Gun Safe Alternatives

[jschweg]

I've seen a few "gun safe" threads in this forum, I thought this might be a cool discussion.
 
I always assumed that I would end up buying one of those multi-thousand dollar gun safes when my gun collection grew to that point, but have entertained the idea of converting an empty closet to serve that purpose.
 
Has anyone done something like this? I realize that this would be a lot more than simply throwing a reinforced door and frame on a closet, i.e. reasonable fireproofing, a thief could just smash through the drywall next to the door, etc.
 
I feel like this would be a cool project and would end up with more room on the inside, and not have a huge hulking safe somewhere in the house.

I've read various things about a lot of those big expensive safes being a joke for thieves to get into anyway.
 
Anyone do this? Pics of your setup?
 
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
 

[Flatland Shooter]

Many years ago when we had a house custom built, we included a large closet with 2x6 studs (instead of 2x4). Instead of drywall we lined the interior with 3/16" steel plates.  The area around the door was reinforced with angle iron.  The door was an exterior grade solid core steel door that matched the other interior doors.  On the hinge side we had several steel pins that when closed recessed into the angle iron.  On the lock side we had three long throw deadbolts that also set into the angle iron.

 

Still not as strong as a good gun safe but if anyone had gotten into the house, it may have deterred them getting anything.

 

About the same time a co-worker had a house built with a closet sized to where he was able to slide in his gun safe.

 

 I liked his better.

[davsco]

yeah i was going to say put a big safe in that closet, prob cheaper and less work though perhaps less room for your guns.  need to consider floor load, probably in either scenario.

[Silverscooby27]

6 hours ago, Flatland Shooter said:

Many years ago when we had a house custom built, we included a large closet with 2x6 studs (instead of 2x4). Instead of drywall we lined the interior with 3/16" steel plates.  The area around the door was reinforced with angle iron.  The door was an exterior grade solid core steel door that matched the other interior doors.  On the hinge side we had several steel pins that when closed recessed into the angle iron.  On the lock side we had three long throw deadbolts that also set into the angle iron.

 

Still not as strong as a good gun safe but if anyone had gotten into the house, it may have deterred them getting anything.

 

About the same time a co-worker had a house built with a closet sized to where he was able to slide in his gun safe.

 

 I liked his better.

How much did that set you back if you don’t mind me asking?

[Flatland Shooter]

1 hour ago, Silverscooby27 said:

How much did that set you back if you don’t mind me asking?

 

I don't really know.  This was back in 1989.  A friend supplied the steel panels for free (required some cutting to fit) and the builder supplied the door and locks.  I do remember they needed to reinforce the ceiling joists to handle the weight.  I 'm sure that it was cheaper than a good gun safe (since the expensive parts were free)and it was a good bit larger than a gun safe (approx 8'x10").

[Ming the Merciless]

This is pretty close to what you're looking for.

 

http://www.rhinovault.com/saferooms.htm

 

If you want a Hollywood style gun wall

https://www.secureitgunstorage.com/product/gun-wall-kit-gun-vault-8/

 

Also look at modular (snap together) safes.  Some are 'lightweight' with side walls similar to conventional gun safes, but there are a couple of companies that make them with plate steel all the way around.

 

https://www.snapsafe.com/modular-safes/

 

https://zanottiarmor.com/

[Max It]

HI Ya, I don't see where J Schweg names his state of residence. Cal requires a safe.

but after research i found that the sheet steel boxes sold by Walmart and others fits the requirements. So I have two now. they are $100. or so each. Come in lots of sizes'; bolt to wall and floor and has three point locking systems. one is Homak,, the other is Stack-On.

why spend more?

[bigboy69]

How about a gutted refrigerator?

