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Posted: 11/11/2025 8:47:57 AM EDT
[Last Edit: SoVa][Edited]
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https://imgur.com/gallery/thspQC6#SWfZeDJ My wife and I are breaking ground on a new home next spring. I am day dreaming about my man room and have decided to go for a walk in vault over a safe. I mainly want this so I can get to whatever I want without dragging everything in the safe out to get something from the back. I have attached some photos of the blue prints, the blue scribble indicates the garage pad and walk out basement pad, the yellow area is where I would like to do my man room and within that I'm thinking a 10x12 ish vault room. I am scrolling through the photo threads here a mainly curious how you have done the top/ceiling of your vault room? I plan to use a corner of the basement for two of the walls then build out the other two (they may be poured in place like the basement walls). I like the price and features of the snap safe doors but am open to other suggestions as well. ETA: damn pictures never seem to work for me anymore. I will try again later |
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A vault sounds really cool. I've never liked the terms man room or man cave. If I alone pay to buy or build a house, then the whole damn place is mine. I hope you're going to build a really awesome "Maxwell Smart" entry to said vault! |
Alea iacta est
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Since my wife passed away, I will probably never build another home. But if I did it would be like the one we built in TN for a retired leo friend. We built his vault beneath the footprint of the very wide steps leading up to his wrap around porch. The walk-out house had a full basement with the vault as an offset from the standard rectangle. It was just a concrete room with a vault door behind a concealed entrance. If a unknowing person were to check, the total area of the basement was the same as the total area of the top two levels, or so it seemed. Build my vault for me, I won’t get to. |
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The importance of the HVAC in your scenario cannot be overstated. My setup is more like a small safe room compared to a vault and this was not properly addressed. I have to leave the door open except for when we leave for a while. Old gun and gun boxes require a lot of moving air to prevent stank. We built mine using the front porch as the ceiling. Builder stated that if something catastrophic happened we can jackhammer the porch out and lift the safes out with a crane. I also think that more outlets would be better. Be mindful that the build in racks that make this idea attractive will quickly creep out into your floor space. Ammo stored in a way that allows easy identification takes up space as well. Just some considerations. |
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Tagged for interest and pics. I know this is going to be obvious, but I'd build it as big as you have room too/can afford. It's likely that you'll run out of room vs not having enough stuff to put in it. Think about it, nice back lit rack for all your long guns and PCCs and nice lit shelving for all you pistols. A few utility type shelves for ammo, targets, all your gun cases and bigger gun accessories and cleaning crap. Great place for Long term food storage and preps, maybe a work bench, file cabinet and desk. A 75" TV or monitor that you can watch TV/Youtube/Your NVR Cam system for whats going on upstairs and outside, as well as a secure place for the NVR. This gun vault would also serve as a Tornado shelter/safe room, should the need arise. |
LARUEMINATI
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Originally Posted By Boom_Stick:
""AKs are for villagers you have to tell not to shit in their water supply.""
NRA Endowment Life Member
Originally Posted By Boom_Stick:
""AKs are for villagers you have to tell not to shit in their water supply.""
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I did a 14x14 room with a vault door in the basement when we built our house. It doubles as a panic room. The walls are structural, 8 inch thick rebar reinforced concrete. I had an I-beam installed in the ceiling to use as a gantry to lift and move the 1500lb safe, should I ever have to do that. Both the safe and the vault door were lowered into the basement after the concrete cured. After the house was finished, It took six of us to stand that 1000lb vault door up and walk it into position Get a Fort Knox vault door if you can Vault Doors |
| ESTATE VAULT DOOR 8030 MODEL |
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| As others have said, dealing the humidity will be a big issue and if you can plan for that it helps. I have a room that is stuctural poured concrete walls on all four sides that are below grade. I don’t have a way to easily pump water out of the room, so running a dehumidifier is a pain as I constantly have to empty the bucket. So, as laziness takes over, I mainly leave the door open majority of time and only use the room as storm room/panic room. If I had a way to combat the humidity, I would love to have it as a gun room, but alas, I didn’t plan ahead. |
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So when you all say to have a plan for moisture what do you suggest? Running HVAC into it? Vents of some sort? A dehumidifier? I guess there is no practical way to make it breath and fire proof/resistant? Also as to the size….. I essentially want a big walk in safe not a man room inside the vault. The vault will essentially be a 10x12 ish closet located inside the man room. |
| I have a house under construction right now, and we did a vault under the front porch. All concrete, sides and top. I had them put in a floor drain as well for a dehumidifier to drain into. It's 22x9, and will house all the gun stuff as well as the security rack etc. Can't wait. |
