Walk in Safe

[doobie]

Anyone on here build a walk in safe? I'm thinking of making one, but I'm far from a carpenter... The room will be a 15'x7'. What is the best way to make it secure? Even lowering the distance between studs wouldn't make it impossible to get through. I was thinking doing the standard 18" offset, and using a metal fence as reinforcement under drywall or other walling material. For the ceiling I'm not sure what to do. It would be a few inches of plywood at least. Think that would be secure; maybe a layer of fencing/metal?

A good/strong door that doesn't cost $4k would also be nice; or something strong enough against attack that I can swap out in a year or two would be ideal.

Or maybe I'm just crazy....

ETA: Oh yeah, one wall will be the outside wall of the house, the other is mostly a bathroom that is framed out, but not finished.

 

[June4th]

I'm strongly considering building a house next time I move for the exact reason: cement four walls, reinforce the top with steel plate and then add a vault door. It's much more secure than most safes on the market and shouldn't be too expensive other than the vault door.

 

[Twigg]

The fencing sounds like a good idea but you might have to build a double wall with the fencing in between the walls. Plywood sounds good too.

For a door I'd use a solid core steel entry door with reinforced hinge anchors and frame with good dead bolt for a lock. Put that door on an alarm circuit seperate from the rest of the house.

Most vault doors come with a frame so swapping it out later might be an issue.

 

[SKS Ray]

Mine is a closet surrounded by the chimney, the outside of the house, and an area so narrow there is absolutely no room to work to get through the wall. I used an exterior heavy duty steel door, tamper proof hinges, and a deadbolt, plus standard lock with the frame heavily reinforced.
If someone really wanted in they could probably do it, but not before the house alarm had the cops, a gun toting nosey neighbor thats always home, or myself there to deal with them within minutes. However if you don't have an alarm or nosey neighbors, you could always get one of the pepper spray alarms that go off and fill the room with spray: http://www.defensedevices.com/terminator.html

Its a fairly small closet so I wound up building 2 levels of racks to hold all my rifles. I think the size is about 5' x 6'. I wish it was bigger because even as it is now I like to walk in the, turn on the light, and just hang out sometimes.

 

[BillK]

If the unit is built in the basement of your house, I would build it up with stretcher style concrete blocks, rebar, and fill the blocks with more concrete. The roof could be made from 1" plywood, top braced supported. Since the unit would be in the basement, your support and main flooring is going to give the top protection from a down cut entry. As for a door entry, this would be your call, a exterior fire rated door with hinges in would work, have a buddy take a 1/2" steel plate to make a swing lock panel.

Lighting and other features such as an American flag on the wall would be a must.

 

[doobie]

If the unit is built in the basement of your house, I would build it up with stretcher style concrete blocks, rebar, and fill the blocks with more concrete. The roof could be made from 1" plywood, top braced supported. Since the unit would be in the basement, your support and main flooring is going to give the top protection from a down cut entry. As for a door entry, this would be your call, a exterior fire rated door with hinges in would work, have a buddy take a 1/2" steel plate to make a swing lock panel.

Lighting and other features such as an American flag on the wall would be a must.

I have a 16' ceiling in the basement... I'm not currently planning on having a 16 concrete block ceiling. The outside wall will be the outside of the house. I don't know how well re-enforced it is.

I'm not at the point of decorating it yet....just starting to plan it... want to make sure I don't make a mistake in the building/carpentry side....

 

[EddieCoyle]

You have a 16' ceiling in your basement?

 

[Hoppy]

You have a 16' ceiling in your basement?

he apparently lives in Notre Dame

 

[calsdad]

Is this safe room going to be in the basement or up in the house itself? Before you start talking construction method you should answer that question first. The other question to answer is exactly how safe do you want it to be? If you have 16 foot ceilings (never heard of that!) in the basement you obviously have more than enough space down there to build a room heightwise.

 

[MassHack]

For the door get a commercial steel door slab/ blank. Use a continious hinge "Roton", 2 Grade 1 Deadbolts and a steel astrigal covering the strike side.

 

[Joe G]

I used an exterior heavy duty steel door, tamper proof hinges, and a deadbolt, plus standard lock with the frame heavily reinforced.

Been thinking about the reinforced closet thing myself. I have an idea on how to do the walls. Where's a good place to get a door like this, Home Depot? How much should I expect to spend on it? Got a link?

 

[doobie]

You have a 16' ceiling in your basement?

Yes... when I bought the house I thought they were 20'...but they are roughly 15ft. A 12' step ladder just gets me up to the ceiling. The previous owner wanted to bring his semi's into the garage for loading/unloading in the winter; or something.

