I'm toying with the idea of having a "gun room" in my new house.

My largest safe with my defensive guns will be in the master bedroom. Then I had planned to put my other 2 safes in the rearmost guest room, along with storage for ammo, mags, holsters, and accessories, a bench for minor gunsmithing, and several bookshelves for my firearms reference library. But then I got to thinking... Why not turn the entire room into a secure "gun room"? This would allow me to display some of my milsurp collection out of the safes on wall racks or the like, while still being relatively secure.

This rear guest bedroom is in the back corner of the house, at the end of a hallway, with the kitchen on the other side of one wall and the guest bathroom on the other. So simply smashing a hole through the drywall would be tough.

If I replace the bedroom's flimsy interior door with a solid door, and install a deadbolt, that would seem to be fairly secure. No, it's not as good as something like a concrete vault with a vault door purposely built into the basement foundation. But it'd be about as secure as many residential gun cabinets/safes, in that it wouldn't stop a determined thief with nigh-unlimited time, but would stop the average burglar, especially as part of a multi-tiered security setup.

In addition, the house is on a hill, and the rear bedroom's windows are about 8 feet off the ground. It's in the middle of a subdivision, and taller than the surrounding houses, so a guy on a ladder smashing a window would be fairly obvious. And I could install some impact film on the windows if I thought it needed that bit of additional security.


What other considerations should I factor in? Any suggestions on other simple methods to "harden" a bedroom gun room?

The door will be the easiest and most likely place for someone to try to enter. Running long grade 8 type anchors fir the deadbolt striker is needed. Spax screws would work pretty well.
Long screws to hold the hinges on.
The other factors are that if the jamb isn’t attached very well, the whole door and jamb would come off.
If the door isn’t a very strong door, just smashing the door (imagine the shining) would be easy.
Lots of 3.5” spax screws to hold the jamb to the studs, and to hold the door to the jamb and studs as well as the deadbolt striker.

The areas next to the doors. Blowing through the drywall in those areas, or anywhere else. Think of it this way. Your mother or father, it child is in that room and you have 60 seconds to get in there and save their life. How would you get in?

Also remember the ceiling. If I came upon a fortified room, the first thought I would have is get in the attic area, and simply pull a Black92LX and step right through the drywall ceiling.

Hope that helps.

Yep, had already planned to replace the door and reinforce the striker. Normal interior doors are ludicrously flimsy.

With it being at the end of a hallway, flanked by walls, there's not really a way to easily access the area next to the door. It's somewhat similar to this, with the left wall having the guest bathroom on the other side, and the right wall having the kitchen on the other side:



Cannonballing from the attic is an interesting thought. I'll have to get up there and see what's above it. If it's accessible, then screwing down some thick plywood above that entire room would help. (I know much of the main attic area is already covered in plywood, but I don't recall exactly how far back it goes, and the HVAC system is that direction too.)

To throw a bigger wrench in your plans...

What’s in your garage? If someone came into my house and the bedroom was fortified, they would have every tool necessary at their fingertips to get in. There are a couple crowbars, a circular saw, drills, a cutoff wheel in a grinder, ladders, various hammers, a fence post driver (similar to a battering ram that police use on doors), you name it, I have the tool in the garage to help the criminals.

True, but couldn't they use those tools to cut/break into your safe(s) too, given enough time?

The goal isn't for something totally impenetrable. It's for a fairly secure deterrent to the average burglar, as part of a layered security system. Just like nearly all residential gun safes.

Oh, absolutely. The funny thing is, there’s probably more value in tools in the garage, than in my safe.

I’m just playing devils advocate for you and thinking of how I would get in a fortified room.

You could always just get a big scary dog and train it to defend the home. That would be a huge deterrent to most. Way too much responsibility for me, but some people like animals.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
You could always just get a big scary dog and train it to defend the home.

Already done. He's 130 pounds, and LOUD.

Beef up the opening just a bit and put a commercial metal door and frame, like offices and schools use.

Alarm system? Have an interior alarm/ light that will distract the robber. That’s in addition to exterior lights and a call to the polce.

Put bars on the insides of the window. Put a hurricane impact door and frame for the door with very long tapcons or screws mounting it. It's designed to stop a 2x4 flying through the air at something like 100 mph. The only thing a typical gun safe will be much better at would be fire protection.

