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barnetmill · February 6, 2005, 01:42 PM

When I built my house I included a small closet made out of concrete block that was attached to an exterior wall. For the interior wall I put number 4 rebar down each block hole vertically and chipped the centers of block horizontally (you can buy special block for this) and layed a rebar horizontally every one or two courses. I used four thousand PSI concrete to pour all of the block. I made forms for the roof and layed down crossed rebar and two layers of mesh and poured it. The weakeast part is the door that I will have to improve. The only error was that the I decided I needed a larger room and needed to breakout the rear of the vault (external wall) so that I could enlarge it. Put a piece of plywood over it and put 40 rounds of 7.62 x 39 ball into a 20 inch circle to chip away enough of the concrete (this part had very little steel in it) away to allow me to break it down with a demolition hammer and saws. This took a couple of days to do. I added an extention to it.

Now I a have reasonably secure storeplace equipped with ventilation fans to take away humidy. It will stop most thefts and reduces legal liability since I have made a reasonable attempt to secure my firearms and ammunition. It also could served during hurricanes as a potential place of refuge. If so, you must block the door open and take tools inside with you. It the house falls in you could get trapped. It could be considered an Osha confined space.

The door is the most expensive part of this and must be designed so that cutting the hinges will not drop the door. A proper vault door is the way to go, but they were too expensive for me.

Other points are moisture considerations and the weight of the concrete could break a basement slab or foundations footer.

February 6, 2005, 01:42 PM	#8
barnetmill Senior Member Join Date: January 25, 2005 Posts: 121	When I built my house I included a small closet made out of concrete block that was attached to an exterior wall. For the interior wall I put number 4 rebar down each block hole vertically and chipped the centers of block horizontally (you can buy special block for this) and layed a rebar horizontally every one or two courses. I used four thousand PSI concrete to pour all of the block. I made forms for the roof and layed down crossed rebar and two layers of mesh and poured it. The weakeast part is the door that I will have to improve. The only error was that the I decided I needed a larger room and needed to breakout the rear of the vault (external wall) so that I could enlarge it. Put a piece of plywood over it and put 40 rounds of 7.62 x 39 ball into a 20 inch circle to chip away enough of the concrete (this part had very little steel in it) away to allow me to break it down with a demolition hammer and saws. This took a couple of days to do. I added an extention to it. Now I a have reasonably secure storeplace equipped with ventilation fans to take away humidy. It will stop most thefts and reduces legal liability since I have made a reasonable attempt to secure my firearms and ammunition. It also could served during hurricanes as a potential place of refuge. If so, you must block the door open and take tools inside with you. It the house falls in you could get trapped. It could be considered an Osha confined space. The door is the most expensive part of this and must be designed so that cutting the hinges will not drop the door. A proper vault door is the way to go, but they were too expensive for me. Other points are moisture considerations and the weight of the concrete could break a basement slab or foundations footer.