Secret room for storing guns

G-Cym · December 30, 2006, 06:05 AM

First, this has nothing to do with hiding guns from police. Only thieves.

I have been thinking. It might be cool to build a secret room in your house to store valuables. Have you seen "Inside Man"? Something like that. If you have a basement, you could build a wall frame out of 2x4s, put some drywall on it, and some of that brown material with the grid of holes that people use to store tools and stuff on pegs over the drywall. Then put that about 3 or 4 feet way from your real basement wall. Put a workbench or boxes and such against most of it. Have part of the fake wall be on inside hinges to swing out to allow you in. Any crook robbing your house is not going to notice that your basement is a few feet shorter than the upper floor. You could even put a safe in there for other valuables. The secret room would be more like a hallway of course, being long but only a few feet wide, but that would be enough to store things on the walls and such.

blume357 · December 30, 2006, 07:06 AM

keeping it secret. Just letting one friend know about it compromizes its function. Same problem with secret cells and revolution and such.... human nature does not lend itself to keeping things secret. You are going to show a friend and he is going to tell someone either he trust or thinks is not a concern and before you know it, the wrong person knows.

SOSARMS · December 30, 2006, 07:25 AM

Why not just build a compartment out of angle iron with a steel security door and attach studs and drywall to cover the steel.???? If it is going to take time to get into it, they will pass and go on to something easier....

shaggy · December 30, 2006, 11:18 AM

FWIW, I'm having a 'secret room' built to store my guns, accessories & support equipment, and as much ammo as I can stuff in there. It will not be a vault - basically a disguised sliding door that will conceal the storage space behind it where the gun safes will be, as well as a small work space and shelves for ammo, accessories, etc. Upon casual inspection you wouldn't think to look further. If one did notice it was a false door/wall, you'd still have the job of breaking the lock, and then breaking into the safes (which will be made more difficult by enclosing them in a small space, leaving less room to effectively swing and use larger tools like sledgehammers and axes). It certainly isn't 100% secure and I'm sure it won't be 100% secret, but it will be more secure than just leaving a safe in plain view for any intruder to immediately see.

Eghad · December 30, 2006, 11:21 AM

Time is the key element of security. The longer a thief thinks it will take him to break in and get something might deter him. Nothing is proof against a man with the skill and determination who wants something. However, that same person will bypass a target if it will cause delay and increase the chance of him getting caught. Same with a crackhead, they want to get in and out. might leave some wall hangers out for him to steal while securing the good stuff.

Bender711 · December 30, 2006, 11:34 AM

Nope no secret rooms here!

mr00jimbo · December 30, 2006, 02:47 PM

I was thinking this would be neat too; have two rooms back to back, but have a space in between them that won't look like it exists from the hallway...no one is gonna measure.
Then have some kind of a way to get in...I suggest a revolving book case.

JLelli · December 30, 2006, 03:41 PM

Browning makes a vault door that is disguised as a simple residential wooden door. Guess you aren't the first to come up with this idea.

http://www.browning.com/products/cat...581&value=003F

G-Cym · December 30, 2006, 05:17 PM

But as they say, no safe is safe. Once the BG knows the door is locked, he knows there is good stuff on the other side. Then it's only a matter of time. The idea behind a secret room would not be protection from forced entry, but concealment. He can't break into what he doesn't know is there. So a false wall in the back of a basement buried behind some boxes, or a gap between rooms could probably go a long time without being noticed.

BTW, what is the source of that Jefferson quote in your sig?

BillCA · December 30, 2006, 06:55 PM

JLelli,

The $3k you spend on the vault door could buy a couple of decent gun safes! Besides the expense of the door, you need to get it mounted (hung) and the door jamb modified for the locking bolts. PLUS, you need to secure the walls surrounding it to prevent someone from just ripping out the sheetrock to reach inside.

For the money you'd spend building and adequately concealing a special room, you're probably better off with a monitored alarm service.