 

 

[Corrado_kid]

I seen a liberty fat boy JR on a fb classifieds recently for $550 on fb 

[Sarge]

On 2/26/2019 at 10:43 AM, Max It said:

HI Ya, I don't see where J Schweg names his state of residence. Cal requires a safe.

but after research i found that the sheet steel boxes sold by Walmart and others fits the requirements. So I have two now. they are $100. or so each. Come in lots of sizes'; bolt to wall and floor and has three point locking systems. one is Homak,, the other is Stack-On.

why spend more?

Fire protection for one. And overall security?

[Farmer]

Always thought if a person was building a house with a basement why not build a room off to the side, not under the house for a safe, vault ect. Lots of wasted area under the garage too that could be utilized and hidden. Just would take some planning and could be used for all your valuables. 

[robertg5322]

6 hours ago, Farmer said:

Always thought if a person was building a house with a basement why not build a room off to the side, not under the house for a safe, vault ect. Lots of wasted area under the garage too that could be utilized and hidden. Just would take some planning and could be used for all your valuables. 

I did just that when I was remodeling my basement. Reinforced block walls are underground on all four sides with all cells filled with concrete. Door by Sturdy Safe. It added less to the project than a new safe (which I needed anyway) would have, and long guns are now hung on the walls, handguns on shelves. 21' x 8', I won't need to buy anymore safes.

 

I also camouflage the vault door with a small set of shelved with paint cans and other nonsense on them. 

 

It ain't perfect, but it'll take longer to get into than a gun safe would. That is if you actually found it. 

There's also home alarm system, two small, useless dogs, cameras, and a low crime area, so there's that.

[Farmer]

1 hour ago, robertg5322 said:

I did just that when I was remodeling my basement. Reinforced block walls are underground on all four sides with all cells filled with concrete. Door by Sturdy Safe. It added less to the project than a new safe (which I needed anyway) would have, and long guns are now hung on the walls, handguns on shelves. 21' x 8', I won't need to buy anymore safes.

 

I also camouflage the vault door with a small set of shelved with paint cans and other nonsense on them. 

 

It ain't perfect, but it'll take longer to get into than a gun safe would. That is if you actually found it. 

There's also home alarm system, two small, useless dogs, cameras, and a low crime area, so there's that.

That’s what I’m talking about. For new construction it wouldn’t cost that much more for a little extra concrete either. Was discussing this with others and one fellow said to put in a drain and raise the threshold above basement floor level in case of flooding or if the house burned and all the water from the firemen. My niece and nephew bought a house with an old bomb shelter attached. You’d go broke filling that with guns. 

[robertg5322]

5 minutes ago, Farmer said:

That’s what I’m talking about. For new construction it wouldn’t cost that much more for a little extra concrete either. Was discussing this with others and one fellow said to put in a drain and raise the threshold above basement floor level in case of flooding or if the house burned and all the water from the firemen. My niece and nephew bought a house with an old bomb shelter attached. You’d go broke filling that with guns. 

Everything's off the ground other than an old bank safe that was too heavy to move (like 1,800 lbs) that has been turned into part of my work bench in the vault, even the file cabinets I store magazines in are on an elevated platform. And there's no history of flooding in the house in its forty years of existence. It's on top of a hill. It's an oddly built house, the vault is inside another block wall that is the perimeter of the house, so it's essentially double block walled on three sides. 

[Farmer]

I don’t worry much about flooding here either. Last one to overflow the creek was 65 years ago. I think this fellow was speaking from the wet side of our state. Sounds like you have a nice arrangement. 

[robertg5322]

1 hour ago, Farmer said:

I don’t worry much about flooding here either. Last one to overflow the creek was 65 years ago. I think this fellow was speaking from the wet side of our state. Sounds like you have a nice arrangement. 

I lucked into it, when I bought the house the basement was unfinished, except for a TV room.  So I had a blank slate. Also had fixtures for a bathroom, so it's now a shop with bathroom (and urinal, which is cool), TV room, bar, and vault. There's also a mechanical room with a closet, but that doesn't count as it's just storage, HVAC, and water heater.

