Better Homes & Guns

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David Scott

New member
Let's assume your're working with an architect to design a new home for yourself. I'ts going to have a "daylight basement" -- the lot slopes down toward the back, and the basement will have a wall and doors open to the back lawn. It will be built about 10 miles outside a small town that has some notable crime problems.

Because you own guns, you want a secure place to lock them up. You have too many for the average gun safe, lucky you. Because you live in hurricane or tornado country, you want a "safe room" that could also be a refuge from home invaders.

What specific things do you tell your architect to design in? Once the rooms are built, what do you keep in there?
 
How about a span-crete garage floor w/ a concrete topping and use the area underneath as a vault and storm shelter? Just access it from the basement wall towards the front of the house. It could also make a great home theatre w/ slopeing floor or a private shooting range.
 
Is it a one or two level house? If it's a two level you have a dilema. A storm shelter would need to be in the basement. A safe room/Gun vault should be in the same area as your bedrooms, preferably in the Master Bedroom.
To solve this dilema build both. The safe room could be designed as a large walk in closet with reinforced walls and safe style steel door. If the walls, floor, and ceiling are reinforced, and it's a single story house, it could be used as a storm refuge as well. It's just a lot more secure from storm damage in the basement.

If I designed a new home for myself, one thing I would do is put all the bedrooms on one side of the up stairs area with the master being closest to the staircase. This way if I heard a dowstairs noise I can defend my family without having to prowl through my house. I would also have the wall seperateing the master bedroom from the other bedrooms reinforced with internal sound proofing material. This will help privatize our nocturnal activities. ;)

------------------
"It is easier to get out of jail then it is a morgue"
Live long and defend yourself!
John 3:16
NRA lifer
GOA
GSSF
KABA
 
Assume the "main floor" (ground level in front" has the kitchen, living room, bedrooms & such. The daylight basement is below and is underground in front and ground level in back.
 
Wherever you want it. Your suggestion of putting the safe room undewr the garage is noted; it has the advantage of allowing an inconspicuous trap door for a second exit.

I'm asking these questions because I'm considering doing just this, having a house designed & built to spec. The sketches I've done so far would have about a 15 foot by 40 foot area at the front of the basement (away from the daylight side), and I'm looking for ideas on how to utilize that space best for a gun room and secure/storm room. There will be defensive guns in the bedroom, wherever I put it; there are no kids in the house, just two adults who know how to shoot.

How would you lay out and stock that 15 by 40 space?
 
How about putting the safe room under the bedroom with a fire pole in the closet leading down to it. :)

Greg
 
David, go here. After extensive research, I've dtermined that this firm builds the strongest/safest safe rooms for protection against hurricane or tornado and they are located right in Florida! As a matter of fact, I'm in the process of getting one a saferoom from them myself.

With regard as to where to put it, I would advise placing it right next to the master bedroom with access to it from your master bedroom. If you're in a situation where your home falls under attack in the middle of the night, a safe room isn't going to be of much use unless you can get to it.

If interested, e-mail me scans of your current design (high level, of course -- nothing detail) and I might be able to offer suggestions on how to lay things out. Or, you can post them here for input from others as well. Be sure to include a layout of the property so we know what limitations need to be considered. Regards,

FUD
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Share what you know, learn what you don't.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Greg L:
How about putting the safe room under the bedroom with a fire pole in the closet leading down to it. :)

Greg[/quote]

To the Bat Cave!
 
Investigate concrete homes. Bluemax is a foam block with up to a 6 inch reinforced poured concrete center. Insulating is super, storm proofing excellent, outside noises way down. Just build in extra interior rooms with the foam filled blocks and you have as many storage/safe rooms you need or want. Cost is about 12to15% more than conventional construction, buy you have a nice looking(after every thing is finished you cannot tell it from standard construction) fort. I had a bid of $190,000 for a 2600 sq ft home here in Oklahoma. I could not stretch my budget that far and went for conventional construction for about $168,000. If you want more info do a search using Bluemax as a key word.
 
Sorry I checked the system using Bluemax. You will be better off using concrete homes for a search phrase. I spent a lot of time researching this type of construction and it may be the answer to what you want. My only regret was I could not afford to build one myself.
 
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