Is this safe room going to be in the basement or up in the house itself? Before you start talking construction method you should answer that question first. The other question to answer is exactly how safe do you want it to be? If you have 16 foot ceilings (never heard of that!) in the basement you obviously have more than enough space down there to build a room heightwise.

Well the basement/garage is above ground. I'd like it safe enough that I don't have to worry too many. I'd like to think my garage door is secure. I have a normal lock and a deadbolt. It's a solid door, and all outside doors are solid doors, re-enforced width 2x4s, but I want my firearms harder to get at, but not so hard to get at my garage...and also get away from using a safe, cuz it's just so tiny and the thought of having to upgrade a safe every few years isn't appealing. I figured I'd do 8-9' ceiling, then I can use the top of it for storage.

 

[Ninsho]

A quick google search for vault room came up with this: http://www.rhinovault.com/. Looks like they make and install various kinds of in home safes including some modular units. Looks like they have some cool safe room organization stuff too. Anyone ever use any of their products?

 

[oilspill]

I recently helped a friend of mine do this. The two major things to consider are fire and theft.

Theft can be prevented with a nice secure build of the room with a companion alarm system. He went with joists/expanded steel/strapping/double layer sheetrock fire rated. Same idea for the walls - if you have any kind of vault door, the BG will try going through the wall. Check around with the local demo companies - my buddy got a vault door that was taken out of an old town building(forget what he paid for it - a LOT cheaper than new). Conditioned air is another consideration including temperature/humidity/ventilation.

Having said all that, a good alarm system will discourage a BG from even trying to get into your house. Properly set up you can have silent duress alarms and panic buttons in addition to the standard motion/door/window/glass break sensors. Should you go the DIY route with the alarm system let me know, I'll be happy to help you out with it.

 

[Kaos116]

Funny, I was just reading about this on TheHighRoad...

Vault

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Been there, done that. There are several things you need to check.

1st: What is your ceiling? If is not concrete, you need to make it concrete. It should be not less than 6" thick and preferably 12". It needs to be steel reinforced. This can be done as a retrofit, but it is not a job for an amateur. You will need an experienced concrete man who has previously poured ceilings. If you can meet that requirement, let's move on.

2nd: How thick are your side walls? Most walk in vault doors are for 12" walls.
If yours are not 12", are they at least 8"? If you do not have 8" of concrete, scrap the project. If you have 8" but not 12" have you concrete man frame up the door opening and thicken it to 12". If it is over 12", you will have to change the door bolts and add a cover panel to the inside of the door frame.
Vault doors have 2 piece frames that bolt together from the inside. If you can meet 1 & 2, let's move on again.

3rd: You stated you already have electricity. That is needed for lights and a dehumidifier. Yes, you will need a dehumidifier. Let’s move on again.

4th: Look for fire vault doors at bank supply houses or locksmiths. I purchased mine from Bowling Green Bank Vault Company. Look for a door that has an inside lock release. There is no need to die in your own vault if you are locked inside. Plan on paying $1000-1500 for a good used fire rated door (a Diebold or a Mosler). These are much better doors than the Browning or other gun safe manufacturer's doors. They are rated for more heat for a longer period of time and a good used one will last any of us the rest of his life.

5th: When you have the door installed, make sure they insulate between the door and the concrete with Kaowool and then caulk behind the Kaowool with a fire stop caulking.

6th: The floor drain is a good idea, but you can get by with a dehumidifier with an external drain. Drill a small hole through the wall for the dehumidifier drain and fill around the drain with fire stop caulking.

Good luck and enjoy you vault. It is great piece of mind when you are away from the house.

It's not really a 'safe' ..... so to speak - but it is pretty safe!

I built my vault when I poured my basement.

Thought you might like some dimensions .... the walls are 10" thick steel reenforced concrete. I had the concrete guys pour a solid 'footer' beneath the floor .... so it has about a 30" deep concrete floor. The ceiling is steel with steel reenforced concrete on top. I guess the weakest part is the door which is 1/2" thick steel, has a large number of bolts, a re-locker system, and a high quality lock.

 

[M1911]

If the unit is built in the basement of your house, I would build it up with stretcher style concrete blocks, rebar, and fill the blocks with more concrete.

If you're going to do this, you'll want to first have your slab cut and footings installed. A 4" thick concrete slab with just a little steel mesh for reinforcement is not designed to support that much weight.

 

[kennyb08]

Is this an old commercial building that has been renovated? What are the first floor joists made of? How old is the building?