Security walls, wood vs concrete

[Gotcha640]

How open to the world is the garage? As previously discussed, people see you building a big steel cage in your garage in the suburbs and they'll ask about it.

How long will you be in this house? I know I'm not every buyer, but a tiny safe room might not be a selling point.

How much are you advertising what you have? We have a guy at work who has gun club stickers on his truck, reloads in open garage, gun safe in garage. He has a Come and Take It flag in his yard. Every couple years, someone does. He calls police, they take serial numbers, he buys new guns and safe, rinse and repeat.

Another friend's dad has a safe in the den that he built in to an antique juke box, Bluetooth speaker so no one wonders about it, and he drives to the range in his prius. Never been robbed.

 

[Nowater]

I urge you to look into FEMA safe rooms. Then, should you later decide to sell you have a marketable product.

 

[mendozer]

How open to the world is the garage? As previously discussed, people see you building a big steel cage in your garage in the suburbs and they'll ask about it.

How long will you be in this house? I know I'm not every buyer, but a tiny safe room might not be a selling point.

How much are you advertising what you have? We have a guy at work who has gun club stickers on his truck, reloads in open garage, gun safe in garage. He has a Come and Take It flag in his yard. Every couple years, someone does. He calls police, they take serial numbers, he buys new guns and safe, rinse and repeat.

Another friend's dad has a safe in the den that he built in to an antique juke box, Bluetooth speaker so no one wonders about it, and he drives to the range in his prius. Never been robbed.

No advertising. I'm not paranoid but I'm not an idiot. Only people I talk gun shop with are friends. As for the house, we got it as our 2nd and "hopefully final but maybe not final" home. So no immediate plans to move out. A safe room may not be a selling point, but it's there and it's a room. Hell they could convert it into a wine cellar later.

 

[mendozer]

I urge you to look into FEMA safe rooms. Then, should you later decide to sell you have a marketable product.

If I was in an area of the country to benefit from this, then sure. Then I'd just order one or do the cinderblock plan. Washington isn't in a 'storm shelter' state. No tornadoes or hurricanes here. The occasional earthquake supposedly every 50 or so years but I'm not sure if that counts. I think I'd just equally large eyes from buyers if they saw a storm shelter vs a safe room in this space.

 

[Firebrick43]

Carefully dry stack cinderblocks, lay some wire between the blocks and leave it sticking out, and use a surface bonding cement on the inside. After it is set use the wires sticking out the outside and tie stucco mesh and surface bond that side. Just keep adding stucco mesh layers and surface bond cement depending on the level of protection you want. 3 layers and it’s pretty much bullet proof. This is how the US upgraded many embassies and other government buildings post Benghazi. It’s proven, is fairly cheap, and is fairly quick.

 

[mendozer]

Interesting. A hollow wall with a hard cement outer layer is that strong huh?

 

[ddawg16]

As someone who has taken enough burg reports involving safes.........

95% of the time, they will try to rip it out of it's current location so they can have better access at prying the door open.

For the smaller safes, they will just drag it with them. We have a spot in my area where they like to drop a safe off the overpass so the fall breaks it open.

You have to understand the criminal.....

They want 'quick'. Hence, if they can take it with them...that is the method.

If it's too big to haul away...the key to keeping them out of it is to make it hard to pry open the door.

Hence....put that ***** in a 'hallway' so only the door is visible. This pretty much leaves them no room for a crowbar.

Make it real hard remove....i.e., bolt that ***** down.....really good.

If your safe is a free standing job in the garage....they will just back up into the garage, toss a chain around it,.....and drive off.

One key point to remember....thieves don't give a flying **** how much damage they do getting what they want. If anything, it's a game to them

Also consider fire protection....5/8" type X is considered 1 hour fire wall. Wrap your safe in about 2-3 layers, and fire won't be an issue.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Who the hell buys a safe and doesn't secure it?

 

[LXCam]

Who the hell buys a safe and doesn't secure it?

Me


We had a small fire proof safe, hardly even big enough for a handgun or two. We only used it for important documents. So they took the whole thing. My only solace is knowing they had to work their *** off to get it open (if they ever did) only to find out my birth date.......

 

[Old Man Roger]

Me


We had a small fire proof safe, hardly even big enough for a handgun or two. We only used it for important documents. So they took the whole thing. My only solace is knowing they had to work their *** off to get it open (if they ever did) only to find out my birth date.......

In your situation, you should have just left it unlocked. It would have been closed and protected from fire, but a thief would have just looked and left it.

 

[Toolfool]

In my WA house I built a closet for the gun safe and ammo. Framed 2x4 walls, sheathed in 1/2" plywood (not OSB) glued and screwed. Then drywalled. Safe was bolted to concrete floor. Door was outswing solid core fire rated, four security hinges, no doorknob, only two digital deadbolts. Enough to slow them down.

 

[mendozer]

I got some great feedback here, thanks a lot everyone. Due to the 6'x9' space I'm alotting...I'm more than going to do a secure room vs a room + bolted safe. I already know I'd be unhappy working on my rifle or reloading on a desk in a cramped room next to a safe. I also have several other layers of security as well, so it's not my only measure. And it'll be more secure than it is now.

 

[Firebrick43]

Interesting. A hollow wall with a hard cement outer layer is that strong huh?

The steel stucco mesh and cement composite (commonly referred to as ferocement ) is very strong! The cement causes the bullet to start to expand and the steel holds it together. Multiple layers of this composite will expand the bullet and dissipate it’s energy

Also a drystacked cider block wall with just surface bonding cement(basically stucco mix with fiberglass fibers) is significantly stronger than a mortar stacked wall.

 

[Kev In]

I agree with ant.foste. We also used plywood, steel mesh and 2 layers of drywall on walls and ceiling.