Anyone make a "Safe Room" in your house?

[BuffetDestroyer 969]

As the title states, has anyone created a "Safe Room" in your house. Not necessarily a panic room type setup, but rather a secure room that has no window access and locked steel door entry.

 

I have been contemplating this in lieu of getting another safe since I have guitars and other larger valuables that won't fit and would be easy targets for thieves inside my house.

 

I realize that drywall and wood beams won't keep pros out, but keeping douchebag kids and junkies out would be my primary concern.

 

Curious to see what you guys think and if anyone has already paved the way.

[MT Predator 2,294]

You are right, drywall and 2"x4" studs are not going to stop shit. If you are really going to try and secure that kind of room, you'd have to remove your sheet rock, add a shit ton of cross pieces in between the studs, then re-sheetrock. A Sawzall will still gain easy access. What are your exterior walls? I'd still go for the new safe for the firearms.

[corbin 621]

Haven't yet, but considering it & researching options. I suppose a rebar "cage" inside a wall would slow people down, but it's not the same as a vault. My trouble is the area I want to do it is on the second floor and many of the things I'm wanting to do are really heavy. I already have a safe door that has it's own doorframe (came out of an old jewlers shop). By itself, it's about 400 pounds. Add in the cage and another gun safe and I'm worried the floor might not support it well.

[BuffetDestroyer 969]

You are right, drywall and 2"x4" studs are not going to stop shit. If you are really going to try and secure that kind of room, you'd have to remove your sheet rock, add a shit ton of cross pieces in between the studs, then re-sheetrock. A Sawzall will still gain easy access. What are your exterior walls? I'd still go for the new safe for the firearms.

 

A sawzall and sledgehammer will gain entry into a lot of things (including some safes and even concrete walls with rebar reinforcements), but when there is fear of excess noise and time, I doubt most junkies will take the time and energy to cut the side or inside of my house open to gain entry to a room they don't know what is inside. Chances are they will opt for taking TV's and the cheap display guns (antique break tops that look pricy but are worth under $100 each) that I have out in the open and get the hell out of there.

 

I have done construction and demo work, so I am not under any illusions that a highly motivated or intelligent burglar that is seeking out high dollar goods will have issues getting anything out of my house or safes. However, my house is not on many of those guys' list because the max street value they will get for most of my stuff isn't worth the risks (i.e. a $1,000 guitar that they might get $200 for at a pawn shop or guitar shop) and I don't live in an affluent neighborhood.

 

So instead of being critical of my question and/or re-emphasizing my disclaimer, I would like to see what people have done or ideas you have.

 

 

Another consideration I had was to build a fake wall in a closet to hide larger items so they might be overlooked if stored there while I was out of town.

 

BTW, I would love to have display racks for my firearms on the wall for easy access and enjoying the view.

[YOT 3,743]

Lexan reinforced sheetrock at about $90 a sheet, over 4" block will keep pros out. I'm going to do this project in my basement someday.

 

http://mutualaidfire.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/new-rienforced-drywall-%E2%80%93-lined-with-lexan/

[liberty -r- death 1,445]

I have considered the false wall, and have seen a few done that you have no idea are there. If you do a safe room concealing with the false wall concept would be your best bet. If they don't realize it's there you may not have to make it as strong for breaching.

[MT Predator 2,294]

A sawzall and sledgehammer will gain entry into a lot of things (including some safes and even concrete walls with rebar reinforcements), but when there is fear of excess noise and time, I doubt most junkies will take the time and energy to cut the side or inside of my house open to gain entry to a room they don't know what is inside. Chances are they will opt for taking TV's and the cheap display guns (antique break tops that look pricy but are worth under $100 each) that I have out in the open and get the hell out of there.

I just meant some 2"x4" cross pieces placed just right in between your studs would prevent entry by simply booting a hole in the sheetrock to find the gaps in between the studs to slip through. That and a decent door would make a semi safe room.

[nlacy 692]

I had a similar idea, but the route I took was to get an alarm system that has different zones. I set up one closet that if you open the door or even cut a whole into the wall you set off the motion detector for that zone. That way if my wife forgets to set the house alarm when she goes to work my gun closet is still armed. $40 a month for piece of mind. Within the closet is the safe, so if you bust in and set the alarm off you can't grab some guns and run. If I go out of town for the weekend I don't have to worry.