BILLDAVE · December 30, 2006, 08:13 PM

I worked for a mason and one job we did in a basement was making a wall with cinderblocks from one foundation wall to the other. There was a security door mortarted right in the center. It made a good vault. I never knew if he hid it or just treated it as another room. My boss said they had one guy put a quater inch steel plate over the same type of construction. Making even a nicer vault. Always sounded like a good idea to me.

VUPDblue · December 30, 2006, 09:21 PM

Best one I ever saw was a basement poured underneath a garage. The garage still had a concrete floor and was constructed like one of those jiffy-lube places. The door that accessed the stairway was cleverly hidden in a wall in the garage. The garage walls were covered in beaded siding instead of sheetrock so the door blended right in. At the bottom of the stairwell was one of those vault doors as discussed earlier in this thread. The basement room was a bit smaller than the garage but still about 25'x25'. Made for an excellent "gun room". You would never know it was there.

NYPost · December 30, 2006, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by G-Cym

....what is the source of that Jefferson quote in your {JLelli's} sig?

http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/TJ.html
http://www.rmgo.org/quotes.shtml
http://fieldandstream.blogs.com/gunn...e_in_char.html

blume357 · December 31, 2006, 06:42 AM

the key element is keeping it Secret. If a thief can't find it in the first place there is no need to worry about how long it will take him to break into it.

Rembrandt · December 31, 2006, 09:17 AM

Working on plans for a new gun/trophy room in 2007....always thought the concept of a disguised wall was pretty classy.

dfaugh · December 31, 2006, 10:05 AM

If done properly, its a great idea. I'm remodeling my house, and will be including something along those lines. It's a really old house, that has been added on to several times, so there are actually severel possibilities, including a rather large space (well, the size of a small bathroom). that I can use.

But, even if you're space is limited, just building a "false wall" with only a small amount of space would allow you to store a considerable amount of guns there. "Hide in plain sight."

If the BG doesn't know EXACTLY where to look, and how to access it, its unlikely they'll spend the time to look.

Nortonics · December 31, 2006, 10:20 AM

Can I have one of these but not supply the combo to the wife?

ltdave · December 31, 2006, 10:41 PM

not a secret room but looks pretty secure to me...

david

delzo · December 31, 2006, 11:10 PM

I've got a friend that built his secret room in the master bedroom. He accented several areas in the ranch style residence with old fence pickets so nothing really stands out. The whole wall of the bedroom is discarded fence pickets and certain ones are held on by magnets, which cleverly hide the hinges and lock. The whole "room" is only 36" wide, but almost 18' long. He built in shelves and gun racks for his goodies. All walls and the ceiling is lined with 3/4" marine grade plywood, which is close to being fireproof too.

It is very cool. I want one too, I just don't have a room I can give up space in.

WSM MAGNUM · December 31, 2006, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Working on plans for a new gun/trophy room in 2007....always thought the concept of a disguised wall was pretty classy.

Rembrandt, your plans are not secret anymore. Everyone here knows wich panel opens now.

David, is that your basement with the vault in it? That would be a dream basement for me. A gun room and all that open space for a train layout.

M1911 · January 1, 2007, 12:30 AM

Quote:

But as they say, no safe is safe. Once the BG knows the door is locked, he knows there is good stuff on the other side. Then it's only a matter of time.

99% of thieves are just smash and grab. If they see your safe, they'll jiggle the handle. Maybe hit it with a hammer or a sledge. When they don't get in quickly, they'll move on.

Your average meth-head isn't going to get through 1/4" steel.

tony pasley · January 1, 2007, 11:30 AM

Having a vault poured this summer it will be 20'x20' with 2 steel doors 4' apart.

