Gun room/tornado shelter

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Bruenor

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My wife and I are years from moving to a new house, but when we're ready, I'd like to build one myself. My family built the house that my parents live in, and I'd like to do the same.

I plan on having a nice large basement, and I thought that the best thing to put down there would be a combination gun safe room/tornado shelter. My wife does not like storms, and I like the idea of having a fire-proof room instead of a safe.

I'd want the room to have a fire rating as good as a really nice gun safe, have strong walls and a strong door, and also be large enough for about six people to wait out a tornado in if necessary. I'd make the room large enough for all the guns I'll ever get, plus a couple shelves of supplies, food, water, blankets, and maybe a small couch or at least some chairs.

Has anyone here done anything like this? I've started my internet research, but thought I'd ask for first-hand experience as well.

Thanks.
 
I know this has been posted several times before, but this guy did the same thing on an ginormous scale. http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2008/05/28/dream-house/

On a more serious note, Browning makes a steel security door that is almost like a vault door but it is a 6-panel design so it matches the doors in the rest of the house. I think it can even be painted.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=429584&t=11082005
It might be a good option if you are planning on building a basement room with cement block walls.
 
I know this has been posted several times before, but this guy did the same thing on an ginormous scale. http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2008/05/28/dream-house/
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think that's a little bit more than what I was thinking. But, if I could afford it, I'd build it and all the guns to go with it, then hold a THR event at my house. :D

I've seen the Browning door before, but I don't know how well it would stand up to fire. I don't really care what the door looks like, but I'd like it to swing into the room, and then have a regular door on the outside the swings out.
 
The Browning door may be a good door, but it is very pricey. I purchased my door from a bank vault door company. You do not need a bank vault door, but they also have fire rated security vault doors. I purchased mine used for less than 1/2 the cost of a Browning door. It has a better fire rating, an internal release latch, and came equipped with tear gas canisters embedded in the fire refractory to deter thieves torching the lock. I have seen a similar door and vault after a fire. The contents of the vault were undamaged after a fire completely destroyed the remainder of the building.

PS All fire doors will swing out of the room. They have labyrinth type seal to mitigate smoke/fire infiltration into the vault area.
 
There are some photos on my website that show residential vault door installations.

Fort Knox builds a door with a 3/8" plate, but the Browning is much lighter. I wouldn't trust the Browning to protect from debris thrown by a tornado.

Your choices of inswing doors are limited, and you can plan on spending at least $3,000 on the door alone. Even FEMA rated commercial doors run in the $3,000 range, and they are plain steel commercial entry doors with handleset that operates a multipoint lock.

The concrete walls will probably be more secure than any door you would put on it.
 
a1abdj, recently delivered my gun safe. We have a "safe room" with concrete walls and a triple bolt door. It's designed for use during storms and is pretty solid. Only thing that keeps it from being a gun vault is no concrete ceiling.

Frank said he had a vault door that would fit.
 
IMHO every new-built house in the Midwest should include a safe room. We built in 2005 and have a full basement that includes a safe room with two triple-bolt steel doors. (Why two? Don't know which end of the basement the tornado will dump the house into.) The room has eight-inch reinforced concrete floor, walls and ceiling - the overhead is the front porch slab.

If you are planning to keep firearms or other valuables in the basement safe room, you might consider getting a backup power supply for your sump pump. Ours is wired into the auto-start emergency generator. We know of two families that had flooded basements when the power went out for 5-6 hours during severe storms last week.
 
Yep, I've seen it and think it is a good idea.

Half basement (poured cement), with a big steel door. You can furnish the interior to store/stock as suits your taste.
 
I like my mother in laws house, it's the styrafoam blocks, that are core filled, the place is 3 stories tall with all precast cement floors, it is as solid as the granite hill it's build into.

One day I'd like a basment room that's 20x20' with core filled cement blocks, a precast cealing and 2 steel or vault doors (which was already mentioned), something I'd like to do when I build a house. An Emergency Generator, some closet space in the safe room for emergency water and food, some type of entertainment and comforts of liveing, couple of hida bed couches... Area for the Guns, big screen TV would make a great man cave, along with an emergency area, along with a fire proof room for ammo storage, (storeing ammo in the garage makes me nervous).

I saw one "Man Cave" were the guy put his gun room into the back corner of the basement, which was on the back side of a Utility Room, kind of out of site and out of mind, hiden behind a swinging shelf door, was a comercial steel door.

If you buy a house and decide to put in a block wall on top of the existing concrete floor, do yourself a favor and cut and pour some footers were you're going to put the wall, I know it isn't easy or fun, but that will give the corefilled blocks something to sit on... instead of cracking the basement floor.
 
Just a suggestion . . . would probably be cheaper to build a tornado saferoom and just place one or more good fireproof gun safes in it than to fireproof an entire room. You could also do a baffled entry of some sort to avoid buying a superdoor.
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IMHO, what you -really- want in most cases is your basic "back door of an urban bar" kind of door. Steel, maybe with another piece welded on the business side. Glue some wood on, and you're camoflaged.

Two good and long deadbolts, with secured hinges, and it'll stop most lowlifes. The ones it won't stop won't get stopped by the more expensive ones.
 
A buddy of mine built a house a few years ago, he had pre-stressed concrete panels added to cover a section of basement and had a concrete wall added to make a 24x8 room with six sides of concrete. He then added an AMSEC door and now he has a very secure room.

Pricing was moderate, the concrete company that sold the pre-stressed roof, delivered and installed it. He had to add a lip to a segment of basement. The additional basement wall was cheap compared to anything you could build later and the door was about 2K.

The whole thing was under 10K if I remember correctly. Concrete is pretty fireproof and he had all the seams sealed when it was built with Pausol? expanding fire seal.

Adding a secure room is a value that will appeal to men the world over and I am pretty sure you will always get your money out if this investment.
 
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