[BuffetDestroyer 969]

A sawzall and sledgehammer will gain entry into a lot of things (including some safes and even concrete walls with rebar reinforcements), but when there is fear of excess noise and time, I doubt most junkies will take the time and energy to cut the side or inside of my house open to gain entry to a room they don't know what is inside. Chances are they will opt for taking TV's and the cheap display guns (antique break tops that look pricy but are worth under $100 each) that I have out in the open and get the hell out of there.

I just meant some 2"x4" cross pieces placed just right in between your studs would prevent entry by simply booting a hole in the sheetrock to find the gaps in between the studs to slip through. That and a decent door would make a semi safe room.

 

The ceiling would be the easiest access way into a locked room since that is not reinforced to support weight (on a single story with an A-Frame). The crawl space is another way so you would need the reinforcements from top to bottom.

 

The special dry wall looks very promising especially for a closet build that would only take a few panels. I would just need to figure out the availability locally.

 

I have also considered making a decoy safe that looks like it would be full of the good stuff and then a less conspicuous safe that actually stores the good stuff.

Edited September 27, 2012 by BuffetDestroyer

[gunfun 3,931]

Nothin' in my house is safe with me there!

[mgconnor13 206]

If you have a basement I would put a safe room down there bolt your safe to the floor with an alarm system for the house. Liberty Safe also makes walk in vault doors if you want an actually turn a room into a walk in safe.

 

Looked into Kevlar "plywood" sheets? DuPont makes boards for storm shelter rooms.

 

Also get a personal articles insurance policy so if anything happens your high value items are covered.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Rusty truck

[Syndicate 812]

I've started digging out under my front yard and adding support columns and pouring concrete.

 

have 2 sub levels so far.

 

jk

[bulldog_shotgun 47]

when my parents built there house they poured a reinforced room off the basement under the front porch.

has a old vault door hidden under the bassement stairs. you wouldn't know its there and i doubt most people could get through 8" of concrete.

[MCASgt New River 10,036]

Lexan reinforced sheetrock at about $90 a sheet, over 4" block will keep pros out. I'm going to do this project in my basement someday.

 

http://mutualaidfire...ned-with-lexan/

 

If I owned the house and planned on staying in said house for more than five years I probably would put money into this idea. However, seeing that I pack up and move every 3-5 years I will simply check into the above board and the kevlar plywood boards mentioned by Rusty truck. This seems like a good start but my safe, bolted to the floor, will have to hold things down for now.

[cvhanh20 1,052]

I would line my driveway with impaled Libs and go all Vladimir the impaler on their ass.) That will keep most wouldbe robbers away. lol Or if someone wanted to make a cheap safe room, buy a cargo container, spray it with bed liner and put in the ground with part of extending under the house. You can buy these for less than a couple thousand and they are really strong. I personally would go with the "Vladimir the impaler" plan:))

[KennyFSU 249]

Not so much a room; more like a panic closet lol

 

<----------------------------

 

Unfortunately, no one fits inside.

[mgconnor13 206]

The shipping container is a good idea. Dig a hole, poor a slab, drop the container and encase it in cement for your own fall out/ tornado shelter.

 

Realistically a good safe bolted down, an alarm system and some heavy doors with dead bolts would probably be the easiest thing to door. You could line the room with heavy duty "book cases/ shelves" that have expanded steel bolted to the back and bolt those to the floor as a way to reinforce the walls. Dogs are also useful to have around, and insurance. Personal article policies are fairly cheap, I have all my high value items insured against damage, theft etc...

Edited September 27, 2012 by Rusty truck

[bulldog_shotgun 47]

I personally have never worried about theft. My biggest concern is fire, and its not the value I'm worried about its the things that can't be replaced.

 

edited for spelling

Edited September 27, 2012 by Bulldog_Shotgun

[DrThunder88 912]

One of the guys over on SRF undertook such a project and was met with some success. Notice his safe within the safe?

Edited September 27, 2012 by DrThunder88

[YARP 300]

It's not exactly a "room" per se, but I built a hidden closet under some stairs for antiques that we never put out (truly don't even know why we keep them other then that's what boss lady wanted). It would've made a nice gun closet if it wasn't so wet all the time.

