Safe/Panic Rooms

Another thread got me to thinking about this as a topic that may be of forum interest. Many of us are handy, live in rural areas & are firearms enthusiasts. In addition to protection from severe storms , the safe room can double as family sanctuaries for home defense against intruders. Because my area has no such storms, I could never mentally justify the expense & have no such room, but I was wondering if anyone here does & would care to share constriction tips, etc with us.

There are many web sites devoted to this & I attached one that I haven't read yet, but it look informative:
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Safe+rooms&pag ... erooms.htm

Another interesting site: http://www.armorco.com/shop/custom.asp?recid=12

You can obviously spend practically nothing (as in the reprint below from another thread) to "The Sky's the limit" for such protection. (keep in mind you'll only be in there long enough to wait for the cops to arrive after your 911 call......2 hours tops!!

I personally have seen make-shift heavy barricades hinged to the walls that can be quickly closed to block-off hallways with firing slits cut into them for defensive firing station behind them. (typically used as a very cheap but effective way for drug dealers to fortify their apartment against rival drug gang attacks) If you are REAL paranoid ....for less than $50.00 in materials (& 1/ hour work) you too could make one of these things!

(if you wanted to spend a bit more $$$, buy a proper sized pre-hung door, attach a 1/4" sheet of steel/iron (or lighter Kevlar panel) to the back &....VOILA!!....For a homeowner (with a "decor concerned" wife...Build a fortified Pocket Door that will just disappear when not in use!!

I'd imagine a really good door on the bathroom with most importantly a really good locking mechanism would suffice for most people as long as your not trying to stop bullets... Maybe some plywood in the interior walls facing the hallways so they can't kick there way through the sheetrock...

We have a Pseudo Safe room, Wine room, Cold Celler. Four ft wide, 8 ft tall, 12 ft long. all underground, made from 12" filled block on all 4 sides, 5" concrete slab with rebar for ceiling, 4" slab with ceramic tile for floor.
Not sure what it was originally designed for (maybe a Coal Bin?????) but I built a H.D. door made of 3 layers of 1/2' marine grade plywood, glued and screwed together to make a single, solid door. Locks from the inside. Keeps the wine nice and cool all year. Got a few cases of MRE's in there, Just in case.

Richard S. wrote:I'd imagine a really good door on the bathroom with most importantly a really good locking mechanism would suffice for most people as long as your not trying to stop bullets... Maybe some plywood in the interior walls facing the hallways so they can't kick there way through the sheetrock...

I think a bathroom would make an excellent panic room provided it was easily accessible to most family members, especially at night when most home invasions/burglaries take place. Closets are good (& cheap) places too fortify also. Keep you home defense firearm in your safe room, along with a cell phone.



A couple of general observations I would make are these:

1.Pointless to try to fortify a hollow core door with fancy locks
2. Solid core doors should be hinged through the door casings into the 2x4 structural frame of the wall at every screw.
3. Best door security device I have found is a simple bar (like this http://www.amazon.com/Master-Lock-265DC ... B0002YUX8I) that can withstand kicks, etc. (LEO's are trained to kick any door near the lock & the bad guys know that too...LEO's often use battering rams but I've never heard of a home invader using one )

Even beefed up like that, all any obstruction will buy you is a limited amount of time. Don't get lulled into false security. I have kicked down almost every door type imaginable & none took more than maybe 10-15 seconds to breach.(Most much less than that)
The way I figure it, if you're going to the trouble of fortifying a location, spend the extra few dollars, take the extra 1/2 hour & give yourself peace of mind by fortifying it against the worst threat you can envision.

I feel safest by owning a dog that is in the house with us. Most intruders hearing a big barking dog are likly to go somewhere else even if the big barking dummy would invite them in and show them the goods.

Devil,

you got me thinking. I just bought a new home that has some big closets in them. The one in my wife and I's bedroom would be perfect. It is a hard wood door not a hollow one. i could reinforce the surrounding walls inside the closet with plywood or maybe something stronger. For the door i could get two sets of metal angle braces that would allow me to put a peice of hard wood a foot or two wider then the door accross in in the locations on the door to make that harder to break down.

Im glad you brought up this idea. It is very smart. you can never be to safe.

