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That's exactly the reason I bought a 4000 lb safe made in 1904 by the mosler company.

8" minimum solid steel in every direction. Good luck with that:cool:

I'm not quite in the market for a safe financially, but this discussion has given a lot of good food for thought on the future investment.

4000lbs!! Geez that must've been a fun move in eh joe.... Did the company or seller install?
 
I'm not quite in the market for a safe financially, but this discussion has given a lot of good food for thought on the future investment.

4000lbs!! Geez that must've been a fun move in eh joe.... Did the company or seller install?

Took myself and a very good friend 9 hours to load it on a flatbed and get it off and into my garage. Maybe 2 hours in drive time total. Broke a come along but we still have all our fingers and toes:p.

The wheels had 8" to go and when they hit the concrete my wife came out and expected there to be a giant hole in our driveway lol. Got to love 1958 construction standards.

I'd grab a beer and comfortably sit for an hour or two while a crew of people tried to steal it:D.

I didn't even bother to bolt it down.

---- the reason I got a great deal on it was because no one wanted to move the thing.
 
Took myself and a very good friend 9 hours to load it on a flatbed and get it off and into my garage. Maybe 2 hours in drive time total. Broke a come along but we still have all our fingers and toes:p.

The wheels had 8" to go and when they hit the concrete my wife came out and expected there to be a giant hole in our driveway lol. Got to love 1958 construction standards.

I'd grab a beer and comfortably sit for an hour or two while a crew of people tried to steal it:D.

I didn't even bother to bolt it down.

---- the reason I got a great deal on it was because no one wanted to move the thing.


Lol good stuff. VERY good friend indeed.
 
I have helped build a stand alone concrete safe room with a steel vault door. The walls were 10" thick the lid was 12" thick all reinforced with rebar air tight with an air filtration system. It was behind a false wall in a daylight basement and under the fireplace so it looked like the build up to support all the brick and mortar. If I remember right it was 10'x12' I was part of the framing crew. So we framed around it all and help set the lid we used polyurethane caulk to seal it and the concrete guys had all thread stabs to bolt it down.

I also built a small hidden gun safe for a guy with expanded metal on the studs and ceiling then 5/8" drywall. Non removable pin hinges dead bolts at the otherside and top and bottom on a solid wood door. Its in a long closet with the door on the back wall he put up coat hooks on the safe door and keeps all his coats and jackets hanging there it hides the door pretty well.
 
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It is very easy to turn an old water heater into a secure container for guns, and if you are careful about it, NOBODY will look twice.

It is also easy to turn a walk in closet into a closet two feet deep, with the access door being one of the inside side walls (not the rear wall), with a screw-tightening latch. When I did this, I measured the house's other closets and built identically.

My wife, who was on a trip when we moved, has no idea about either of these things.

While I am a locksmith by trade, I believe obscurity is superior to physical security. I've had a bit of practice opening locked containers for people.
 
It is very easy to turn an old water heater into a secure container for guns, and if you are careful about it, NOBODY will look twice.

It is also easy to turn a walk in closet into a closet two feet deep, with the access door being one of the inside side walls (not the rear wall), with a screw-tightening latch. When I did this, I measured the house's other closets and built identically.

My wife, who was on a trip when we moved, has no idea about either of these things.

While I am a locksmith by trade, I believe obscurity is superior to physical security. I've had a bit of practice opening locked containers for people.

I did something similar with a walk in closet. Even my friends and family have no idea it's there.

If they can't find it, there's no need to lock it;). But I do anyway lol. My wife does know about it though.
 
Like I said abou the room,unless you look rich and a high end thief come in,hiding things in a closet is perfect.
Heck half the time the bedroom backs up to another and the closets are offset,so most would believe the other closet has the space.
 
I am doing the tile in a home up in the Ochocos and the owner has a 400' sq ft gun room being built! PIP concrete walls and ceiling with 1" hardened steel plate in between the concete, The door is custom made and weighs almost 2,200 lbs. Pretty impressive!
He has plenty of disposable income to throw at it! I have seen a few pictures of his collection that he will be putting in there and he has some fantastic pieces!
It sure is nice to be rich sometimes!
 