[HB of CJ 1,263]

We are working on an earthquake survival room in our home...not soosss much for intruder alerts or panic rooms as instead a place inside the house where we can hopefully ride out the susposed Cascadian Subduction Megathrust 9.5 earthquake that may happen some day. We are about 40 miles from the Pacific and about 250 from the supposed epicenters.

 

The long interior hallway happens to near perfect. Wood frame house; wood floors over floor joists. Perimeter and interior concrete foundations. The hallway has no windows and is rigidly reinforced with interior walls and doors. No heavy furniture, pictures or lights either. The house may be destroyed, but the hallway should remain fairly intact HB of CJ (old coot)

[csspecs 1,987]

You could strip the interior walls of the 'safe room' and sheet with OSB then over lay with medium gauge (18 ga or 20 ga) commercial steel, then cover with thin sheet rock. That combination is hard to cut with sawzalls as the 3 inch air gap of the studs with let the blades bind in the metal and bend, the OSB and metal also behave differently with the blade and make a lot of noise and thrash violently. Using circular saws will likely result in a ER visit.

 

Its also a good idea to leave a cheap safe on ground floor and unbolted filled with junk to make it kinda heavy. Make other thief bait to occupy their time, like a fake coin collection, fake jewelry box. Figure they will be in and out in 20 mins, and give them some stuff to waste their time with.

 

Also its best if your entry to the room is slightly hidden. Laundry rooms or linens closets are probably better as thiefs normally check bedroom closets.

[Marc 147]

Here locally there was a big court case in which 4 pos's that had been burglarizing peoples houses in my area for a year had got caught. 3 of the guys gave up after they where arrested and admitted to the charges, the 4th guy thought he could get off (or get less time) by giving details as to how they operated and what they took, etc...

 

anyway, a major part of the operation was to drop 2-3 guys off at the target house while they other 1-2 guys drove their SUV down to another driveway/parking area from which to do lookout duties while keeping comms via text msg with the guys in the house.

 

My point being; having a safe room is nice, keeping them out of the house is better. Increasing their risk is a pretty good way to do so...in this case by having privacy fences, tall hedges, whatever around the perimeter of your property to obscure or eliminate all together your house's visibility from your neighbors houses/driveways.

 

Just an idea, I've been considering building a safe room but as a part of a layered system that includes the privacy screens as well as some other things.

[Agent Lemon 157]

As far as random kids and junkies go, you don't really need much. A cheap safe should do.

 

If not, then internal bars on windows (the removable kind with the brackets), as well as a heavy wood door + frame should keep out any minor criminals committing a crime of opportunity or something.

 

Unless, of course, you live out by the edge of the woods, and somebody can easily spend 30 minutes demolishing your house from the inside without neighbors noticing.

[Syndicate 812]

I've always wanted a sand mote and driveway with an air cavitation system, someone drives or pulls up on me, activate the system, sucks em in like quick sand, add water and the fuckers will be cemented there until I feel like bringing a shovel

[Fallschirmjager667 729]

I would line my driveway with impaled Libs and go all Vladimir the impaler on their ass.)

 

sounds like you really have a problem with people breaking into your grow room

[lbsrdi 1,078]

What about sheathing the walls, ceiling, and floor with several layers of half inch hardi-board. A grinder will get you through but it would definitely slow them down.

[Anunaki 0]

I have an old lead refrigerator that hide behind

Edited September 28, 2012 by Anunaki

[Sim_Player 1,939]

Lining the inside walls with Hardy Panel would be the cheapest and easiest method to reenforce a small space. Just cut to fit and screw it to the walls.

 

You could leave an air-gap under the Hardy and add layers of loose wire fencing that would play havok(sp?) with a cutting blade or a hammer.

 

Most criminals don't have the luxury of time. They usually kick a door in, fill YOUR pillowcase with stuff, and leave in minutes.

 

Wow, I just realized how cheap this would be.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Sim_Player

[mostholycerebus 415]

I have a walk in closet off the master, two outside upstairs walls and the third wall is the bathroom. I'm thinking about just swapping out the hollow door for a solid wood one and put in a deadbolt. Should slow up criminals enough for mama to expend a few mags through the walls.