Bogie · January 1, 2007, 12:01 PM

I'm probably going to do a "lowball" version soon... One wall to block an area in... Figuring three layers of gypsum board (easy to put up...) on 6" studs (with fiberglass between...) and an "inner city" steel door... After the first layer of drywall goes up, I'm going to staple/glue on (prob liquid nails) a layer of chicken wire, then immediately install (while still wet) the second layer of drywall. For the third layer, I may go a little finer on the mesh. Idea is not to have it impossible to break through, but to just make it too much of a PITA to break through...

claude783 · January 1, 2007, 06:59 PM

I had considered cutting down one side of a closet. Instead of the full closet, put in some sheetrock, and have a space about one foot to one and a half feet in which "goodies" could be stored. Could be done in several closets giving you quite a bit of space for your toys, extra supplies.

musher · January 1, 2007, 07:21 PM

When I first moved to Alaska, I picked up bit work as I could until I landed a 9-5 job.

One of the jobs I did was to build a wall across a basement in an elderly woman's home. Her husband had died and she was moving to Anchorage to live with her daughter. She wanted to rent out her home, but she didn't want to move the contents of her home. She asked me to build a hidden space to store her stuff.

The room I built was about 20' long by about 5' deep. Before walling it up, I moved a lot of travel trunks, furniture, and large boxes into the space.

I then built a wall, including wiring for the washer/dryer and painted the entire basement. Unless you took out a tape measure, you couldn't tell that there was a hidden room when I finished.

I've often wondered what I moved into that room and whether it's still sitting there undiscovered 18 years later.

December 30, 2006, 06:05 AM	#1
G-Cym Junior member Join Date: September 27, 2006 Posts: 366	Secret room for storing guns First, this has nothing to do with hiding guns from police. Only thieves. I have been thinking. It might be cool to build a secret room in your house to store valuables. Have you seen "Inside Man"? Something like that. If you have a basement, you could build a wall frame out of 2x4s, put some drywall on it, and some of that brown material with the grid of holes that people use to store tools and stuff on pegs over the drywall. Then put that about 3 or 4 feet way from your real basement wall. Put a workbench or boxes and such against most of it. Have part of the fake wall be on inside hinges to swing out to allow you in. Any crook robbing your house is not going to notice that your basement is a few feet shorter than the upper floor. You could even put a safe in there for other valuables. The secret room would be more like a hallway of course, being long but only a few feet wide, but that would be enough to store things on the walls and such.

December 30, 2006, 07:06 AM	#2
blume357 Senior Member Join Date: August 2, 2005 Location: Greenville, SC Posts: 3,943	The problem with a secret room or compartment is keeping it secret. Just letting one friend know about it compromizes its function. Same problem with secret cells and revolution and such.... human nature does not lend itself to keeping things secret. You are going to show a friend and he is going to tell someone either he trust or thinks is not a concern and before you know it, the wrong person knows.

December 30, 2006, 11:21 AM	#5
Eghad Senior Member Join Date: May 28, 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 6,231	Time is the key element of security. The longer a thief thinks it will take him to break in and get something might deter him. Nothing is proof against a man with the skill and determination who wants something. However, that same person will bypass a target if it will cause delay and increase the chance of him getting caught. Same with a crackhead, they want to get in and out. might leave some wall hangers out for him to steal while securing the good stuff. __________________ Have a nice day at the range NRA Life Member

December 30, 2006, 11:34 AM	#6
Bender711 Senior Member Join Date: September 20, 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 340	Nope no secret rooms here! __________________ From a Mod "Seeing as how "butt Smurf" is not profanity in the usual sense and humorously creative, I'll leave this up for now"

December 30, 2006, 03:41 PM	#8
JLelli Member Join Date: October 2, 2006 Location: Rochester, MI Posts: 44	Browning makes a vault door that is disguised as a simple residential wooden door. Guess you aren't the first to come up with this idea. http://www.browning.com/products/cat...581&value=003F __________________ "The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it away." -Thomas Jefferson

December 30, 2006, 07:25 AM	#3
SOSARMS Senior Member Join Date: June 13, 2006 Location: The great Buckeye state...where nuts are not just for eating Posts: 623	Why not just build a compartment out of angle iron with a steel security door and attach studs and drywall to cover the steel.???? If it is going to take time to get into it, they will pass and go on to something easier....

