A gun safe room is a vault room for securing not only your guns but also your valuables like your antique collection, documents, and whatnot. This might seem fancy to some but you can build an impeccable home defense system with a gun safe room. If you’re planning on getting yourself a sturdy and rugged gun safe and wondering how to build a gun safe room at your home, we’re here to help you out with our DIY gun safe room guide.
Gun Safe Room Types
You can use gun safe rooms for multiple purposes. You can use it as a storage, display and a safe place in case of any emergencies or attacks. For your DIY gun safe interior, you have to know which type of gun safe room you intend to build. There are basically two types of gun safe rooms, depending on the location you’re building it on.
1. Underground Gun Safe Room
An underground gun safe room means building a gun safe room in your basement. It’s a good idea for keeping your guns secure against hurricanes, fires or even burglars. The only problem with an underground safe room is the humidity. It can create rust on the guns. This type of safe room requires professional consultation. You might have to install a moisture barrier to keep the humidity away. Make sure to install sump pump drainage system in the underground, so it can drain the water away during floods. Also, put an inline vent fan for circulation in the room.
Make a separate power outlet for your underground safe room if possible. In this way, you can secure your gun safe room from cases of power outages. You can establish an internet connection in the room to connect the security cameras, so you can monitor the room from above.
2. Above-ground Gun Safe Room
This type of gun safe rooms isn’t prone to getting humid, unlike its underground counterpart. You can install an air conditioning system in your above ground gun safe room to keep your guns at a consistent temperature. You can turn your windowless room in the house into a gun safe room. You’d have to fortify the room’s wall with steel or rebar. Then, build a door frame for the vault. We’ll discuss this elaborately in a later section.
Keep These in Mind Before You Build a Gun Safe Room
Before you continue with your DIY gun safe design, you have to keep these things in mind and plan beforehand while keeping these in mind.
1. Space
You have to identify the space you’ll require for your gun safe room. Remember that it won’t just be a room for storing your guns but there will be cabinets, safes and possibly a chair and a table that you can use for your gun maintenance. Also, you should be able to walk in the room. You should wisely choose either you should buy a gun cabinet or gun safe based on the space of your room. If you’re going to use it as a retreat room, you’d have to consider a lot of free space as in a bedroom. If you don’t have space in your home, apartment or basement, you can utilize the space under your bed with a DIY under bed gun safe guide.
2. Door
The door of your gun safe room decides how secure the room is. You can install a normal wooden door if you aren’t too concerned about safety and you just simply want a room for your valuable gun collection. But if you want security for your gun safe room, you have to install a steel door. There are specifically designed vault doors for gun safe rooms. The thickness and type of the door will depend on your concern about protection.
3. Sorting
Next comes the sorting of your guns. You have to decide for yourself how you’re going to manage your firearms in the room. You can get racks for mounting the guns, or you can use panels for holding the guns. The sorting of weapons depends on the aesthetics you’re going for, the design of other rooms at your home and how much space you have for your gun safe room.
4. Utilities
Most people who build a gun safe room at their house aim to use it for emergency retreat. In this case, you can install a sink, a toilet, an internet connection, a phone line, a ventilation system/an air conditioning system, and a fire extinguisher. You can keep a survival kit safely stored in the room. But the utilities you’re going to install on your gun safe room depends on your budget and some of them aren’t absolutely necessary for keeping the guns in place.
Gun Safe Room Plan
Before you actually start building a safe room for your gun, you need to make a plan beforehand as to how you’re going to arrange the room. Here are some tips on the planning:
- Make a blueprint of your plans regarding the gun safe room, so you don’t leave out anything
- Plan how you’re going to mount your firearms in the wall. You can put racks or panels on all of the walls, or you can choose a single wall for this
- Decide on how you’re going to mount your guns. You can mount them horizontally or vertically or both. This depends on the size of the room and the number of firearms you own
- You can either buy the racks and kits for your gun safe room or you may build your own. It won’t be a problem if you have the technical expertise but if you don’t, you’d have to contact a builder which will be a breach of discretion
- Plan out the type of door you’ll install on the gun safe room. You can go for a DIY gun safe door but you might want to consider a vault-door for optimum security
- You’d have to plan the lighting in the room. You can either buy LED lights or opt for a DIY gun safe lighting
- Make a map of where you’re going to put all of your items in the room. Also, plan where you’re going to drill the holes in the room for anchoring the gun safes
How to Build a Gun Safe Room
Now that you’re done with planning the layout of the room, it’s time you started constructing it. We suggest that you also think about your budget for this entire project beforehand and try to stick to it.
1. Walls
If you’re going to build the gun safe room at your basement, you’d have to start from scratch. You’d have to fortify the outside walls with cinder blocks, rebars and portland cement. But if you want to know how to build a walk in gun safe room, simply turn one of your rooms into a gun safe room and you wouldn’t have to go through this hassle. You need to choose a room without any window and then start working on the inside walls.
You can use ready-made panels on the inside wall to turn your walls into a DIY in wall gun safe. These are generally customizable, so you can mount all of your firearms on them. They’ll hardly require any effort from your part. You can find wall mounting kit and barrel rack available on the internet and market.
2. Door
Having a secure door for your gun safe room is absolutely essential. And if we’re just talking about security, it’s the most important part of building a gun safe room. If you have a sturdy door for your gun safe room, it will automatically reduce any chances of unauthorized entry or abuse.
You can go for a vault door if security is your primary concern. Make sure the emplacement of the door is sturdy enough to hold the door in place since a vault door weighs a lot. If you don’t want to expose the vault door, you can add a normal door outside of the vault door to match your household texture. The vault doors are designed to withstand brutal assaults and come with both manual and electronic locks. You can also add a DIY gun safe door organizer for getting the most out of your space.
3. Ventilation
Ventilation is yet another important aspect of a gun safe room to provide the correct environment for your guns and valuables. If there’s no proper ventilation in the room, the guns will eventually get jammed or rusty due to the temperature and humidity in the room. But you have to be very careful about installing ventilation since it can be used as a security breach. Use air conditioning as the ventilation system of the room.
4. Check Your Local Laws for Gun Storage
Since laws for gun storage vary from one state to another, you need to check the laws in your state. Many states, like Massachusetts, require the firearm owners to lock their guns in a safe. The laws may also limit the amount of ammunition you can own. Another thing you must take into account is the insurance policy. Make sure your gun safe room follows the insurance code of your building. Also, add one or more fire extinguisher(s) in the safe room to completely secure it.
Now that you know everything about how to build a gun safe room, it’s time you started working on it. A gun safe room will not only be a storage room for your guns and valuables but you can also use the room as an emergency retreat. It’s totally up to you how you want to design the room and how much money you’re willing to spend on it. We’ve covered the nooks and crannies of building a gun safe at home, so you can use this blog as an instruction manual while you’re designing your gun safe room.
