Hey there...
My folks bought a house and we have sinced moved in and remodeled most everything except the basement, which is unfinished.  Can you give me some ideas for a gun room?  

We have around 12'x18' to work with.  Instead of buying a REALLY expensive gun safe that would hold 20+ guns... we are going to display the guns on the wall...either verticle like a gun shop has, or perhaps horizontal.  

We plan on making the room fire proof with a good lockable door.  
There will most likely be a bench w/ carpet for cleaning the guns.
A nice medium sized safe bolted to the concrete floor for metals and other valuables.
A nice organized cabinet for the ammo.  
We'll prob. hang our prized kills on the wall.
Dehumidifier to keep it dry/ no moisture.
We thought about installing a sink, but didn't see a need for running water in the room.
Maybe a couch and coffee table for some random coffee talk?
This room is just 1 room in the basement we are building.  The basement will also have a bedroom and bathroom, wet bar, entertainment area, and the hvac/communication room walled off.  

Perhaps you have some pictures you can post of your gun room that we could get ideas from?  That would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Zach

Here's pic of mine. My room is roughly 12'x12'. I was gonna go with a large safe but I figured the size of the safe I would need just for my current guns would be huge and wouldn't allow for future aquisitionshis                                                                                                               http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k162/Y-T71/IMG_0234.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k162/Y-T71/IMG_0231.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k162/Y-T71/IMG_0233.jpg

It's a start!!  Can you point me to where you bought your large door??  That sounds like a great idea.

THanks

Anybody else got some pics?  

Home Depot had an area in the back of the store where people order something custom (windows, doors etc.) and find out they didn't measure things right and return them. You can usually save decent $ if you're able to build around the sizes they have rather than order to fit the size you need. (Does that make sense>)

Let me ask a couple of stupid questions , I have invested in 1200 pound safe.

Are you going to build this with concrete blocks ? If the burglar see this in your basement how difficult would it be to cut through your upstairs floor to get in.

I know a safe can also be broken in to but if this isn't built right , it would be very easy to break into . You don't have to even touch the heavy steel door.

Good Point Tracker... we have decided that we are going to hide things in walls, w/ or without a safe... somebody could hold you at gun point and MAKE you open the safe...but if they never see one...then the chances decrease greatly.

Quoted: Good Point Tracker... we have decided that we are going to hide things in walls, w/ or without a safe... somebody could hold you at gun point and MAKE you open the safe...but if they never see one...then the chances decrease greatly.

That sounds Like it will be pretty nice, So it won't be a walk in one.
If you could some how secure the celing in side of it with rebar and the walls with concete blocks and rebar that would be one hell of a safe room.

And I hope that I would be the one holding the gun

     TheTracker,                                                                                                                Those aren't stupid questions. They are very valid ones. A friend of mine had built a room similar to mine(and prior to mine, thats where I got some of my ideas) and was/is pretty proud of it. I hated to burst his bubble but that was the first thing I thought of was cuttin a hole in the ceiling and "jackpot". After thinking bout all the pros-cons we decided that if someone REALLY wanted your stuff they would get it no matter what you did to keep them secure. I guess you have to ask yourself what EXACTLY you want. I was willing to give up some security of a safe for what I consider a still high degree of safety plus an area I could set up reloading, cleaning, tinkering, etc.  As kansaskid pointed out there are some "creative" things you can do to walls/ceilings to (hopefully) increase your security.

Here is what I did a couple months ago and had a thread on it


First, I mounted 4 wall brackets across the wall.



Then I put a couple 2x4s across them.



Then the countertop went on.



An underview of the supports.



To mount the peg board, I put thin strips of wood on the wall, attached by screws.



And voila … the finished product.

The bat rounds it out nice

Secure the ceiling otherwise it will get cut through.

Quoted: We plan on making the room fire proof with a good lockable door.

Use concrete block for the walls of the room and install a Fort Knox Vault Door for your entry.  Of course, as previously mentioned, you'll need to find a way to armor the roof to prevent a chainsaw or Sawzall from opening up your stash.