[Farmer]

3 hours ago, robertg5322 said:

I lucked into it, when I bought the house the basement was unfinished, except for a TV room.  So I had a blank slate. Also had fixtures for a bathroom, so it's now a shop with bathroom (and urinal, which is cool), TV room, bar, and vault. There's also a mechanical room with a closet, but that doesn't count as it's just storage, HVAC, and water heater.

However you acquired it you put it to good use. Some people just don’t get it. I was unloading my first safe on my front porch when a gal that I knew well,  stopped and made kind of a snarky remark about “I suppose that’s for ALL your GUN’s. When I saw her later I asked her where she stored her insurance papers, mortgage papers, vehicle titles, coins, jewelry, expensive electronics, cameras, family pictures or negatives, and she got a real stupid look on her face. Ohhh I never thought about that……….Duh. And her husband was a teacher. Nuff said. 

[robertg5322]

5 minutes ago, Farmer said:

However you acquired it you put it to good use. Some people just don’t get it. I was unloading my first safe on my front porch when a gal that I knew well,  stopped and made kind of a snarky remark about “I suppose that’s for ALL your GUN’s. When I saw her later I asked her where she stored her insurance papers, mortgage papers, vehicle titles, coins, jewelry, expensive electronics, cameras, family pictures or negatives, and she got a real stupid look on her face. Ohhh I never thought about that……….Duh. And her husband was a teacher. Nuff said. 

Yeah, I'm lucky here, my neighbors (the few I trust enough to let into the house) are envious of the vault, which is a nice change from when I lived in California.

[Scrounger]

Fire protection is no joke. Friends house burned to the slab. Safe was still standing with all the guns intact. Lost some

of the documents inside. I was surprised that the ammo didn’t cook off. 

[robertg5322]

20 minutes ago, Scrounger said:

Fire protection is no joke. Friends house burned to the slab. Safe was still standing with all the guns intact. Lost some

of the documents inside. I was surprised that the ammo didn’t cook off. 

The Sturdy Safe website has some interesting videos on their products being torture tested. 

[fraizer15]

A  friend once showed me his gun safe he had made from concrete and rebar.  It was like an underground cellar outside the house with the entrance being from inside the house basement from what made to look like a standard closet.  He stated that around the door perimeter, wall joining the house foundation, and safe ceiling, the concrete was 12" thick and reinforced with two layers of cross-hatched rebar on 4"  centers.  The other walls were constructed of similar design but were 6" thick. The safe ceiling was constructed about 2 1/2 to 3 feet below the outside grade and covered with dirt. The outside area above the safe was where he built a dog pen for his two Rottweilers. He then made a typical safe door from 3/8 plate and multiple keyed locks.    

[GigG]

If you want to do it right.  And have lots of money or a really popular Youtube channel.

 

 

[Farmer]

On 9/1/2022 at 9:13 PM, fraizer15 said:

A  friend once showed me his gun safe he had made from concrete and rebar.  It was like an underground cellar outside the house with the entrance being from inside the house basement from what made to look like a standard closet.  He stated that around the door perimeter, wall joining the house foundation, and safe ceiling, the concrete was 12" thick and reinforced with two layers of cross-hatched rebar on 4"  centers.  The other walls were constructed of similar design but were 6" thick. The safe ceiling was constructed about 2 1/2 to 3 feet below the outside grade and covered with dirt. The outside area above the safe was where he built a dog pen for his two Rottweilers. He then made a typical safe door from 3/8 plate and multiple keyed locks.    

I had the opportunity to watch a bank being built across the street from our repair shop. When they were preparing the forms for the vault there was so much rebar in the walls you couldn’t see through one side. I asked the contractor if that wouldn’t have a tendency to actually weaken the concrete and he said that they add a polymer to it to help it adhere to the bar, harden the concrete and not shrink. Plus the walls we’re about 2’ thick so even if you chiseled through the concrete you also had all that rebar to fight that was 1” apart. 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Farmer