Apartment safe room

[Sir Aardvark]

You need to hang a new door (and probably a new door jamb to fit the bigger new door).


Go to Home Depot and get a 1 3/4" solid core door (most interior doors are 1 3/8"), use 3 heavy duty hinges, put a dead bolt on it, and also put 2 heavy duty throw bolts on the inside - top and bottom.

Install everything using big beefy screws that are long enough to reach the studs behind the door jamb. Also buy a real lock that can take a kick or two without breaking (minimum would be a Schlage).

There is also hardware you can buy to further beef up your door, such as 14 gauge steel strikeplates, and metal gaurds that go around your lockset that increase the strength of the door against kick-ins.

All of the above might look kinda Ghetto on your door, but since you rent, your options are limited, and you don't want to shell out big bucks on something you can't keep.

Now, when you buy your own house and have no restrictions on what you can install, check out the following links for bullet-proof armored doors that will be custom made to fit any decor (for a lot of $$$$, I might add):

http://www.sundorco.com/doors/bullet.asp

http://www.cecodoor.com/bullrest.htm

Also, bullet proof windows:

http://www.secureglass.com/Residential.html

And Security Mesh so the bad guys can't bust through your walls:

http://amico-securityproducts.com/mesh.htm

And lastly, bullet-proof wall panels:

http://www.armorcore.com/

All it takes is lots and lots of money..........

good luck!

 

[yonderway]

As someone who has to deal with tennants and the crap they tend to inflict on their apartments, I can tell you that trying to put a safe room into an apartment is very likely to get you in very hot water with your landlord (and you're not going to be able to do this without someone reporting you).

Sir Aardvark, thanks for consolidating a whole bunch of useful links into one post. I'm moving back out to the country soon and would very much like to establish a safe room in the new house for my family (not because country life in inherently dangerous, but because it can take up to 40 minutes for a deputy sherrif to arrive on the scene after being called!)

 

[TempestP226]

At the risk of appearing foolish for replying to a thread whose last comment is as old as my diploma...I'll add my thoughts in the event someone else like myself comes searching for this very kind of information.

I'm looking for make more of a secure room for firearm storage because while I'm likely to get a safe of sorts....being an apartment dweller and on a limited budget, it certainly won't be a 500+lb behemoth.

Current configuration is as such.
Small closet, with one wall shared with neighbor, one wall shared with the bathroom, and one wall shared with the utility closet housing a monster ac/heater and water heater (both older than I am).
Flimsy inward opening door.

Haven't done it yet, however my plans thus far have included the following.
1. Remove crap door, store in utility closet until move-out. Replace with solid door, and reconfigure to open outwards. Heavy duty deadbolt, and hinge pins.

2. On the inside of the door jamb (where the original door resided) install an expanding security gate. (see link) http://www.homedepot.com/Doors-Wind...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

3. On interior closet walls, screw two layers of quarter inch plywood floor to ceiling and corner to corner with flattened expanded metal sheet sandwiched in between (the kind you see in a professional lockup cage) into the wall studs. (Possibly add L brackets floor to ceiling in the corners between the sheets.

Upon move out...
Remove the installed panels, patch, sand and paint drywall.
Reinstall original door, and patch, sand and paint any holes I created.

Any constructive feedback on my idea would be much appreciated.