Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Safe room/vault door advice needed

I have a steel door with triple deadbolt locks. I'll get photos if you could use them.

JMHO, when building a vault or safe room, the door is the wrong place to try to save money. Cheaping out on the door defeats the purpose of the structure.


https://graffundersafes.com/

I would think so too. Realistically the ceiling would seem like the week point but it’s the door that most would attack. If not building a full on safe room I’d build to whatever specs an insurance policy required and call it good. Some policies will not insure firearms in a basement but maybe make an exception for a gun room? Figuring out what is needed to maintain a policy is something worth looking into before building.

For the what the vault door costs, I’d be tempted to use a fire door and then put a gun safe or two inside the room.

I have never understood why a vault door is 3x the cost of a safe.

I think that’s a fine idea.

As others have mentioned, the foam and water damage is what will be the biggest enemy of a fire and a safe inside the vault would definitely offer more protection. I just don’t think that in the case of a raging structure fire that a $10,000 door would offer more protection than a $2,000 door and moving a safe or two into the vault.

Moving safes into the vault room is what I did. Just make sure you know what the usable vault door opening is. One of my safes is 34" deep and had to go in before installing my 36" vault door, and it's not coming back out. The 36" vault door provides only about 33" usable opening. I knew that before-hand, thankfully, but it pays to do the research and measure twice. My vault door may not be the very best out there, but with the concrete all around and the safes inside as well, some of the money I saved was available for a few more guns, and ammo for them as well.

A couple of good safes in a discrete location should do, unless you are hiding more than a gun collection. I’m no security expert but if I were designing a safe home, I’d consider:

Fireproofing: built to code, but use non-flammable exterior materials like brick, Hardie panel/siding for exterior and metal roof, trim, and soffits. Wrap lower deck posts with Hardie plank. Keep grass and brush cut away from the house. Avoid vinyl siding or trim like the plague.

Hoodrats: If hoodrats are a concern, you may be in the wrong neighborhood.

Safe room: if you are building a two story structure, it might be hard to navigate to a basement vault if invaders are coming in the ground floor.

Storm shelter: a single purpose room solely for tornado protection might be the best option. If you shelter in a hidden vault, it might be a while before they find you and dig you out of a collapsed home..

Good luck!

No offense to any of you guys. And thanks to all with solid advice

I’m not looking for safes in a few locations hidden in the house.

I do have a safe or two I may keep and put in the house as well( 1 safe may go inside if we need or want it. If I do it will be elevated off floor 6”. )

This basement daylights at the downhill side and will have a rather large floor drain in the garage. Can’t see it holding much water from fire hoses and we are elevated here so not really a natural flood risk

My question isn’t theoretical. It’s being built. Like in the next 3 weeks built.

I’m wanting more first hand experience on the door situation. Is the 10g door really going to offer me 5-6x the protection from fire or theft. Or is it wasted money

I have no first hand experience with steel doors or vault doors

Not sure it was said before, but electromagnetic door locks can be quite strong. Three will give holding force around 1 ton. AR400 or AR500 plate steel door.

https://www.keylessaccesslocks.com/dynalock-2600-mortise-electromagnetic-lock/

Decoy keypads in obvious locations.

That is just a quick Google Fu... there are others that are stronger/better.

Thanks cash

I’ll do some reading on that today

For the vault room construction you described you should be looking for a TL-15 or TL-30 class of door. Find a real safe tech/dealer in your area and see what they have to offer (look on the SAVTA website or ask a local bank manager who works on their vaults). In many cases you can get a door that far exceeds the security offered by anything FT. Knox or Liberty for less.

Or reach out to this outfit, explain your situation and see where they can steer you:

Zykan safe

Though he’s located in St. Louise, Frank Zykan is one of the best safe and vault guys in the country and may be able to help you directly or get you in touch with a local that can assist you best.

Interesting reading.

We are about to start the process [after 22 years] of building a door for our small built in vault.
Ours is small[not a safe room but 2 could ride out a tornado], basement portion of a 3 stack chimney, 3' X 5' +/- with 24"W X 78"H opening.

Stepfather is getting us angle iron and door plate. He's a mechanical contractor with no imagination beyond building/fixing something so that it works.

My excavator neighbor has plenty of fab experience and wants to actually build the door/frame with a bit of style.

My gun collection is fairly small and nothing of high value but collectively they add up so I need to do something with the way the world is heading.

Should be done within a couple months.

You guys live in Detroit or Schitcago ?

I'm in Appalachia.

My 'vault' wasn't planned, just the way the chimney turned out.

3 wide[2 working], one end to basement, one for fireplace on mail level.

1,100 block poured w/rebar.

Any one building a new home is foolish not to include some sort of vault/safe room in basement corner

Poured walls in my part of USA

I bought a drug seized safe. It had measurements on the door where they drilled it for access.....if it's fabricated, someone has the secret to pop it.

Id consider a couple of layers on the door with the first one just a simple door with as much alarm as you can power. Bells, horns and put them outside as well. If someone trips that, the commotion will throw a wrench in their quick entry plan. This also gives the gun to the head theory a potential eascape route.

If the alarm didn't work, the next layer would slow them down and hopefully by this time authorities have been notified.

You will NEVER stop a theif. They'll bring a torch or saw if they have time. What you need is to prevent the time from being a potential.

Smoke infiltration is hell on metal. I'd be very cautious about your ducting and have a fire door on the duct.

A pressurized fire extinguisher attached to a sprinkler head in the room might buy you some time if fire should occur in the safe. I'm working on a drip pan with 1/8" holes in it that stores hdpe containers of water above my safes. In the event of fire, they are there to become heat releases sprinklers. In the event of water outage.....I have drinking water.

We have 9' ceilings in our basement w/poured walls.
It's where we live in winter-by the woodstove.

Chimney is in middle of house and is the only 'block' we used.
Going to use true 1" white oak for walls and shelves inside the vault.

And so far after 6 pages of chin music...No pics have been posted

I’m in the process of doing mine right now. Brown Safe is the door I’m planning to use. Far superior protection compared to the consumer grade doors and for not much more money. They’ll build it to your specs, within reason.