Safe room

[reddog]

Wife and I are in the designing stages of our final retirement home. I would like a safe/gun room. I'm tired of an overloaded gun safe thats supposed to hold thirty guns but only holds half of that comfortably.

Were planning a ranch style home, or a story and a half. Im thinking a 8 x 10 cast concrete wall system, but Im torn on how to do the door to be as secure as I would like it to be.
Vault doors are extremely expensive, but obviously, would certainly do the job.

I'm thinking about buying a 72" high safe, and cutting the box off of it, welding tabs onto whats left of the frame to cast in the wall. Casting it in approx 10 inches off the floor, so we dont hit our heads on it going in and out.

Does this sound at all feasible? What about unlocking ourselves from the inside? Is that a possibility?

Pros? Cons? Other options?
Wife says just buy a couple more large safes..

[Hot Runr Guy]

They sell doors just for that purpose, that have inside releases.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/SnapSafe...5416/300801115

HRG

[That Minnesota guy]

I did a auction once for a guy running a Ponzi scheme. He had a safe room but his was to hide in. I wish I could help you with the door part. The only thing I remember was he had a bookcase with a hidden switch that popped the door open. He also had a camera system inside so he could see what was going on outside the safe room. The guy was a piece of work. Behind another bookcase in his theater room was a tunnel complete with florescent lights that led to the detached 4 car garage. He currently is sitting in jail somewhere.

[reddog]

Originally Posted by Hot Runr Guy

They sell doors just for that purpose, that have inside releases.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/SnapSafe...5416/300801115

HRG

Well, duh me., Thank you!

[Ugly boat]

Check out Sturdy Safe.com
Great outfit to do business with.

[Burr]

I still have not completed mine the way I think the doorway will work out - I have a room similar to what (I think) your are describing. A 12 X 12 concrete room in my basement, was built back in the day when fallout shelters were a thing. At this time it's just a short concrete hallway with a 90 degree turn into the room, which is all concrete walls and ceiling. I've always planned on a jailhouse door like you would see in an old-time western, steel bars and all. An electrical combination key-pad lock would operate the lock mechanism from either side of the door. I do a lot of reloading, so all my guns and reloading equipment is in the room.

Used to be the MIL's room for when she came for a visit, but she died, so we repurposed her room.

With the locking jailhouse door if someone wanted to see if my firearms were stored secure, I could just take them down to the room and close the door behind them. Tell them to let me know when they decided if it was secure, turn off the lights and come back when it's time to slide their dinner plate under the bars.

[REW]

Don't forget some time of ventilation system - that is secure, to provide air into the room safely.

Or keep enough O2 filled canisters that would let a person breathe for a given period of time - say a year, or however one might survive in the locked room.

The reason that I mention this is one might go into a safe room to be protected from a tornado. The Tornado comes over and dumps 10,000 lbs of house in front of the door.
So, if you want to provide against this possibility, one might have the door swing inward and have demolition cutting tools and explosives inside the safe room so that you could always get a way out of the debris, if the house had fallen in.




Take care

[NailsWI]

Originally Posted by REW

Don't forget some time of ventilation system - that is secure, to provide air into the room safely.

Or keep enough O2 filled canisters that would let a person breathe for a given period of time - say a year, or however one might survive in the locked room.

The reason that I mention this is one might go into a safe room to be protected from a tornado. The Tornado comes over and dumps 10,000 lbs of house in front of the door.
So, if you want to provide against this possibility, one might have the door swing inward and have demolition cutting tools and explosives inside the safe room so that you could always get a way out of the debris, if the house had fallen in.




Take care

[Ozark Bob]

Gotta be something stronger than booze!

[Pokey Fisherman]

I built my own gun room. I opened up my gun safe door inside panel and made a copy of it for the entry door. I made a handle for the inside as well as the inside panel was made of dry wall covered with felt to make it look good. If I got locked in I could bust the dry wall and pull a couple pins to open it. I have thought about using it for a storm shelter but I don't want to get trapped in it so I ruled it out. I have a set of prison lunch tables in the basement left from when I bought the house. They were too hard to move so they left them. I figure I would crawl under them and they would support the house with all the cast iron legs.