Does it look like this?



charlton-hestons-guns-1.jpeg
 
I really despise her politics but Whoopi Goldberg was the star of "The Burglar" in 1987. As a retired cat burglar she'd rigged her place with security & alarms & the only part I remember is the cops trying to break in. That part was funny!
 
Old thread, but an idea if folks are thinking on building up a "safe room":

Ceramic tiles can be doubled up and made into home made bullet proof shielding. Saw a thread on it over at Survival Boards, fellow made a test rifle plate out of them & tested vs M855 and M195. Backed it with aluminum plate. Worked a charm against 2 hits of each.

Looking at his video, it seems backing with decent ply "may" work as well. You'd have to do your own testing obviously.

Wouldnt work against a tool attack, where someone just wants to get in. But that type of attack wouldn't work if you were inside & able to defend yourself.

Suppose if your floor could support it, reinforced concrete would be the way to go. Best would be to have it built up that way, reinforced concrete into a concrete pad.

Secure emergency exit route would be the challenge.
 
What is the goal of your safe room? Does it need to be bullet proof? Fire proof? Flood proof?

There are tons of considerations for something like this. The first major question to work out, particularly with a hidden room, is what happens when the rest of the house burns down/gets shot at/floods? If the studs holding up your brand new steel walls burn away, your room will collapse. Same idea with a flood which would weaken studs and certainly leak between the panels. If it's just to stop bullets, maybe steel panel would work, but if someone is coming to get you specifically, even steel wouldn't do much good if you didn't have enough supplies inside to wait it out. Plus, as I mentioned, just cutting through the studs supporting your steel panels would collapse the room. 2 minute job.

Depending on the goal of the room, sheathing it with plywood and two layers of gyp offers considerable sturdiness and 2-hour fire protection, allowing you time to remove valuables in the event of an emergency. If you have direct access to a concrete slab at the floor of the room, that is the ideal situation for bolting down a nice safe inside the room.

There is only so much you can do with existing construction. To get the maximum protection, you would need to building a standalone structure within the boundaries of the room without attaching to any existing walls. If it's on the second floor, forget about it. If it's on the first floor, make sure your foundation can support the extra weight of new framing or CMU walls and steel panels.

This was a long-winded post, but I design buildings for a living, so it's fun to think about.
Separate telephone line to call 911
Separate power for:
Water
Cameras & recorder
Lights
Self-contained ventilation system
A lockable barricadible trap door through which to escape if necessary
Emergency foodstuffs
Weapons & ammo
Several Kevlar blankets
 
Hoax Slayer has this to say about.


Detailed Analysis:
According to this message, which circulates via email and has also been posted to a number of firearms related forums and blogs, the attached photographs show a massive gun collection stored in the basement of a house owned by the late actor Charlton Heston.

Although the photographs themselves are genuine, they did not belong to Charlton Heston as claimed. Credible information that I have received suggests that the collection actually belongs to another gun collector, Robert L Starer of the Historic Arms Corporation, Virginia.

Many commentators have also suggested that the gun collection might have belonged to the late Bruce Stern. Mr Stern was a lifelong military and gun collector. An attorney and Vietnam veteran, he was involved in a number of military and firearms related organizations. He was a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) Board of Directors. Mr Stern passed away in July, 2007.

The Stern gun collection became famous among firearms enthusiasts, but it is doubtful that the collection of guns in the above photographs actually belonged to him. As noted above, evidence suggests that the collection is that of Robert L Starer.

Although the gun collection featured in the photographs did not belong to Charlton Heston, the late actor was a passionate gun rights supporter and served as president and spokesman of the NRA from 1998 until 2003. He died in April 2008.

Misidentification of ownership aside, these photographs certainly reveal a truly remarkable collection.
 
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Concealment is the best route in my opinion for a budget. If the room is hidden and the door can be concealed out of sight outta mind is a huge factor. Limit people who know of its existence the rest is a matter of security.
 

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