Next home, requirement: VAULT

[WestKentucky]

My wife and I are in the early stages of laying out blueprints for our next home. I am adamant that we will have a vault in the home, steel and concrete construction with a true vault door on it, similar to but possibly not as heavy duty as one which could be found in a bank. The purpose would obviously be for storage of valuables including guns, jewelry, family heirlooms, etc.

Having never had a home vault, what should be my considerations? Cost not being a huge factor, but at the same time I want to be cost effective. The vault will be bottom level of the home, poured in place and reinforced with woven rebar, with fire suppression (likely firetrace).

 

[a1abdj]

You'll want to work with a real safe and vault company as opposed to soliciting information online or attempting to figure it out on your own.

Heavier doors, especially bank type doors, are not typically do it yourself projects. There are a lot of little things that go into a successful project, and unless you have already done it several times, you'll miss them.

 

[WestKentucky]

When time comes to build, I certainly will use professionals, I just want to get most of my ducks in a row ahead of time so that when time comes it's not a huge learning curve of dos and don'ts that slow down a build.

 

[a1abdj]

Then locate the company you want to use now, and purchase the door you want to use now. They'll guide you through the rest.

I bet 90% of the calls I get for residential vault doors are for existing construction with an existing roughed in room. This is completely backwards. The planning involved for these projects should be completed before ground breaking.

 

[joem1945]

I had my home built but didn't consider a vault. A few years later it dawned on me I could have had a under ground vault built into this house.

 

[JeeperCreeper]

I have zero experience with any of this but I might have an interesting thing to add.

My buddy just built his house, and he created a "vaultlike" room in the basement. He wanted to pour 12 inch thick concrete for the foundation, but his family's construction/contracting company only had the jigs/template/frame things for up to a 10 inch. I know nothing about concrete foundations, but I know he was sad because it would cost many more thousands of dollars in more than just concrete money to make it 2 inches thicker. So check with your contractor on what size you can make the walls because it may not be as easy as saying, "hey, just widen that thing up a little bit".

 

[jaguarxk120]

Please look at the vault room as a place not to store your guns but rather as a very secure room (vault) to display what you have collected and what you will collect in the future.

The vault could wind up as a collect all for what you and the wife think is valuable and act as a store room.

The winter 2014 Double Gun and single shot journal has a article on secure rooms(vaults) that showcase gun collections.

 

[zorro45]

vault

Don't forget the underground shooting range to go next to your vault!

 

[WestKentucky]

Nah, where I will build I have 1000 meter clear shooting lane. No need for underground. I may put a pistol backstop in my shop though...just build one wall extra solid and mound dirt up to the roofline. Soft insulate the walls for both heat and sound.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I have zero experience with any of this but I might have an interesting thing to add.

My buddy just built his house, and he created a "vaultlike" room in the basement. He wanted to pour 12 inch thick concrete for the foundation, but his family's construction/contracting company only had the jigs/template/frame things for up to a 10 inch. I know nothing about concrete foundations, but I know he was sad because it would cost many more thousands of dollars in more than just concrete money to make it 2 inches thicker. So check with your contractor on what size you can make the walls because it may not be as easy as saying, "hey, just widen that thing up a little bit".

I have worked industrial concrete construction and a 10' thick concrete wall can be made almost unbreachable by normal ways. A poured concrete wall with a double rebar mat with 6 or 12 inch centers and 4000 psi concrete will withstand 3 to 4 times the force vs a standard one with a single rebar mat with 24 inch centers and 2400 psi concrete. It also makes a difference on how the rebar is tied and the size of it. It may cost more but less than double the cost for 3 to 4 times more protection. Sounds like your buddies contractor wasn't all that upfront with him.

 

[Telekinesis]

I know someone who did a full renovation on their home and built in a vault and I got a few of the things they did and things they wish they had done.

They used a FEMA storm shelter spec for the construction of the room. If you use that and/or exceed it, when you sell the house you can label the room as a "storm shelter". But 90% of the time someone is in there, it is being used as a tornado shelter, not as a "show ff your collection" type of room. It also helps give the builder something to refer to.

Decide how secure you really want it to be. There are NBC rated doors out there, but personally I think that rating is of questionable utility as you have to not only seal the ports that allow your wires in, you'll also need a filtration system rated for NBC as well. And if you don't seal it, you'll still want some way to keep air flowing inside (think a bathroom exhaust fan connected to a pipe leading outside). Maybe think about a door rated to stop people with tools (a typical "vault door" from a gun safe company is still rather vulnerable to people with tools). And don't skimp on the door. It will likely have to be lowered into the basement by crane before the rest of the house is built. Once you close off the basement, the door that's down there is what you'll be stuck with unless you want to go through some major work to get a new one down there.

Cell reception is nonexistent, so have some way to communicate via hard line, Ethernet for internet, coax for TV etc. might also be a good idea to have a keypad for your alarm (or at least a panic button just in case).

Also, if you put in a fire suppression system, be sure you have a way to drain the water. Nothing would be worse than turning a small fire into a big flood.