BrockWilt wrote:Devil,

you got me thinking. I just bought a new home that has some big closets in them. The one in my wife and I's bedroom would be perfect. It is a hard wood door not a hollow one. i could reinforce the surrounding walls inside the closet with plywood or maybe something stronger. For the door i could get two sets of metal angle braces that would allow me to put a peice of hard wood a foot or two wider then the door accross in in the locations on the door to make that harder to break down.

Im glad you brought up this idea. It is very smart. you can never be to safe.

I think it would be a fun project & not very expensive to build either, reinforce the door & you'd have a nice safe place to hold out in until the police arrive!




Edit: I'd probably want to reinforce the Sheetrock walls with heavy plywood panels too & back them with Kevlar panels (http://www.armorco.com/shop/custom.asp?recid=12),.What would I want to keep in there?:

1.cell phone & charger
2. UPS (Uninterrupteable Power Supply)
3. wall light (plugged into UPS)
4. Home defense firearm & ammo

What else?

BEER!!



Only problem is...........I'd get mad if I could never use it!!

If someone builds one of these things...You have to post some pics here!!

Devil505 wrote: You could put kevlar panels in the wall (http://www.armorco.com/shop/custom.asp?recid=12), reinforce the door & you'd have a nice safe place to hold out in until the police arrive!

1.cell phone & charger
2. UPS (Uninterrupteable Power Supply)
3. wall light (plugged into UPS)
4. Home defense firearm & ammo

What else?

BEER!!

Those Kevlar panels are a bit pricey ... but would be worth it. I think for now i will focus on the door and maybe some sort of plywood for the inside walls and ceiling.

of course.

cell & charger
would have to look into buying a ups certianlly worth it and a light
Don't own a gun, maybe you could loan me one

and i have a bottle of cheap liquor

BrockWilt wrote:Those Kevlar panels are a bit pricey ... but would be worth it. I think for now i will focus on the door and maybe some sort of plywood for the inside walls and ceiling.

Yeah---the Kevlar may not be worth it, but definitely closet walls lined with 1' plywood for strength & maybe some plate steel

BrockWilt wrote:would have to look into buying a ups certianlly worth it and a light

Cheap UPS will run you maybe $30.00 & run lights, cell charger & beer tap off the UPS

BrockWilt wrote:Don't own a gun, maybe you could loan me one

No dice! (You'll need one though to "Motivate" the bad guys, if necessary)

Safe room?? Someone breaks into my home they're going to need the safe room.

After the massive hurricane destruction in FL in the last decade or so, they upgraded their building codes to require hurricane safe rooms in homes. Anyone looking to build a "safe room" for their home should look at the FL and other hurricane prone state building codes. The construction techniques for the rooms have been extensively studied and tested. You could take advantage of their designs and be sure what you build will work. Wind driven objects have somewhat similar destructive forces to gun fired projectiles.

Yanche wrote:After the massive hurricane destruction in FL in the last decade or so, they upgraded their building codes to require hurricane safe rooms in homes. Anyone looking to build a "safe room" for their home should look at the FL and other hurricane prone state building codes.

Absolutely!..Then you have a legitimate (non paranoid) reason for making that one room serve 2 functions. I'll bet adding what's needed to go from a storm "Safe Room" to a home invasion "Panic Room" would amount to very little difference in money & the added "Peace of Mind" would make it worth every dime , even if (hopefully) never used.

DVC500_at_last wrote:We have a Pseudo Safe room, Wine room, Cold Celler. Four ft wide, 8 ft tall, 12 ft long. all underground, made from 12" filled block on all 4 sides, 5" concrete slab with rebar for ceiling, 4" slab with ceramic tile for floor.
Not sure what it was originally designed for (maybe a Coal Bin?????) but I built a H.D. door made of 3 layers of 1/2' marine grade plywood, glued and screwed together to make a single, solid door. Locks from the inside. Keeps the wine nice and cool all year. Got a few cases of MRE's in there, Just in case.

Who needs a safe room? I'm just heading up the hill to Pittstown.

As far as home invaders go; door locks make sheeple feel safe, that's about it. Unless you have bars on all the windows and reinforced door frames you aren't keeping anyone out. Look at Santa Clause, he comes in the 6"chimney pipe.

BrockWilt wrote:1.cell phone & charger
2. UPS (Uninterrupteable Power Supply)
3. wall light (plugged into UPS)
4. Home defense firearm & ammo

What else?

BEER!!

seat belts.... if your in tornado country