Safe Room

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Outdoorsman wrote:

I don't remember if I read this somewhere or saw it on a show, but the idea was make one of the bedrooms into a safe room by:

1. Reinforcing the door frame and install a solid door with dead bolt(s). This was so it was difficult/time consuming for someone to kick it in.

2. Having necessary equipment in the room: Cell phone, gun(s), flashlight(s), etc.

3. Having a set of house keys attached to a brightly colored or lighted stick to throw out/down to cops to get into your house to search for bad guys.

I like the idea of the reinforced bedroom door frame with the solid door and deadbolt. I think I will do this in my next house (hope to be moving soon).

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Heh, would've never thought of #3, good call.

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Now that I think about it; I should put a vault around my bathroom.....:uhoh: Never know how much time I'll need to spend there you know.LOL

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I live in tornado alley, so we have a basement :celebrate

But, one night watching one of 'those shows' where the good guy shot the bad guy through a standard sheetrock wall, we got to talking about which rounds our walls would stop ... my house is a Craftsman-style built in 1924 and has mortar and slath walls ... not plaster, actual half-inch mortar on the interior walls. The exterior is brick with stucco over that. We figured that rifle ammo would probably penetrate, but pistol ammo would probably not penetrate :lol:Hope I never have to find out ... but one of those 'what if' that was kind of interesting.

We have seen that video where they show the penetration of all different kinds of rounds ... the one where the 22lr penetrated 8 sheets of sheet rock or so, and rifle ammo penetrated most building material. The one that did the best was those concrete panels that they clad a lot of buildings with. Evidently, there is so much internal metal webbing that it increases the strength of the concrete.

As for whether to make a secure room, if you ever do need one, then is not the time to regret not building one

Of course, Sissy Spacek and Brenden Fraser in Blast from the Past were hilarious :lol:and Christopher Walken was over the top:celebrate

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Brass Magnet wrote:

McX wrote:

ok then, brass magnet, my plan in the event of a cataclysmic disaster is to flee to your house for a few days, hide out, then continue on to glock's place, or nutczaks, if it's ok with you!

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When the zombie apocalypse comes; no problem. Just remember it's BYOA (Bring your own ammo)

Actually, it's kind of funny that you should bring that up. Many of my friends have said my house is the first place they'd flee to in case the SHTF. Some of them don't own guns or evenlike them but they seem to agree that my place is the place to go if they are in fear for their lives. Kinda ironic huh?

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i get that a lot too. they figure they are safe at my place and they are initially right. then i explain that in order to stay they need to have "skills". most sheep get a dumb look on their face at that point and ask what i mean.

hunting/gardening/food and water gathering
mechanical - esp automotive and small engines
medical/first aid
electronics - esp communication gear
firearm maintenance and/or reloading
structural maintenance
sewing/clothes making

there are others but these are high on my list of necessary skills. without these they will be on their own in short order.

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Brass Magnet wrote:

I'm going to have a "safe room" here pretty soon.  It's not designed for that purpose but it'll do.  I'm building a walk-in vault.  As long as I make provisons to allow it to be opened from the inside it can double as a safe room.

I got tired of having multiple gun safes so this is my answer to that.  So, if a guy looks at the fact that a "safe room" can double as "gun storage" I think there would be a lot more takers.

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That certainly should work for 5-10 minutes, depending on the size. That is, if it is totally sealed. Maybe you should add some air bottles. I've always wondered about the inside temperature of a fire safe gun vault. Could a human (if there was an air source) survive the internal temperatures? The guns are supposed to survive!

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If I remember correctly, fire resistance is measured where the internal temperature cannot exceed 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the entire duration of the test. Water boils at ~212.

Survive? Maybe. I wouldn't want to try it.

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groats wrote:

If you live in one of the many places that get tornados,
you'd be crazy NOT to have a 'safe room'. I do, as do most of my neighbors.

Getting into it before a tornado is easy, that's why we have weather radio and tv alerts.

Getting into it during a home invasion can be done too, if you invest in some proper perimeter alerts, motion sensors, cameras, dogs, etc. and have some space around your home.

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Do you mind sharing how you constructed your safe room?

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mcdonalk wrote:

If I remember correctly, fire resistance is measured where the internal temperature cannot exceed 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the entire duration of the test. Water boils at ~212.

