Before I get into this, let me be clear that I have no intention of trying to make a room bullet proof. I live in a very safe city where gun shots are never heard. There's simply no reason to try and bullet proof a room where I live.
Still ....
Since this last January I've been in the process of remodeling my house one room at a time. As a part of this remodel, I've been taking sheetrock down, re-running electrical circuits, insulating exterior walls (and in some cases interior walls for sound proofing), then putting the walls back up again.
Naturally, I can't help but wonder what I would do if I wanted to make one of my rooms bullet proof. Call it idle speculation.
The house is 2x4 construction with a stucco exterior. We're also on a slab. My big concern is the complete lack of insulation in my walls, so if possible I'd want to save space for R13 insulation.
One big problem would be that all rooms (except the bathrooms) have a large window, which obviously couldn't be bullet proofed without getting into big dollars.
How would you do this, if you were to attempt it?
I'm thinking that for interior walls, I might want to put in a kevlar liner of some kind, like the stuff they make flak vests out of. I don't know how heavy that material gets, though. Can it reasonably be hung from the studs?
For exterior walls, I'm thinking steel plates from the floor to the bottom of the window would do the trick. I mean, is there any point in going higher than the bottom of the window, considering that the window itself is not bullet proof?
The idea here would be that if you "hit the deck" the plates would protect you from bullets coming from the outside of your house. Question is, how thick do they need to be? Would 1/8" do it or do you have to go to 1/4"? Or do you need to go thicker still?
1/8" would save weight and money, and would be thin enough to allow normal rolls of insulation to be put into the walls. But I'm not sure if 1/8" steel plates behind stucco is enough to stop most modern small arms.
Again, this is just idle speculation on my part. But it is something I'd look into if I lived in a neighborhood where shootings were common.
Has anyone out there ever thought about doing this, or actually done it?
Man, the weird ideas that pop into your head when you're shoving insulation into walls....
Still ....
Since this last January I've been in the process of remodeling my house one room at a time. As a part of this remodel, I've been taking sheetrock down, re-running electrical circuits, insulating exterior walls (and in some cases interior walls for sound proofing), then putting the walls back up again.
Naturally, I can't help but wonder what I would do if I wanted to make one of my rooms bullet proof. Call it idle speculation.
The house is 2x4 construction with a stucco exterior. We're also on a slab. My big concern is the complete lack of insulation in my walls, so if possible I'd want to save space for R13 insulation.
One big problem would be that all rooms (except the bathrooms) have a large window, which obviously couldn't be bullet proofed without getting into big dollars.
How would you do this, if you were to attempt it?
I'm thinking that for interior walls, I might want to put in a kevlar liner of some kind, like the stuff they make flak vests out of. I don't know how heavy that material gets, though. Can it reasonably be hung from the studs?
For exterior walls, I'm thinking steel plates from the floor to the bottom of the window would do the trick. I mean, is there any point in going higher than the bottom of the window, considering that the window itself is not bullet proof?
The idea here would be that if you "hit the deck" the plates would protect you from bullets coming from the outside of your house. Question is, how thick do they need to be? Would 1/8" do it or do you have to go to 1/4"? Or do you need to go thicker still?
1/8" would save weight and money, and would be thin enough to allow normal rolls of insulation to be put into the walls. But I'm not sure if 1/8" steel plates behind stucco is enough to stop most modern small arms.
Again, this is just idle speculation on my part. But it is something I'd look into if I lived in a neighborhood where shootings were common.
Has anyone out there ever thought about doing this, or actually done it?
Man, the weird ideas that pop into your head when you're shoving insulation into walls....
