"Safe Rooms"

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The whole idea of a safe/panic room kind of boggles me. I understand the purpose, but if you are using it to protect yourself from other people, what are the chances that you get to it in time. I'm not sure on any of the data, but what is the difference in home invasions for those that have a good security system vs those that have none. The trick is that you have to deter the home invasion....thieves don't want to get caught, thus they are going to go for the easiest target. If you want to score some jewelry do you hit the home with the alarm system, or the house with none?

Now, I have no problem if people want to make a safe room to ride out a hurricane or tornado. I live in Indiana, so we get tornados, so I've been in the basement many times riding out a tornado. The longest time I've been down is maybe two or three hours. I couldn't imagine in areas that get hit by hurricanes what it's like having a mandatory evacuation, and then coming home to find your place looted. If having a safe room allows you to ride out Charlie, Frances, or whoever it is, and then emerge with a couple members of your collection to keep prying hands off your property, then all the better.

The score
Safe Rooms +1
Panic Rooms 0
Security System +1
 
"Cellular repeater/amplifier systems are cheap and easy to install."
Where do you get one ?

I would love to have a safe room like that. If you have the money, why not ? If nothing else it gives you a really big gun vault and an extra bathroom. And, if you actually needed a safe room, there it is. To me, it only makes sense to put something like this underground. More protection for less money. I always though the perfect set-up would be to have a basement with a hidden panel in the wall leading into your vault/saferoom or whatever you want to call it. The roof of the vault would be your back patio.

"The walls are about 2ft thick of steel,"
That is kind of hard to believe. It is certainly possible, but unlikely. In fact, if this room is of any significant size, I don't think you could build it for $200,000. But, who knows. Steel reinforced concrete, I have no problem with. But solid steel ? Imagine standing inside the room to weld the sections together. :D
 
444,

I've talked to these people a few times: http://www.cellantenna.com/

The product seems good, but for our needs at work (coverage for just about every cellphone company around), it would've been very expensive (100K after hardware and engineering support/installation). However, the low end kit for a single provider is about $500.

You're looking for this kit: http://www.cellantenna.com/repeater/cae50.htm

They say it's on sale for $499, but it's been on "sale" for a couple years now, or at least every time I go to the page (every 6 months or so).

Good luck.
Chris
 
Safe room

Well, a safe room might be ok for some scenarios, especially if you are concerned about a home invasion type thing. Bad thing is that it gives a false sense of security. Bad guys aren't inclined to excuse you to go to one. In worst case scenarios, you still have to come out and deal with the situation later. Being locked up might make them death traps in many instances. Saddam Hussein did not find a lot of security in them.
 
Found an interesting article on how to build a bullet proof safe room for under $5000

I wouldn't recomend putting it so far from your bed room though.

Smoke
 
I hate to be a wet blanket, but comparing what is essentially a light bunker to revolver or a shotgun is just silly.
Click to expand...

Errr..

No.. Since the room is $200K, and a shotgun is about $300... I'm comparing 690 shotguns to the room :D
 
I wonder if there is a way to combine the concepts of an armored catepillar D9 and a saferoom. It would allow you the ability to get away if the perps decide to try to smoke you out with fire.

Also the gunports would come in handy.

If only money were no object :evil:
 
Smoke said:
Found an interesting article on how to build a bullet proof safe room for under $5000

I wouldn't recomend putting it so far from your bed room though.

Smoke
Click to expand...

Care to share or is it in print?
 
twoblink said:
Her safe room (which is bulletproof (The walls are about 2ft thick of steel, it's basically a walk in vault), has it's own vent system, and a hard telephone line to the outside world) costs....

$200,000 !!!!!

And she's thinking about building another one!

Last time I checked, a Ruger GP100 4" + a box of 125 grain JHP's came out to be less than $500 total..

I'm no math genius, nor do I play one on TV.. but I'm just saying...
Click to expand...

Ah twoblink, you have fallen into the common logic fallacy of many many gun owners. You think the gun is going to provide you defense against threats. This is not actually correct. A gun provides defense by using a projectile to harm the aggressor or threat to harm the aggressor. What a gun does NOT do or not do very well is stop rounds launched in your direction. It makes for a poor ballistic shield. What a gun does not do is to stop whatever intimidation the threat may be conveying to you. If you do need to discharge your gun to stop a threat, you might get lucky with a missed shot that changes the threat's mind, but if that doesn't work, you have to actually hit the threat with the projectiles from your gun, something you may or may not be able to do in a timely manner or well enough before the threat damages you.

