Vault Door Recommendation

[nova3930]

I know you don't live in the NE, but I can give you the contact info for one of their reps if you want to check. Honestly I have never seen the cost breakdown on one of them.

Shoot me a PM and I'll check into it...

[Alex V]

Shoot me a PM and I'll check into it...

Will do when I get to work in the AM. If you go with this door it would need to be coordinated with your Architect. You need a steel leveling plate installed at the threshold a few inches below the top of the slab in order for the door to be set. You may also need a thickened slab with WWF and #5 bars at the corners to allow for the weight (depending on the soil conditions you are building on)

[STONE-YARDER]

A good door is great but unless the walls are poured concrete(with a high psi rating with steel reinforcing(re-bar) its kind of a moot point. I was a concrete cutter for 10 years and I would not waste a thought on going in through the big security door. All a thief needs to do is core drill a 18"-24" hole through one of your walls(35 minutes if its non-reinforced concrete and a lot less if its cinder blocks) and your stuff is gone. Poured walls with 5/8 or thicker rebar 6 inches on center would definetly slow them down. Somebody mentioned running HVAC in there as well and that's a great idea otherwise it will literally be raining in there with all the moisture coming off the concrete. Also having insurance on your vault items is the best peace of mind because nothing is impenetrable. JM2CW

[Alex V]

A good door is great but unless the walls are poured concrete(with a high psi rating with steel reinforcing(re-bar) its kind of a moot point. I was a concrete cutter for 10 years and I would not waste a thought on going in through the big security door. All a thief needs to do is core drill a 18"-24" hole through one of your walls(35 minutes if its non-reinforced concrete and a lot less if its cinder blocks) and your stuff is gone. Poured walls with 5/8 or thicker rebar 6 inches on center would definetly slow them down. Somebody mentioned running HVAC in there as well and that's a great idea otherwise it will literally be raining in there with all the moisture coming off the concrete. Also having insurance on your vault items is the best peace of mind because nothing is impenetrable. JM2CW

Nothing is impenetrable indeed.

Most bank vaults today are not poured in place concrete. They are either 5 sided (thickened slab with 1" steel plate as floor) of 6 sided per-manufactured and assembled on site. The panels are made with steel fibers as part of the concrete mixture as well as steel reinforcement for structural strength. One of the top panels has a specially designed opening that is roughly 4"x13" to allow for connection to a mechanical system for cooling/heaving/ventilation. This opening is designed to ensure that no one can use it to gain access to the vault.

[nova3930]

A good door is great but unless the walls are poured concrete(with a high psi rating with steel reinforcing(re-bar) its kind of a moot point. I was a concrete cutter for 10 years and I would not waste a thought on going in through the big security door. All a thief needs to do is core drill a 18"-24" hole through one of your walls(35 minutes if its non-reinforced concrete and a lot less if its cinder blocks) and your stuff is gone. Poured walls with 5/8 or thicker rebar 6 inches on center would definetly slow them down. Somebody mentioned running HVAC in there as well and that's a great idea otherwise it will literally be raining in there with all the moisture coming off the concrete. Also having insurance on your vault items is the best peace of mind because nothing is impenetrable. JM2CW

Well, I did say in my description that I was gonna do a minimum of 8" wall thickness, either reinforced concrete or reinforced filled concrete block. Looking at the cost difference i may even do 12" wall thickness.

I plan on provisions for HVAC as well. One vent through the ceiling should be sufficient.

As far as theft goes, well, the vault is just the last line of defense in my planned multiple layers of security precisely because nothing is impenetrable. You make it hard to get to the house, then make it hard to get into the house, then you layer on a security system tied through the cell phone system to give intruders a time limit, make it non-obvious there's a vault at all, then you make the vault tough to get in to. I think that's about as secure as you can ask for in a standard residence.

If they give up before getting to or into the house so much the better. If they get in and it takes them 10 minutes to find the vault and an hour to get in, when the alarm goes off in 60 seconds even if the cops take 30 minutes to get there, well that's decent math on my side.

[nova3930]

Will do when I get to work in the AM. If you go with this door it would need to be coordinated with your Architect. You need a steel leveling plate installed at the threshold a few inches below the top of the slab in order for the door to be set. You may also need a thickened slab with WWF and #5 bars at the corners to allow for the weight (depending on the soil conditions you are building on)

Whoo boy, even if I can swing the door I might not be able to swing the provisions. I've already got $30k in foundation work in my cost estimates.

[Chumpwagon]

I worked for an ATM servicing co when they built a new vault w/a Diebold door. I've also sold AmSec safes. Like others have said, if money's no object, go w/Diebold. An AmSec door, though, is likely more than enough residential deterrence. When combined with reinforced concrete walls, your arsenal will be very well protected.

[Javelin]

I like the vault door idea. But I went with a commercial security door company and had them install a caged burglar door with frame like you see in pawn shops with two double schlag deadbolts. Sits on the inside of the regular six panel door so no one would suspect it. Also had the window in the room barred on the inside in the same manner. I had an ADT Bosch motion sensor installed to watch my gun safes in the room as well. All in all it was a $1800 endeavor to harden the room and install that motion sensor but that's the price of a low end gun safe so I feel it was worth it. It's not like anything is burglar proof but it buys time for the cops to show up and 15 minutes is a lot for a burglar 15 extra minutes before they can even touch my gun safes is a lot while the alarm is going off

[nova3930]

For future reference in case someone searching finds this, I ended up going with a Magnum vault door from Smith Security Safes.

http://www.smithsecuritysafes.com/pa...DoorPrice.html

After looking the specs over, I felt like it was a good strong door at a good price, including some features not available on other doors. Vault is on a slab, with walls of 8" reinforced filled concrete block with 4" of reinforced concrete poured over the top.

Should be getting shingles on the house next week, at which point I'll get the door installed, take some pictures and put up mini review.

[HES]

Thanks for the follow up and mention of how you did the walls. Didn't have to do any additional foundation work? How did you handle running a/c duct work in there? The architorture geek in me is interested in as many details as you can give