What everyone seems to forget is that MOST (not all, of course) are more "smash and grabs" than "casual entire weekend, we've got 72hrs until the owner comes back" break-ins.  Give them something to work at, most folks will come back another day or find an easier target.  Hopefully my neighbors remember to shoot first, too.

that said.......

My storage space is a 8'x13' room in the basement. In the room in my Liberty 25, where everything, firearm wise, is stored......but..that's not where the "protection" ends.
I built the 3 non-block walls out of 2x4 walls, 1/2" rebar through the studs @ 6" spacing, 16ga galvanized steel sheets under drywall (makes installation of the drywall a bitch, but....). The biggest penetration into the room is a 6" duct for the HVAC.
   Ceiling is another sheet of steel.  Let'em cut the floor
   Door is 4 layers of 3/4" MFD, interspaced with 16ga steel under the first 2 outer layers.  Behind the last layer of steel is the locking mechanicals: S&G combination lock w/ 6 ea 1" brass rods w/ steel cores.   (I do all my own work) 4 of the largest SOSS hidden hinges on the market control the hinged end.  (thank god for ebay)

The next part is the HID Entryprox card reader and 1500#  mag lock for those "I'm not gonna lock it just yet cause I'll be back in a few minutes" visits. PIN and card are required unless it's already open. I've got a second maglock available, I just haven't decided if I need it or not. Oh, and everything is on the Tripplite UPS in the computer rack.  It'll hold the EntryProx and the Maglock for many hours once the server shuts down.

Add the last items of motion detecting camera attached to the server (can be monitored from work), door and EntryProx relay is tied into the house alarm (with dial-out) and (eventually)large OC can tied to the EntryProx aux relay and a 12V electric solenoid. (I've got the solenoid working, I'm just afraid to put in a can.)

Will it stop someone?  Nope, if nothing else, it'll just slow down someone that REALLY wants what is in there.  If the 6 attack cats don't deter them, that is.  I have no false hopes that if someone wants in there, they're not going in.  I'm just pretty sure that  Johnny local and his buddies are gonna get a bit perturbed once they hit the steel or if they make it in, the OC.

I'll put a pic up of the door face tonight, but the guts are either hidden behind the walls or "confidential".  There was a pic posted before of the inside, but again nothing is visible.
PICS+ [img=thumb12.webshots.net/t/55/55/6/92/48/2675692480058950512Skvjns_th.jpg]

We thought about installing a sink, but didn't see a need for running water in the room.

It could be a little bit of a hassle, but having a slop sink in the basement is great when you need it...really good for te "after-the-guns-are-clean" hand washing.

There was a post in GD once about this.. and someone had a REALLY nice gun room, they added an addition to their house and built a false wall about 4 feet out... and sheet rocked it and everything... well he used a Wood panel as a door and put a Dartboard on it, forgot how he opened it but you would NOT notice anything unless you know it was their or was really looking...

DBerk, do you think there are still pics somewhere in this large forum?  

I really want to see that picture since i told my girlfreind if we ever get married, i want a room of my own where no one can go into but myself !

thats where i can do whatever I want in there without anyone bothering me for a few moments !

Are these the photos you are looking for?




This is a concrete room built into our basement when we built the house.  It is completely enclosed in reinforced concrete.

We are currently building a secure storage room for my dad that will go into his existing garage building.  It is built out of 12 ga steel panels in a standing seam design that we are welding together on site.  It will have a vault door and will also house a gun vault for extra security.  I will be posting a photo essay on AR-15.com when it is finished.  I had the steel panels made up by a local fabrication shop and we are doing the rest of the work ourselves.  With the cost of the panels and door we will have less than 3500 dollars invested.  Maybe you can get a few ideas from our rooms.

Progress....

Good for you man Keep us informed of you progress.

