Need a vault door for my new reloading room

[dang472]

I should be finalizing a new house deal shortly. Instead of buying another safe, I want to just build a new room with a vault door as my entry. This would basically turn my entire room into a new safe. After a quick search, I'm having a hard time understanding why a Liberty door is $6k when a complete safe is around $2k. I see most of the new doors are FEMA hurricane rated and such. I wasn't looking for anything too fancy, just a door with several locking pins, a steel frame, and an electronic lock. And no I don't need any damn zombie rating! Thanks, Dan

 

[UA_Flyfisher]

Chech with some of the commercial safe distributors in your area. You may be able to find a used bank vault door for an affordable price.

 

[Pester]

Hi Dan,
Great idea.

You may check with a local Fort Knox safe dealer to see if they can help or RhinoVault Safe Room Doors,Safe Doors, Security Doors, Safe Room Door, Security Door, BALLISTIC DOORS . A few years back I was looking through a architectural salvage yard and found a really old bank vault door and frame. It was pretty rough however I think they were asking around $600. The size of the door was not big....about the size of a closet door and about 6' high however it seemed like thick metal. The door itself was 1/4" thick. You might try places like that or put something on Craigslist in the wanted section.

 

[NICETRY]

Before you go with a Vault door how is your room designed? Do you have concrete or CMU walls with a concrete ceiling? Or are your walls just wood framed with drywall? Unless you used concrete or reinforced CMU walls and lid for your room I would not bother with anything with a fire rating. Plus a vault door will require steel posts for support at the jams if you are using wood framing. If you want something secure no one will bust down then I would recommend a fully welded steel door frame with a quality steel door with tube steel or C channel at the jams from floor to ceiling. You can get one prepped for different kinds of secure hardware that should meet your needs. Unless you just want the look of a vault door. You could also use impact resistant drywall outside the room or double up on the drywall to make it harder for someone to get into your room by punching a hole in the wall.

I plan to add a room in my shop that will be 8" reinforced fully grouted CMU walls with a 6" thick concrete ceiling with a fire rated vault door. This design will protect everything in the room from a fire even if the whole place burned down plus it will be very secure.

I do large commercial construction projects mostly hospitals but am currently doing a project on Ft. Campbell that's mostly constructed of CMU and concrete so if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

 

[rjacobs]

I think Sturdy Safe makes vault doors that arent to terribly expensive, looks like they start around 1800 and go up from there depending on options.

While I havent seen their vault doors, the Sturdy Safe's that my FFL buddy uses seem to be pretty good quality.

 

[dang472]

My plan is to add 2 concrete block walls to adjoin with the concrete basement walls. No, I don't have a lot of ideas for the ceiling considering it's only 7-8 ft walls down there already. Once my block walls were in place, I was going to add a false wood stud/drywall wall with a nice 6 panel door to hide the vault door. If everything comes together, it should look like a closet door down there. The basement is mostly finished.

 

[vaeevictiss]

After working in American embassies and seeing how they secure safe areas i would never spend money on a vault door unless the entire room was sealed pressure rated concrete or armored plate.

Concrete block is only a little stronger impact wise than wood.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[NICETRY]

My plan is to add 2 concrete block walls to adjoin with the concrete basement walls. No, I don't have a lot of ideas for the ceiling considering it's only 7-8 ft walls down there already. Once my block walls were in place, I was going to add a false wood stud/drywall wall with a nice 6 panel door to hide the vault door. If everything comes together, it should look like a closet door down there. The basement is mostly finished.

If you fully grout the CMU walls and used shaftwall system for the ceiling you could get a least a 2 hour fire rating for that room with the appropriate door. Unless theft and not fire is a concern then a heavy duty steel door or a non fire rated vault type door should suffice. You can get heavy duty steel doors that have the look of a wood 6 panel door also.

 

[Hog#der]

I have a Rhinovault door installed in my safe room. It is storm proof, fire rated and has a sheet of armor plate in it so the locks cannot be shot out of it. It has 16, 1 inch stainless locking rods, and two seperate combo locks. I paid around $3000 for it, and I am very satisfied with it. To save money, I did not have it powder coated, only primed. With a door that heavy, (700 pounds) it would be very difficult to install it without scratching it. Just paint it after you get it into place. I also picked mine up at the factory, just east of Dallas TX, Good People, with a good product, and a good value for such a secure door.

 

[Shredder58]

Suggest you contact Vince, the owner of Invincible Gun Safes. Here is a link to his website... Invincible Gunsafes . I got to shoot with Vince and have dinner with him at the 2013 Bushnell Brawl at Rifles Only. He told me about how he got started with building doors for gun safes (an interesting story) and he also builds gun rooms and safe rooms. He showed me some pictures of some of his product line and some of his projects. I came away impressed with his background, knowledge, and obvious skill. Not sure he is the cheapest option, but he knows his stuff and his products look top notch.

Best of luck in your search!

 

[skinnj1]

Most safe manufacturers will make vault doors. You need to settle on a maker to get the dimensions to build the room to. Skip cmu's and go with 4000 psi + concrete with at least # 4 bar 1' on centers, at least .5' thick. If you are not familiar with plywood or" simon panel" forming reasearch ICF forms (styrofoam lego block style forms). Plan on putting the conduit for a humidifier and interior lighting. I have been involved in building three vault rooms, the most recently in 2008 and was able to get many door quotes under 2.5k for each project. Nothing security related is "undefeatable" but this is the most security that "average" people can afford for possesions.

 

[dang472]

Thanks for all the links. I think I'll be able to utilize 2 maybe 3 concrete walls of the foundation and probably build a concrete block wall or similar that the vault door will attach to. I've read through a few threads on AR15.com where guys built safe rooms and got a good chuckle from some of the guys. People are making the case that 8in thick concrete can be defeated with an ordinary concrete saw and a jackhammer. While this is true (I use them at work all the time), I guarantee 99% of thieves are equipped with a crow bar and want to be out in less than 15mins. I have 2 decent fire safes currently, and I live in a low crime area. I just figured if I had to build a new gun room in a new house, I might as well turn the whole room into a safe so in the case of a break-in or fire, all of my stuff would be better protected, not just my firearms. It would be nice to have large enough place to go for tornadoes as well.

 

[c1steve]

I have seen the Invincible Gunsafes, and they looked excellent. Mike at CSTactical highly recommended them. They build doors and safes.

s

 

[SRSDriver]

After working in American embassies and seeing how they secure safe areas i would never spend money on a vault door unless the entire room was sealed pressure rated concrete or armored plate.

Concrete block is only a little stronger impact wise than wood.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Can you elaborate more on how they do it?

A friend has a poured concrete wall room with a 12" roof poured on it, but only has a regular steel door there now. He'd like to upgrade it.