December 30, 2006, 11:18 AM	#4
shaggy Senior Member Join Date: October 9, 2004 Posts: 1,519	FWIW, I'm having a 'secret room' built to store my guns, accessories & support equipment, and as much ammo as I can stuff in there. It will not be a vault - basically a disguised sliding door that will conceal the storage space behind it where the gun safes will be, as well as a small work space and shelves for ammo, accessories, etc. Upon casual inspection you wouldn't think to look further. If one did notice it was a false door/wall, you'd still have the job of breaking the lock, and then breaking into the safes (which will be made more difficult by enclosing them in a small space, leaving less room to effectively swing and use larger tools like sledgehammers and axes). It certainly isn't 100% secure and I'm sure it won't be 100% secret, but it will be more secure than just leaving a safe in plain view for any intruder to immediately see.

December 30, 2006, 02:47 PM	#7
mr00jimbo Senior Member Join Date: January 23, 2005 Posts: 175	I was thinking this would be neat too; have two rooms back to back, but have a space in between them that won't look like it exists from the hallway...no one is gonna measure. Then have some kind of a way to get in...I suggest a revolving book case.

December 30, 2006, 05:17 PM	#9
G-Cym Junior member Join Date: September 27, 2006 Posts: 366	But as they say, no safe is safe. Once the BG knows the door is locked, he knows there is good stuff on the other side. Then it's only a matter of time. The idea behind a secret room would not be protection from forced entry, but concealment. He can't break into what he doesn't know is there. So a false wall in the back of a basement buried behind some boxes, or a gap between rooms could probably go a long time without being noticed. BTW, what is the source of that Jefferson quote in your sig?

December 30, 2006, 06:55 PM	#10
BillCA Senior Member Join Date: November 28, 2004 Location: Silicon Valley, Ca Posts: 7,117	JLelli, The $3k you spend on the vault door could buy a couple of decent gun safes! Besides the expense of the door, you need to get it mounted (hung) and the door jamb modified for the locking bolts. PLUS, you need to secure the walls surrounding it to prevent someone from just ripping out the sheetrock to reach inside. For the money you'd spend building and adequately concealing a special room, you're probably better off with a monitored alarm service. __________________ BillCA in CA (Unfortunately)

December 30, 2006, 08:13 PM	#11
BILLDAVE Junior member Join Date: September 17, 2006 Location: In the Mid-West Posts: 321	I worked for a mason and one job we did in a basement was making a wall with cinderblocks from one foundation wall to the other. There was a security door mortarted right in the center. It made a good vault. I never knew if he hid it or just treated it as another room. My boss said they had one guy put a quater inch steel plate over the same type of construction. Making even a nicer vault. Always sounded like a good idea to me.

December 30, 2006, 09:21 PM	#12
VUPDblue Senior Member Join Date: December 18, 2005 Location: Central Indiana Posts: 1,981	Best one I ever saw was a basement poured underneath a garage. The garage still had a concrete floor and was constructed like one of those jiffy-lube places. The door that accessed the stairway was cleverly hidden in a wall in the garage. The garage walls were covered in beaded siding instead of sheetrock so the door blended right in. At the bottom of the stairwell was one of those vault doors as discussed earlier in this thread. The basement room was a bit smaller than the garage but still about 25'x25'. Made for an excellent "gun room". You would never know it was there. __________________ Silencers have NEVER been illegal !

December 31, 2006, 06:42 AM	#14
blume357 Senior Member Join Date: August 2, 2005 Location: Greenville, SC Posts: 3,943	Time is not the key element on a Secret room or compartment the key element is keeping it Secret. If a thief can't find it in the first place there is no need to worry about how long it will take him to break into it.

December 31, 2006, 09:17 AM	#15
Rembrandt Senior Member Join Date: August 10, 2002 Posts: 2,108	Working on plans for a new gun/trophy room in 2007....always thought the concept of a disguised wall was pretty classy.