Before you put up the drywall (or steel, if steel disregard the next statement) drill 1/2 or 3/4" holes spaced evenly up the studs.  'bout every 8 inches.  Slide rebar in them, THEN drywall.  Drywall walls alone can be cut through in a few seconds with a sawzall or circ. saw.

Unless you're filling the walls with concrete

But it's a great start.  Nice quiet place to get away from the wife.  So much easier to hear the voices in my head when she's not around

Quoted: Progress.... i55.photobucket.com/albums/g131/syclone1012/IMG_0572.jpg i55.photobucket.com/albums/g131/syclone1012/IMG_0584.jpg i55.photobucket.com/albums/g131/syclone1012/IMG_0586.jpg i55.photobucket.com/albums/g131/syclone1012/IMG_0585.jpg

That's going to be a big room. I'd assume you're adding some sort of security mesh or rebar to the wall before drywalling?

I'm currently designing a gun room, but am debating cinder block walls w/ rebar or metal studded walls with security mesh and rebar under the drywall.

I'll mention the rebar to my father who is busy in the basement as I type.  What would one put down for flooring?  We originally thought about carpet, but then we looked at what our neighbor did and are thinking about masking off the concrete floor with tape, then painting it to look like a tiled room.  CHEAP.     Then later in the years we could always just carpet over it or tile.

I'll post more pictures as we go, we are now building the entertainment area... in which I wanted to find a tv mount that raises up 2-3 feet out of the below cabinet.  Then I found out that those motorized tv mounts cost 2 grand!!!

My ol' man has a nice white tail mounted already from back in the day, but I am going to look into a taxidermy and the prices.  I'd love to have a nice pheasant, bobcat reaching for some quail, and a nice wild boar mounted on the walls.  The funnest part will be hunting and killing such animals.

Quoted: I'll mention the rebar to my father who is busy in the basement as I type.  What would one put down for flooring?  We originally thought about carpet, but then we looked at what our neighbor did and are thinking about masking off the concrete floor with tape, then painting it to look like a tiled room.  CHEAP.     Then later in the years we could always just carpet over it or tile..

Painting is a great idea.  I like the "if we change our minds" thinking. The painting is cool, put down a "pistol tile" and a "Rifle Tile" and a few "ammo tiles" and that would look really neat.  If you can use some good 2 part epoxy paint (like for a garage) that would give you some good durability.  Might even ask if they can tint it a bit for ya.

I sealed mine with Thompsons, then after what seemed MONTHS waiting for it to dry, put down vinyl tile.  I found a local, pick up only ebay deal just north of Baltimore for 12 boxes of the commercial Armstrong medium gray (that thick stuff) tiles and a 5gal bucket of adhesive for less than $50.  Ended up doing the entire basement with it.  Simple to clean, I don't have to worry about staining it/eating the finish off of it since it's got a bunch of wax on it.  And even if I do stain it, I've sanded it lightly and waxed the poo out of it. I've also got an area rug down, and an anti-fatigue mat as well for those long "sessions" admiring my toys.  I do need to get a chair, tho

Looking good.  Keep it up!

Wow those rooms look great, I want to see more.

Quoted: Wow those rooms look great, I want to see more.

Yeah same here...


My mom and dad might be adding on to our house.  The area is about 25"x20", how much would it cost to add a basement say 12"x12" under that?  My dad said he might do something like that if he had some extra cash. My dad and i do alot of our own work on our home, but we've never done a basement, is this something we could do?

Keep up the good work guys... and the pics

tag

Quoted:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administration
eh.net/encyclopedia/article/alexander.nra

I've always liked those NRA Blue eagle signs!

But the National Recovery Administration part of President Roosevelt's New Deal,  based on fixing prices to reduce competition and above-market wage rates for employees, all being dictated by the NRA, has been criticized by leading economists, like Milton Friedman, for having made it more expensive for employers to hire people, and consequently maintained unnecessarily high unemployment rates that may have prolonged the Depression.

That one with the dart board is bad ass, nice work!

