Building a gun room

[Carolina Counsel]

I am exploring building a gun room in my house. For those who have done so, any suggestions? Things to include and/or things you wish you had done? Anyone have a recommendation on a contractor in the upstate? I'm assuming you don't just hire Joe Blow as I suspect I will want a specialty door and reinforced walls (not sure if ballistic material is necessary, but open to suggestions). Thanks, CC

[First Coat]

Cedar plank on at least one wall if you plan to keep clothes in it.

[flashman252]

is this like a safe room, or a glorified man cave?

Working in the safe business, I saw some SWEET gun rooms/safe rooms. One we delivered the vault door while the house was being built. He had an issue with the lock or wanted the spin dial changed to an electronic, but either way I got to go back and see the finished product. It was a room that was roughly 20x20, had all cement walls (roughly a foot thick) and had its own designated fire sprinkler. The vault was attached to his walk in closet and he moved his suits out of the way and there was the door completely hidden. Pretty awesome stuff inside.

The other one was a garage that was converted. The garage was HUGE! Not sure why it was built so big, but could easily get 6 cars in it, side by side, 3 rows deep. The gentleman built a wall that made the garage more of a normal size, and he put book shelves along the back wall. One of those book shelves swung out and the locked door was there. Input the code, and in the room you went. The door was just a normal size door that had an electronic lock, not a vault door persay so you could look into something like that if you wanted to convert a room you have now to a gun room. He was an HVAC guy and actually installed duct to the room so he could regulate temperature on its own thermostat. More of a glorified man cave because of the sheer size and in a fire, it would of all burned, but it had couches and mounts and other gun safes and firearms all over. It was legit cool.

[Carolina Counsel]

Safe room rather than man cave. Just want a secure place to store firearms and ammo. Probably will include bench for working on them. It's going to go into existing space.

[Saltydog235]

Safe room rather than man cave. Just want a secure place to store firearms and ammo. Probably will include bench for working on them. It's going to go into existing space.

PM me your number and I'll send you pics of mine and tell you how I did it.

[Meathook]

Some good info to review on this site:

https://www.secureitgunstorage.com/g...gun-wall-kits/

[Glenn]

Cali built one in his crib a few years back and it looked pretty sweet. He may chime in and give some insight.

[Sportin' Woodies]

Any man that says he has a man cave is telling others that he is his wife's bitch

[kquinn]

Are you looking for actual safety or fire resistance or both. From the contracting side of things, it. Is one of those things that you can spend a lot or a little. They will sell you a stand alone safe door if you want but in reality you can probably be just as secure with a metal door and frame. You can create a Sheetrock assembly that will outlast about all safes on the market, you can put a layer of metal lath in the wall for security, the list goes on and on. Are you going to heat and cool the space on the current system in your house or are you going to put a mini split or do nothing. Once in the room, do you want to showcase your stuff or still keep it on the down low.

There is a ton of stuff to consider. If it were me, I would make it a suitable safe space to put my family in for a tornado. Make it double duty.

[Sportin' Woodies]

I would add some sort of hidden entrance like a book case or some such. Hard to steal what you don't know is there.

[flashman252]

Any man that says he has a man cave is telling others that he is his wife's bitch

What if you have a mancave in the house, a 40x40 shop in the basement and a two car detached garage with boats in it? Just wondering what that makes the man? Asking for a friend of course.

[trkykilr]

I’m building one at the farmhouse. Not so much for security, but to keep them out of plain view and to be able to keep away from kids. It’s gonna be all kinds of cool.

[BigBrother]

Bring back the study.

[Carolina Counsel]

Are you looking for actual safety or fire resistance or both. From the contracting side of things, it. Is one of those things that you can spend a lot or a little. They will sell you a stand alone safe door if you want but in reality you can probably be just as secure with a metal door and frame. You can create a Sheetrock assembly that will outlast about all safes on the market, you can put a layer of metal lath in the wall for security, the list goes on and on. Are you going to heat and cool the space on the current system in your house or are you going to put a mini split or do nothing. Once in the room, do you want to showcase your stuff or still keep it on the down low.

There is a ton of stuff to consider. If it were me, I would make it a suitable safe space to put my family in for a tornado. Make it double duty.

Those are great questions and considerations. I need to measure it out and see if I could make it double duty. I'm inclined to go with a steel door with redundant locking systems, rather than a true vault door, as I don't want others to know what it is. I think a vault door screams "someone try to break in here." I'm also thinking along with lines of some type of imbedded metal or ballistic sheets inside the sheetrock. I'm going to have to figure out something re. hvac- probably mini split as this space is not currently heated or cooled.

[Silentweapon338]

He nailed it.

Make sure you include a dehumidifier

3 layers
sheet rock/steel/concrete. Are almost...impenetrable, by most thieves especially in a hurry. Multiple layers makes it even harder. By that I mean all 3 of those. You can really slow them down.

I agree with the hide it in plain sight Idea. I have been proved to many a cult and some were in the kitchen, some in closets, some fake walls. All sorts of ideas. But it's hard to break into somethign you dont know is there. As noted in other threads grass cutters bug sprayers other workers may be spies, so what they cant see they cant say exists