Safe or SHTF rooms, IF (and it is a big if) provide safety via isolation from the threat. They do not harm the threat, but prevent the threat from harming the occupant. Safe rooms generally operate on the concept that that best defense is to not be 'there' where 'there' is defined as being a location where harm can be done to you.

Basically, the logic is similar with ballistic vests. Many cops are shot unexpectantly or before they can ever draw their service weapons and the reason they survive is NOT because they had guns, but because they had a means to defeat the aggression of their attackers. Their vests stopped the incoming rounds.

Remember, the fight isn't about whether or not you can kill the enemy, but whether or not you survive the fight. Too many folks win the fight, but are mortally wounded in the process. It doesn't matter if you win if the result is that you also end up dead.

The lady had a $200K safe room. Cool. There are much cheaper alternatives that are not that sophisticated, but that would work about as well for most situations..
 
I think the people who think that saferooms are silly don't have large houses. Just as a generalization, I think that if you have 3 or 4 members of your family in a 5000+ sqft house, you have an appreciation for a place that you can stash the weaker members of your family. For all the Rambos that like to clear their own apartment in their underwear, imagine having 2 stairways, front and back. Now imagine that you have to go get your two kids 1 who can't even crawl yet, and the other one doesn't get out of her bed without permission. Are you going to have your wife walking behind you carrying the kids while you clear the house? :confused:

I don't have a 5000+ sqft house, or 2 staircases for that matter. But I am in the process of hardening our master closet. It won't be bulletproof, but it will resist someone coming through the sheetrock or kicking in the door.

And twoblink... I already own a gun. ;)
 
Someday when I have more money than I know what to do with and...oh yeah, A HOUSE, I want to build a secure internal room that is climate (Temp, humidity, etc.) controlled to use as a walk-in vault. I'd like to get one of those Vault doors that Remington makes that look like a normal interior house door and is remotely activated.

That would be neat.
 
Or maybe these people would be better served to simply not be so pretentious. Their hearts are tied up in their treasures and their treasures are limited to this life.

Maybe if they weren't so ostentatious to begin with they wouldn't feel like a moving target.

BTW, dogs are a bigger deterrent than anything. A gun is necessary, but that comes into play only after the trouble has begun. A really big, ugly, smelly dog, as a deterrent, is invaluable, so I'm told.
 
P&R, agree about dogs, although dogs require attention, upkeep, a yard, exercise, cleanup, medical care, etc.
 
Woof Woof

Okay...

EVERY room in my house is a PANIC ROOM

1. Loaded major caliber handgun ON MY belt, or close at hand
2. Wife armed with a Glock, and she knows how to use it
3. CAR-15 .223 with 2 30-rnd mags and a bandolier (mine)
4. Remington 11oo autoloading 12 guage with Choate Extended Tube
5. Twyla Von Puppymonster (Rottweiler-all teeth and muscle)

let's look at the economics of this:

My belt gun $450.00
Wife's gun $400.00
CAR-15 $500.00 (1990 money)
Remington $225.00 (1985 money)
Rottie $1200.00
Total $2775.00


Watching Twyla Von Puppymonster chase a misguided soul down the street screaming for deliverance....PRICELESS
 
I dunno. A "safe room" without an exit is just a potential coffin, IMO. How do you know the capabilities of your attacker before you go in there? He may just be able to defeat whatever barriers you've constructed. I would much prefer to be able to retreat if confronted with overwhelming force. YMMV. :)
 
I'm intrigued by the people inferring that they and/or their wife will clear the house if a BG comes a knockin. I'm assuming they have no kids to worry about, and also train on a regular basis with their housemate, as anyone with an inkling can tell you that 2 people trying to clear a house that have never trained together will turn into a grade-A cluster in a heartbeat. One might assume if these people have kids that the kids will be bringing up the rear with the med kit and door breacher. One might also assume that clearing the house involves looking into both bedrooms and the living/dining/kitchen to see what made the noise, not clearing several thousand square feet of house, 5 or 6 bedrooms, a den, study, family room, media room, garage(s), etc.

I'm no Rambo. My family is going in the safe room and I'm taking a defensive position until the cavalry arrives. However, if there's no cavalry coming, my family is still going to be in the safe room, but I'll be "castle clearing."
 
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