I got to admit those are neat rooms, but I just cant see not having a good gun safe.  To me that is a pre-requisite for having firearms.

For all you pegboard guys...dip the metal holders into a can of liquid rubber.  Makes a nice coating that will save scratches from metal on metal contact.  

Quoted: I got to admit those are neat rooms, but I just cant see not having a good gun safe.  To me that is a pre-requisite for having firearms.

I understand where you are coming from.  A few reasons why we decided against I think was the menace of moving the safe into the basement.  What happens when we sell the house in 5-10 years?  Pain in the ass.  Also, in my opinion with over 20 guns, doesn't it become a hassle to have to pull out 10 guns to get to the other 10?  Maybe they make the nice safe's differently.  I havent looked too hard.

Living in a nice area of town doesn't mean you are safe from break-ins, but if somebody was to break into the house, they'd take MUCH more than just guns.

More pics coming soon, just finished the drywall.

.

Oh the possibilities for me!

Bump...
More pics to come soon.... just finished spraying the ceiling.... didnt want post to fall off the forum.  

Not sure where to put the guns.

nice Gargoyle , whats is the square ft of the upper floor

Quoted: Are these the photos you are looking for? i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/IMG_0134.jpg i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/IMG_0154.jpg i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/IMG_0155.jpg i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/PA160005.jpg This is a concrete room built into our basement when we built the house.  It is completely enclosed in reinforced concrete. We are currently building a secure storage room for my dad that will go into his existing garage building.  It is built out of 12 ga steel panels in a standing seam design that we are welding together on site.  It will have a vault door and will also house a gun vault for extra security.  I will be posting a photo essay on AR-15.com when it is finished.  I had the steel panels made up by a local fabrication shop and we are doing the rest of the work ourselves.  With the cost of the panels and door we will have less than 3500 dollars invested.  Maybe you can get a few ideas from our rooms.

Nice!
Thats what I was looking for, lots of houses have a cement room built into them under the front porch
And I bet you smile every time you walk into that room. Thats a very nice collection

Quoted: I got to admit those are neat rooms, but I just cant see not having a good gun safe.  To me that is a pre-requisite for having firearms.

What you can't see is the safe.  It is in there.  A real burglary rated safe, not RSC rated. I never show it!

I'm working on my room right now--and will be sheetrocking this weekend.

Where would one get security mesh?  Home Depot kinda thing?  Help!!!

Quoted: www.hunt101.com/img/467998.jpg</a> Oh the possibilities for me!

Guns.  Lots of guns.

Quoted: Are these the photos you are looking for? i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/IMG_0134.jpg i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/IMG_0154.jpg i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/IMG_0155.jpg i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/robertlee3rd/PA160005.jpg This is a concrete room built into our basement when we built the house.  It is completely enclosed in reinforced concrete. <snip>

Side note - Holy shit that is cool!  

Quoted: nice Gargoyle , whats is the square ft of the upper floor

1700 sqft.

Gun rooms are nice but only if they are fire proof.  If they are not, you are wasting your time and money !!!

Here is mine:

www.jobrelatedstuff.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=139&t=522042&r=8932022&page=3

Quoted: Gun rooms are nice but only if they are fire proof.  If they are not, you are wasting your time and money !!!

Bullshit.  None of the rooms are a waste of time or money.

Quoted: Quoted: Gun rooms are nice but only if they are fire proof.  If they are not, you are wasting your time and money !!! Bullshit.  None of the rooms are a waste of time or money.

"Wasting money" is in the eye of the beholder.  However, I perceive Yellav's comment to regard gun rooms with open storage.  If you have a pretty room (say in the attic, or the basement) with open storage and glass windows, but no fire-rated safe and no other security . . . you've haven't done anything buy expose your firearms to fire damage and theft.

If, however, you build the room to be secure and fireproof, then you've obviated the need for a safe (perhaps).  Right now, my 1800# safe IS my gun room.

Quoted: "Wasting money" is in the eye of the beholder.

THat's right.

Very nice!