Check out the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MkvFVGajUA

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jimmy123x,

I'm no expert, but I did work at Jeld-Wen's factory in Tampa long enough to get very familiar with how flimsy interior doors are, and what hurricane rated doors and frames are like in comparison. I think they're at least worth a look.

Get serious about your security.

A solid core wood door is likely strong enough. They can be drilled through but much harder to hack through with an axe. Screw a metal plate to it and definitely.

If you're worried about drywall from another room you could add a layer of metal mesh and then another layer of drywall. That's what we do for safe deposit rooms in our hotels.

Lastly, you could still secure the guns that are being displayed with a cable through the trigger guards or put them in lockable glass cabinets. It's not foolproof but every added device slows them down.

I love the idea and would love to do something similar. I've also designed a solution with a roll down shutter triggered by the alarm. It is only on paper at the moment though.

I lined a room with heavy duty chain link, added a pull-down steel door behind a normal appearing but reinforced wood door.

Separate alarm circuit in addition to main home security system.

Nothing will stop a determined thief... just make it a difficult target that slows them down until the police arrive. (I make the assumption police still exist.)

If you're replacing door, I'd recommend replacing with a very heavy duty door and frame that opens outwards along with tamper-proof hinges and of course appropriate deadbolt locks. Kicking an entire door frame inward is going to be a different exercise than just getting enough force on an inward opening door to exploit a weak point in hinges/locks.

I'd recommend a single bolt lock rather than double so you can always get it open from inside with or without a key.

Of course someone can still raid your tools and cut off those hinges even though the pins won't come out, but you've already acknowledged this is reinforcement not permanent deterrent.

I was looking into this as well, and wondered if adding deadbolts to the top and bottom corners would be better than just the one in the middle?

Is there still flex in a solid door?

If speed and convenience are not an issue, could you add deadbolt throws to all four corners? I think that would make it damn near kick-proof (if the jamb is fortified as well)?

In my situation, it's an attic room, and has a wall of plywood with drywall over it on both sides of the studs... a REALLY solid wall. I was thinking of beefing up the door jamb and using a four deadbolt setup.

Would some of the ideas for building a tornado safe room may be helpful here?

I know a guy that has rolled thru a few different collections,
he was a SMG collector, then sold most and started on Enfields, then sold most and went to US WW2 etc etc,

everything displayed in a 'bonus room' on his 2nd floor,

like yours, one door in, and a small section of wall,

he replaced teh door with an exterior steel door, and added a good lock,
on the inside (since he had a couple feet of wall space on each side of the door, he added a layer of fire proof sheetrock ,

no access to the ceiling, and a room under so the usual subflooring etc

if you did not pay attention to the fact that it was a 36" vs 32" door, and that the door knob is more like an entry door knob (keyed) the casual observer would not know,


bulletproof, as far as a dedicated theif getting in ,,,,,,, nope, but neither is a safe

How about a steel security door like one of these? It's well reinforced but still looks like a normal door. It's not cheap but as you mentioned the door is going to be the most likely point of attack. You just have to make it difficult enough to open that any potential thief gives up. All while your alarm is blaring, the security cameras are recording, and the police are on their way of course.


https://doors4security.us/prod...xEgtmghoC8FIQAvD_BwE

I personally wouldn't do it. First I don't think it would be secure enough to make me comfortable. I hear what you're saying, but a window in my "hardened room?" It won't take a genius to get through the other walls and into your gun room either.

Is it as good as a cheap home safe? I suppose, but I wouldn't use them either.

The other issue is visibility. I suppose you can just keep the door closed, but it sounds like you have a decent seized collection and I wouldn't want most folks knowing about that. "What's in there?" is something I don't want folks asking about my vault room.

Is your new house complete? With a collection like that, why not build a dedicated and proper vault? I'm breaking ground this fall and went with a vault in the basement that will be behind a moving book case. It's not very expensive when compared to what we invest in our guns. I tend to think along the lines that the larger a collection and the more visible it is, the more likely someone will come for it. I want it properly secured and not easily accessed. Someone can get into anything, but they're not gonna have to really work hard to get into a room like that. Their haul to effort ratio is way too high imo.

Also, you need to consider your HVAC system. How is it set up? In my vault there is no HVAC in or out. just a dehumidifier and a heater on its own stat. (that's what was recommended to me, I'm open to opinions if someone thinks that's wrong). Make sure you can keep the humidity of the room proper in all seasons so you don't start rusting up your guns.