Survive? Maybe. I wouldn't want to try it.

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That is definately out of my comfort range! I would be surprised if there wasn't some damage to wooden stocks, or at least the varnish might run!

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With young kids I wondered about fortifying our master closet as a safe room. When they were small they slept in our bed anyway so herding them there would be simple. Other than a solid door with deadbolt I was thinking of bolting 1/2 steel plates to the walls. Never got serious about it.

Also with the poor construction of vinyl sided houses, we have layer of vinyl, some insulation and one layer of sheetrock between us and the outside. When my daughters started sleeping in their own rooms I wondered whether at least lining their front facing walls with steel but it would have been ugly and can't cover the windows anyway. :-(

So while it would be nice, the cost to implement and such makes it much less desirable. I fall into the category of a gun in the room I'm in works for me.

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45acpForMe wrote:

With young kids I wondered about fortifying our master closet as a safe room. When they were small they slept in our bed anyway so herding them there would be simple. Other than a solid door with deadbolt I was thinking of bolting 1/2 steel plates to the walls. Never got serious about it.

Also with the poor construction of vinyl sided houses, we have layer of vinyl, some insulation and one layer of sheetrock between us and the outside. When my daughters started sleeping in their own rooms I wondered whether at least lining their front facing walls with steel but it would have been ugly and can't cover the windows anyway. :-(

So while it would be nice, the cost to implement and such makes it much less desirable. I fall into the category of a gun in the room I'm in works for me.

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No plywood or OSB on the outside? If not you have structural worries more than bullet worries. I hate vinyl I would reside, put up plywood and then Hardi-plank siding, it is a fiber cement board, that would help with ballistic penetration, but also has a 50 yr. transferable warranty, looks much nicer, and has a high fire rating, which often helps with insurance costs.

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sudden valley gunner wrote:

No plywood or OSB on the outside? If not you have structural worries more than bullet worries. I hate vinyl I would reside, put up plywood and then Hardi-plank siding, it is a fiber cement board, that would help with ballistic penetration, but also has a 50 yr. transferable warranty, looks much nicer, and has a high fire rating, which often helps with insurance costs.

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I watched the house being built. I guess the building code is you only have to have fiberboard (OSB?) on the corners of the house. So 2/3 of the house doesn't have anything else. I burglar with a box cutter could cut through the vinyl, insulation and then the wallboard to get entry.

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45acpForMe wrote:

sudden valley gunner wrote:

No plywood or OSB on the outside? If not you have structural worries more than bullet worries. I hate vinyl I would reside, put up plywood and then Hardi-plank siding, it is a fiber cement board, that would help with ballistic penetration, but also has a 50 yr. transferable warranty, looks much nicer, and has a high fire rating, which often helps with insurance costs.

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I watched the house being built. I guess the building code is you only have to have fiberboard (OSB?) on the corners of the house. So 2/3 of the house doesn't have anything else. I burglar with a box cutter could cut through the vinyl, insulation and then the wallboard to get entry.

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Yes they can I have heard reports of that happening in the past too. Now days they have battery operated reciprocating saws that make very quick and easy work of getting thru.

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I prefer to use a vault door to protect my safe room. I also have a moat around my house with Bull Sharks and Piranhas in it. My front door has "The Ultimate Lock", and is made of 3" thick cast iron. Plus, I use a set of 20 bear traps at the beginning of all entrances of the house, hanging fish hooks, a trip wire that will trigger a chandelier with knives tied to it, set to fall when the wire is tripped, iron bars on all of my windows, with blades inserted into the base of the windows themselves. My house is also made of brick.

Oh, and I have covert cameras set up on various locations on my property, and my CCTV system is located in my saferoom. I've also got enough firepower in my safe room to supply a mid-sized military base.

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Aaron1124 wrote:

I prefer to use a vault door to protect my safe room. I also have a moat around my house with Bull Sharks and Piranhas in it. My front door has "The Ultimate Lock", and is made of 3" thick cast iron. Plus, I use a set of 20 bear traps at the beginning of all entrances of the house, hanging fish hooks, a trip wire that will trigger a chandelier with knives tied to it, set to fall when the wire is tripped, iron bars on all of my windows, with blades inserted into the base of the windows themselves. My house is also made of brick.