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Originally Posted By Rbass: I have a house under construction right now, and we did a vault under the front porch. All concrete, sides and top. I had them put in a floor drain as well for a dehumidifier to drain into. It's 22x9, and will house all the gun stuff as well as the security rack etc. Can't wait. Under the front porch is an excellent idea, that will help with some of the cost versus building a top for it somewhere else. That may force me to rearrange my basement layout a little bit but it may be worth it! The other option is under the garage. |
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In the process of building a new house. Poured the walls of the basement today (we are in the end days of 3 months of foundation work). Basements are rarer than hens teeth now in my AO - but used to be more common (closet neighbor has one - also a historic reference to it flooding). My location has so much slope that it seemed like a non-issue - walk out basement or just fill the same with select fill. Already have like 100 dump trucks of select fill below the slab (per the soil samples and the engineer). So I was NOT planning a vault - but the builder really wanted to do it (basically a no cost option - well >1% cost option, vault doors cost money). Most of the basement will have the first floor as a ceiling, but 3 sections require 1' of cement. All I am really adding is the vault door to 1 part. Other 2 will essentially just be root cellars. So instead of more select fill, we are using steel under those 1' sections of cement. Need to talk to my GC - see if I can keep some of the foundation forms - would make great shelving for those root cellars. --- vault is just a happy addition. had $100k of unbudgeted costs in the last 2 weeks that are necessary but really suck. Water and electrical connections are costing $100k more than expected. Went with a well (rather than city water), and wanted underground utilities for the last 500'. |
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I did one a few houses ago. 10x12, 10 inch thick walls, steel pan with poured concrete ceiling, and Fort Knox vault door. Some things I learned: You need to handle humidity. Lots of ways to accomplish this depending on your specific setup. My vault had only one exterior wall and that was up against the dirt, so I just parked a dehumidifier in there and used the floor drain. Plan your penetrations ahead of time, where wire will enter, etc. Separate your high and low voltage lines. I did a floor drain as mentioned. It was handy for cleaning up after construction, but extremely shallow due to where it exited the slab and therefore slow. If you want drainage, do a sump instead. If you plan to spend time in there, think about wall and floor coverings and maybe drop ceiling. Six sides of concrete and steel sucks to hang out in. Grey concrete also eats your light. Not a big deal if you are going to do a wall system. Make sure your door has an emergency release and you have comms capability with the door shut. Personally, I rarely closed the door when I was in there. If I did it again, I'd keep enough tools in there to remove the back and defeat the locking mechanism. |
Get both is the answer.
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I've been thinking about a walk in gun room for my future house. But in your case for a walk-in safe- I would have the whole house HVAC spec'd to have a return and supply duct feeding the vault. On opposite sides of the room. Put in plenty of lights and outlets. Last time I looked, AMSEC made a vault door. I really like their safes. I'm also curious about the best way to do the ceiling. A couple layers of 5/8" type X drywall will give plenty of fire protection. Personally I wouldn't worry about thieves cutting through the floor above to get into the vault - hence I don't think a concrete ceiling is needed for me. |
| Just an update: I plan to go under the front porch now as well, I will gain size and incur less added cost because of the layout. I’m still researching moisture but I’m thinking I’ll do the hvac with a return as others have suggested but still put a floor drain in so it’s in place if needed. New size will be 9ish by 22ish. |
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I have supply and return from the main house HVAC. Works great. However, I also have a Aprilaire whole-house type dehumidifier just for the vault. It is placed outside the vault room and ducted in with its own supply and return to keep the heat introduced into the vault at a minimum. |
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I had mine built under the floor of an attached garage with 12" of concrete floor on top. Ran a 4" ventline to the outside with an exhaust fan on a humidistat. We installed a high security 1 hr fire door with high security lock. I could probably survive a house fire inside... My main concern was a house fire, it was a rural area with a 20 min. response time. Wood frame house fire plus 20 minutes equals BBQ coals... It would do double duty as a storm shelter, and even a low level radiation shelter. I can't do that here, I live in a swamp.. |
Another old guy
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Originally Posted By boomfab: I have supply and return from the main house HVAC. Works great. However, I also have a Aprilaire whole-house type dehumidifier just for the vault. It is placed outside the vault room and ducted in with its own supply and return to keep the heat introduced into the vault at a minimum. This is what I’ve settled on. A supply and a return as well as a dehumidifier with a floor drain. |
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