Remodeling the house for a gun room

[CrawdaddyJim]

The thread on wine racks made me think of what I would want in terms of a "Gun room". We will be putting an addition on our house in the near future. And as we are almost children free and as such will not need a elaborate entertainment room. I was thinking I would make a den type room with a heavy gun and hunting influence. Probably with a good exhaust system so the occasional pipe or cigar would not cause beligerence from the warden.

The important specifications would be security, display, and some type of workstation. The walls and ceiling would have to be hardened to rifle fire to keep the warden happy. That being said what kind of specifications would you think would be pertinant?

And if you have pics of your "Den" that you would care to share I would be grateful to see them.

Jim

 

[kd7nqb]

Wait I am confused are you hardening the walls and such so you can SHOOT in this room? Or is it to protect from ND's?

 

[CrawdaddyJim]

Actually for several reasons.

1. As a hardened room for protection from Ma nature, SHTF, and yes to keep AD's and ND's from getting out or from BG's shooting through.

2. I would like to have a small pistol range and if possible a bullet catcher type device that would hold rifle fire in check.

I live in the county so it is possible to build something like this and my property has a slope of 30 degrees or a little less wich would make it theoreticly (sp)? possible to construct some sort of tube or channel to fire into.

 

[Bruce333]

This looks good to me:

http://forums.sixgunner.com/m_27446/mpage_1/tm.htm

 

[CrazyIrishman]

I don't know how feasible it would be for ya to do between labor & materials expense but I recall a couple houses I worked in while they were being built had reinforced concrete walls instead of a standard cinder block type wall for the basement.

Security would probably be good, and depending how elaborate ya want to get, a steel door and jamb set into a wall could work as a safe for heirlooms and collectible firearms. I'm not sure if there are any temperature control problems to worry about or not.

I don't know how it would work for a range but the walls would be fairly sound proof and by nature of their construction,quite dense.

 

[halfacop]

Well - here's my man cave. Nothing to the extent your talking about but it does me just fine. Sorry about the crappy pics.







Make sure you post pics through the process and when your done.

 

[ScottsGT]

I've got a 16' X 24" room in my basement that I can call my own. It is all of my hobby CRAP that keeps me going. Problem is, I have too many hobbys. One wall is lined with shelves holding 1/32 plastic models yet to be built, one corner is my gun cabinet, next to the models is a shelf full of '66 Mustang GT parts, engine block in the corner, etc.... One wall has the large Snap-On tool cabinet from my days as a paint and body man, AKA: Automotive Exterior Technician. Then in the middle of the room is two of the fold out tables, one covered with half built models, and the other with a combination of junk and reloading equipment.
I get a week off at Christmas and I want to spend this time trying to get some order in this area, but one of my ideas was to build a re-bar and cement filled concrete brick wall in a corner approximately 5' X 10' in the corner with a "vault door" for my gun collection. The outside walls are already 9" thick poured concrete. I don't see the gun collection getting any smaller, just more added each year.
I don't worry about the ND's, since I have one rule I always follow. I NEVER load a gun in the house. I have one pistol that stays loaded in the safe, my carry gun. All my hunting or target guns get loaded or unloaded in the field. Carry gun is never "fondled" outside of the range.
Oh, I forgot to mention the Pin Ball machine I bought and never got up and running agian in there in the way. Kids want me to do that during my Christmas break and the wife wants me to finish the bathroom remodel. :banghead:

 

[wacki]

I always liked the epoxy flooring for use on concrete. Gunpowder can get into rugs and stuff. The epoxy is hard and smooth. Very low chance of accidental fires. It looks nice and prevents moisture from seeping in which keeps your guns rust free.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

if

you wanna go the concrete route you cn use a trailer pump pump some mixes through a 4 inch hose. and get it almost anywhere. set up for afternoon pour its about 1/2 price.

 

[Deanimator]

You ought to consider a vault door for security. That way if the room's substantially constructed, it becomes its own safe.

As far as shooting inside, ventilation and lead suppression are critical. A guy in my club is building a basement range using the same principle as the club range. His backstop will be rubber pellets contained by replaceable sheets of rubber conveyor belt material. Bullets that make it through the belt are stopped by the pellets. The belt materal can be patched with smaller sheets held in place with drywall screws. When the belts are no longer patcheable, they can be replaced. It's a very efficient system and keeps lead levels very low. You will of course need a heavy duty air handling system to replace the entire air volume in a short period of time.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Visited a house under construction that my brother-in-law was wiring up and down in the basement this guy had build a hidden room about 12x12 with a light grade vault door hidden by a sliding bookcase. This guy had a serious collection of firarms from civil war up to WW II and then a few modern guns and this "vault" was completely to house that collection. Funny thing was that other than a couple of "shadow boxed" replica guns and his selection of gun repair books, you'd never even know that he was a collector by looking at the rest of the house.

 

[CrawdaddyJim]

That guy has a nice ammo manufacturing facility.

I hadn't considered rubber conveyor sheet and pellets......Good idea.

My first instinct is also toward some sort of security door. Maybe I could get one off of a mothballed submarine? Probably not.

I envision display cases kind of like at the NRA museum but not as eleborate.

Humidity and ground water are not a problem as the land the house sits on is quite porous. Mostly sugarsand and some clay/limestone mix underneath. Water disappears almost instantly.

The outside dimensions will be 15x40 with no exterior doors. There will be a door but it goes upstairs into the kitchen. There may also be a emergency exit door. Not sure about that yet.