Oh, and I have covert cameras set up on various locations on my property, and my CCTV system is located in my saferoom. I've also got enough firepower in my safe room to supply a mid-sized military base.

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Can I bring my kids over to play? :lol:

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Let me clean up a bit! Don't want no bear trap accidents

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Aaron1124 wrote:

I prefer to use a vault door to protect my safe room. I also have a moat around my house with Bull Sharks and Piranhas in it. My front door has "The Ultimate Lock", and is made of 3" thick cast iron. Plus, I use a set of 20 bear traps at the beginning of all entrances of the house, hanging fish hooks, a trip wire that will trigger a chandelier with knives tied to it, set to fall when the wire is tripped, iron bars on all of my windows, with blades inserted into the base of the windows themselves. My house is also made of brick.

Oh, and I have covert cameras set up on various locations on my property, and my CCTV system is located in my saferoom. I've also got enough firepower in my safe room to supply a mid-sized military base.

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how would the police actually get and apprehend someone if they were inside a house with such security? i mean, imagine the house is completely inpetrable, and way too risky to even attempt due to all of the booby traps. what would they do? you forgot to add the the house has an underground excavation route to an undisclosed location, far far away

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My guess would be that they'd wait for the suspect to come out. I doubt they'd risk any officers lives once they became aware of booby traps OUTSIDE the house, and not even being aware on what was inside. My guess is they'd have the city cut off the power and water supply, first and foremost, and then play the waiting game. If he's got the underground escape route, then they'll be waiting a long time.

Now, if it's a hostage situation, who knows what would happen, especially if the room has no windows... that's a very good scenario to ponder, although it'd take one hell of a bank account and one hell of an engineer to construct all of this.

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buster81 wrote:

open4years wrote:

In my case, I would like to use the closet in my bedroom. Although BGs do home invasions in the day time, I believe most happen in the evenings and at night.

I can see that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get your family there in time.

I live alone, so that isn't a problem. I want to change out the closet door for a solid door and further fortify the door and walls. I want to cut a trap door in the floor, hidden by carpet.

If there was a tornado, I could get rapidly under the house. If the house is on fire and there is no way out of my house, I could go threw the trap
door and crawl the short distance to the crawl space entrance. Heck, I could put a 5 minute SCUBA tank in there too. It would be nice to have most of my guns in there.

It's just something that I think about and I will probably never do. I should have said "Fortified Room" rather than safe room. A true safe room would be an expensive proposition. Done with new construction, it would be easier to do.

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That isn't the worst plan actually, however, you would want to make sure that the whole you cut for the trap door doesn't compromise the vapor barrier between the crawl space and the living space. You want to keep any moisture (and ground gas if applicable) out of your house. I'm sure you already thought of the structural issues.

Without the trap door, which I never thought of, I have fortified the door to a closet in our bedroom. You would have a difficult time getting
through it. It wouldn't be impossible to break it down, but would take multiple kicks or shoulders. The way it's installed, you would have to pretty much take the door frame with it.

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Yes, I've been thinking of that. I haven't decided for certain, but maybe a rubber seal. Something along the lines of the door gasket on a refrigerator. Sears sells them and I could adapt it for my needs.

Doors today aren't even a difficult door to breach. Interior doors are hollow and a lot of people are going to aluminum (hollow) doors. My fix to the exteriour doors is monitoring them via my alarm system.

But, I want to go back to solid doors and longer screws etc. It might slow them up enough that I will awaken from the doors. My exteriour doors have three arms. One is a very small independent alarm in case my main security is down. Second is an alarm that looks like a door stopper that sounds an alarm when the door is opened. Then I have the house alarm sensors.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbvSXaSYkq4

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My dream house would have a full basement that would be walled off to appear as the end of the basement about 12' from the end of the house. It would have poured, reinforced concrete walls, a hidden vault door, and a hatch to the master bedroom above. The ceiling would also be reinforced concrete. It would function as a gun room, storm shelter and panic room. There would be a small ventilation system to outside the house in a hidden location, and wired and wireless communication and CCTV.

The idea would be that if the alarm went off in the house, you could get the family down in the room and call police from there. It would be enough to hold off a burglar indefinitely, unless he brings safecracking tools or a jackhammer.

(Then I would line the walls with guns, but that is a different part of the fantasy.)