Building a gun room vs. buying a safe

[rjacobs]

I just moved into a new house and I need a better place to store my firearms than a locked closet.

I have been shopping gun safes for a few weeks and in my budget(less than $1000) I am very unimpressed with what you get. The AMSEC TF line is the top contender right now.

I posed this question to a friend of mine and he suggested simply building a room with studs on 4" centers and using double layer fire resistant sheet rock and a steel fire resistant door and insulate the walls. His thought was that it was at least as fire resistant as a cheaper safe. It also would not look like a gun safe. I know it wouldnt be as hard to get into as a "gun safe", but at my budget the gun safe's I am looking at could be gotten into in probably 10 minutes with a good saw anyway. I have an area in the basement I could build it on the foundation and have the back wall be concrete. I dont have the budget to do block walls with rebar and a vault door, even though I would love to. I believe I could build it as my buddy and I drew out for about $500-600.

Does anybody have any thoughts on building this room/closet vs. buying a safe.

[SteyrAUG]

His thought was that it was at least as fire resistant as a cheaper safe.


I don't think that is very well thought out. It doesn't even address the ceiling, which is where your fire is going to drop in. A safe room done properly is going to be concrete block (preferably rebarred and filled) at a minimum and will cost much more than a good safe.

[Zhurdan]

Cinder blocks for one wall and roof(assuming you have a three wall room of foundations, which I do hehe) and metal framing for cinder block roof would run right around $1000.

Filling cinder blocks with flowable grout would be around $300-500.

Cal-Sil type fireproof sheeting for exterior and interior walls, $400-600.

Vault door (internal opening ) $2600-2800.

Finish work on exterior to "hide" it, $500-600.

Total on the high end... ~$5500 for a 12'x12'x10' room or 1440 cuft for $3.82/cuft.

Large Browning fireproof safe $$6500 for a 72"H x 56"W x 28"D safe or 65cuft for $100/cuft.


Depending on your needs, skill level, familiarity with fireproofing and physical locations to install it, it may be worth it, but honestly the only reason I even looked into it is because to construction company I work for has people that DO fireproofing and came and looked at my home one weekend and determined my "needs" based on my home. That was a free assessment (free meaning I was willing to part with beer and burgers) from industry professionals. I doubt others would be so lucky to get that sort of assessment.

I still haven't done it simply because it is a large expenditure and I don't "need" that kind of cuft at this point.

Is it possible that it's better? Yes. Is it plausible? Probably not.

[militarymoron]

when we moved into our house, my wife let me knock all the shelves out of the linen/towel closet and put my gun safe in there, so it's got a dead bolt on the closet door, and the safe inside.

from what you're describing, i'd go with the safe.

[rjacobs]

I am not going to be doing any kind of block walls, just WAY to much money. Trust me, I would LOVE to, but its not going to happen, not in this house.

To be honest I am not really worried about fire or theft in the sense of a loss of my guns(I dont obviously want them to fall into the hands of a criminal) because they are insured and nothing that I have can not be replaced by a trip to a gun store(or 3). They simply need to be secure while I am not there and a locked closet(or bedroom) door is not enough anymore with a 5 year old present.

I just look at what you get in a "gun safe" for $1000 and its not much better than a steel cabinet with a lock on the door and a nice interior. I mean a steel cabinet with some drywall on the inside and a heavy chain around the door would probably be just as good and cost WAY less.

[usmcvet]

Get a safe. Save for a while if necessary. You could look for a used safe locally. More bang for the buck.