December 31, 2006, 10:05 AM	#16
dfaugh Senior Member Join Date: January 17, 2002 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 1,715	If done properly, its a great idea. I'm remodeling my house, and will be including something along those lines. It's a really old house, that has been added on to several times, so there are actually severel possibilities, including a rather large space (well, the size of a small bathroom). that I can use. But, even if you're space is limited, just building a "false wall" with only a small amount of space would allow you to store a considerable amount of guns there. "Hide in plain sight." If the BG doesn't know EXACTLY where to look, and how to access it, its unlikely they'll spend the time to look. __________________ "If you Listen to Fools, the Mob Rules" "No one has the answer, but one thing is true. You'e got to turn on evil, when its coming after you. You've gotta face it down,and when it tries to hide, you've got to go in after it, and never be denied. Time is running out...Let's roll. Let's roll for freedom, let's roll for love. We're going after satan, on the wings of a dove. Let's roll for freedom, let's roll for truth. Let's not let our children grow up fearful in their youth."

December 31, 2006, 10:20 AM	#17
Nortonics Senior Member Join Date: December 2, 2004 Location: Murderapolis Posts: 521	Can I have one of these but not supply the combo to the wife? __________________ Tom.

December 31, 2006, 10:41 PM	#18
ltdave Senior Member Join Date: September 16, 2005 Posts: 226	not a secret room but looks pretty secure to me... david

December 31, 2006, 11:10 PM	#19
delzo Senior Member Join Date: March 30, 2005 Location: Knee deep in Galveston Bay Posts: 144	I've got a friend that built his secret room in the master bedroom. He accented several areas in the ranch style residence with old fence pickets so nothing really stands out. The whole wall of the bedroom is discarded fence pickets and certain ones are held on by magnets, which cleverly hide the hinges and lock. The whole "room" is only 36" wide, but almost 18' long. He built in shelves and gun racks for his goodies. All walls and the ceiling is lined with 3/4" marine grade plywood, which is close to being fireproof too. It is very cool. I want one too, I just don't have a room I can give up space in.

January 1, 2007, 11:30 AM	#22
tony pasley Senior Member Join Date: April 13, 2006 Location: western north carolina Posts: 1,641	Having a vault poured this summer it will be 20'x20' with 2 steel doors 4' apart.

January 1, 2007, 12:01 PM	#23
Bogie Senior Member Join Date: June 5, 2000 Location: Job hunting on the road... Posts: 3,827	I'm probably going to do a "lowball" version soon... One wall to block an area in... Figuring three layers of gypsum board (easy to put up...) on 6" studs (with fiberglass between...) and an "inner city" steel door... After the first layer of drywall goes up, I'm going to staple/glue on (prob liquid nails) a layer of chicken wire, then immediately install (while still wet) the second layer of drywall. For the third layer, I may go a little finer on the mesh. Idea is not to have it impossible to break through, but to just make it too much of a PITA to break through... __________________ Job hunting, but helping a friend out at www.vikingmachineusa.com - and learning the finer aspects of becoming a precision machinist. And making the world's greatest bottle openers!

January 1, 2007, 06:59 PM	#24
claude783 Senior Member Join Date: August 21, 2004 Location: people's republic of California Posts: 386	I had considered cutting down one side of a closet. Instead of the full closet, put in some sheetrock, and have a space about one foot to one and a half feet in which "goodies" could be stored. Could be done in several closets giving you quite a bit of space for your toys, extra supplies.

January 1, 2007, 07:21 PM	#25
musher Senior Member Join Date: April 23, 2005 Posts: 462	When I first moved to Alaska, I picked up bit work as I could until I landed a 9-5 job. One of the jobs I did was to build a wall across a basement in an elderly woman's home. Her husband had died and she was moving to Anchorage to live with her daughter. She wanted to rent out her home, but she didn't want to move the contents of her home. She asked me to build a hidden space to store her stuff. The room I built was about 20' long by about 5' deep. Before walling it up, I moved a lot of travel trunks, furniture, and large boxes into the space. I then built a wall, including wiring for the washer/dryer and painted the entire basement. Unless you took out a tape measure, you couldn't tell that there was a hidden room when I finished. I've often wondered what I moved into that room and whether it's still sitting there undiscovered 18 years later.