit (assuming it's in a properly welded up steel frame lag bolted deep into the wall).

The exterior door is already steel (with windows) and in need of replacement so that's easy. I'm not losing an only escape route for that floor either since there's an 8' wide sliding glass door in the next room over.

I understand that a properly prepared adversary can get through ANY safe, but my goal is to slow them down enough that the police can respond when either I or the alarm call them. We're a bit out in the country so response time could be longer. Cellphones don't work too well out here, but I'm thinking of putting a cell repeater on the antenna tower to fix that and our phone goes over non-standard buried cable directly into the room in question.

Thanks for the advice so far. I look forward to more ideas and thoughts!

-d

 

[JamisJockey]

There are some makers of bullet-resistant window film out there
http://www.fabuloussavings.com/enershield/
Basically, it makes a regular window alot tougher to smash.

 

[Nate_m]

You may want to think about some sort of ventilation also if you are going to be doing any cleaning in there...

 

[SouthpawShootr]

You could have a regular outer door and have an inner security door or grate to prevent access to the room. Here's one:

www.lkgoodwin.com//more_info/door_gates/door_gates.shtml

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Do not waste time, money or effort installing security doors and/or expensive deadbolt locks on doors in a sheetrock and/or concrete block wall. Concrete block is NOTHING to a thief. Very easy to smash through.

The only way to attain any degree of security from a concrete block wall is to punch open the tops of each block core and pour grout (basically soupy concrete mix) into the cores from the top, until you completely fill all the core voids. At that point you have a solid concrete wall that may resist efforts to smash in for at least 5 minutes.

 

[deker]

You may want to think about some sort of ventilation also if you are going to be doing any cleaning in there...

FP-10 doesn't smell that bad

-d

 

[bubbygator]

The best solution is if you can make it "not exist". I have an internal closet in a den that seems too small to have a closet. When the entire wall that the closet in on is covered with book cases, nobody would suspect a closet entrance was there. I took off the door, put teflon sliders under the bookcase that covers the door, & it serves nicely for gun & misc. storage.

 

[a1abdj]

Pro Steel makes a "vault" door that looks like a regular 6 panel hollow core door. It's not high security, but it is low key. It would probably be easier to get through the cinder block than the door.