Building a new house with a gun room. Any recommendations/suggestions in what to include inside, other than guns, of course - they were lost in a tragic boating incident.

5x as much space as you ever think you'll need

When I did one of these I had a bunch of built ins inside. Cabinet space for my wife to store pictures and important documents. Slanted shelving for ammo storage. A flat top work bench for mounting scopes, etc. one wall had upright racks for long guns. I bought a couple of regular gunsafe door inserts and screwed to one wall for pistols and other miscellaneous storage. I also hid the vault door behind a sliding bookshelf in the den to be extra sneaky, but of course had to show al my buddies which kind of negated the sneakiness.

Put in a nice work bench and then think about how you want your walls set up. Slatwall is nice because you can move things around a lot or you can go with nicer looking built in gun racks. Both have their advantages.

Semi-serious question, would it make sense to make this the room that is hurricane/tornado-proof (to an extent of course)? Always on the first floor?

Long term goals, just want to know some of the wisdom of OB on it.

A gun range.

Whats the size of the space?

This...

How did you get into my gun basement!?????

J_Daddy05 said:

---

How did you get into my gun basement!?????
/MFBarnes

---

FIFY

AgFlyGuy said:

---

This...

---

Are you the hardest working man in Oil & Gas or just a regular guy in Oil & Gas?

That's the Gordy and Sons vault. I've walked through it but wouldn't dare to actually touch anything.

Make your gun room your tornado room/safe room. Fortify the whole thing with 2 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood, opposing grain, and at least a solid core door. Comes F3 rated. Keypad deadbolt with a handle inside and outside. Keep a hatchet in there in case you have to chop your arse out after a tornado.

Agree on the shelving, have it measured for ammo boxes. Add a few shelves that are whiskey bottle height as well, because whiskey. So technically mine is a gun/whiskey/tornado/panic room. Mine does not have enough room for a bench, but the workbench in the garage covers me.

def a hidden basement so you can hide it from the Gubamint

The back 1/3 of my gun room is a vault/tornado shelter. Concrete blocks with rebar running through them into the slab and blocks filled with cement. Ceiling is 4-5 layers of concrete board. Vault door that opens inward so you can still get it open if something falls in front of it. Shelving and gun racks all around, vent fans with fire dampers on them. Front 2/3 is for workbenches and reloading equipment, I have a steel exterior door on that room.

lexofer said:

---

The back 1/3 of my gun room is a vault/tornado shelter. Concrete blocks with rebar running through them into the slab and blocks filled with cement. Ceiling is 4-5 layers of concrete board. Vault door that opens inward so you can still get it open if something falls in front of it. Shelving and gun racks all around, vent fans with fire dampers on them. Front 2/3 is for workbenches and reloading equipment, I have a steel exterior door on that room.

---

I have been out Whataburgered.

BenderRodriguez said:

---

Whats the size of the space?

---

13.5x10

AgFlyGuy said:

---

This...

---

1. Put it in basement.
2. 2x cinderblock/concrete reinforced with rebar.
3. 4x as big as you think you need.
4. You're welcome.

coastal......suggestions.....if you can put it underground..basement..whatever.....its better. Make sure you include it in your heat/Ac plans and make sure you have adequate electricity for lights and dehumidifier. Concrete walls 12" thick with rebar vertically and horizontally Make sure the roof is same concrete. My dad did his and put an escape tunnel/hatch out into the yard so if the house collapsed in a storm he could get out.....it had a vault door inside to get to it....... Also had a regular safe vault door on inside to enter with an interior latch.
Check out these web sights for hanging the guns:

1.) www.gallowtech.com
2.) www.holdupdisplays.com
3.) www.secureitgunstorage.com

We used the secure-it brand and incorporated red cedar around the panels (like a cedar closet) to help keep bugs out....(.made the room always smell good too).

He also ran a land line phone line into it.

If you put it underground seal the concrete for a moisture barrier.

Quote:

---

Make sure you include it in your heat/Ac plans and make sure you have adequate electricity for lights and dehumidifier.

---

That's one thing I forgot to mention, I have a mini-split for the room, separate from the central A/C, that has a dehumidification mode.

TX AG 88 said:

---

J_Daddy05 said:

---

How did you get into my gun basement!?????
/MFBarnes

---

FIFY

---

I'm certainly not the hardest working man in O&G, much less any other industry.

Gallow Tech makes awesome storage/organization solutions

Definitely go bigger than you think. And I would fireproof it. Wish I would have done that for mine. Mine is going to be behind a hidden bookcase. I should have either made the safe door behind it or a pocket sliding door that locks. Mine I am planing on putting safe in. But should have gone full blown gun room. Still looking forward to mine.

lexofer said:

---

The back 1/3 of my gun room is a vault/tornado shelter. Concrete blocks with rebar running through them into the slab and blocks filled with cement. Ceiling is 4-5 layers of concrete board. Vault door that opens inward so you can still get it open if something falls in front of it. Shelving and gun racks all around, vent fans with fire dampers on them. Front 2/3 is for workbenches and reloading equipment, I have a steel exterior door on that room.

---

Whole gun room is concrete with rebar..concrete roof.... big screwup .... steel door opens into house instead of inward. Enough room for 2 big gun safes + 2 steel lockers for ammo. This whole room stays very cool year round so 4/5 30 pks stay in storage there.. no exterior door.... but i dont hate that part..... yet!!!

The design does have grout-filled CMU walls and was planning on the concrete slab roof but like the cement board suggestion. I want the racks to be made from wood vs. the pre=fabbed wall systems. I also plan to make this my office as well. We do not live in a hurricane or tornado-prone area, so no need to build it to that spec. There is no cost-effective way to make this a cellar; besides, I would like to avoid stairs when I get to the age where they are no longer my friend.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Any suggestions on the type of wood to use? My wife sent some suggestions to me from Pinterest; they have some really nice rooms shown on the site...

For a gun-room/vault/safe/etc that's below grade, I'd strongly recommend water detectors in the space and a thorough plan/prep for pumping that space out if and when it's necessary - up to and including a hand pump for when there's no power available.

Securing your most valuable possessions in the basement is great for protecting it from the wind, and definitely saves space at grade or above, but water tends to find its way into those spaces and it's horribly destructive when it does.

My exterior door doesn't go outside, it leads into the garage. It's just an exterior door b/c they are steel so stronger than a normal interior door. So exterior door goes from garage to first 2/3 of gun room, which is built out as a normal room. Then there is a vault door leading into CMU block walled vault in back 1/3 of room. I just built the back half of the room as a vault to reduce costs. I keep all my valuables in there.

Front 2/3 of the room acts as a small workshop, reloading room, and now home office due to it being quiet in there. My kids took over the main study/office in the house when COVID hit to do schoolwork.

This seems so overkill except look what I can design

What are yall afraid of and that is a serious question

1. I would run a alarm to the breaker panel if it is outside so that if somebody tried to ahut power it would immediately go off

2. Another alarm from a different company on the doors

3. Bolt the best safe you can buy

4. Put fire sprinklers only in this area if fire concerns you

Now I will say I know nothing about why uall are suggesting such fortknox room and maybe I will learn something from this

This is not a controversial post just dont understand the reasoning behind the safe room

Quote:

---

Now I will say I know nothing about why uall are suggesting such fortknox room and maybe I will learn something from this

This is not a controversial post just dont understand the reasoning behind the safe room

---

It really wasn't that expensive, my total concrete block room and vault door cost as much as a large, quality gun safe. I can hold far more than multiple gun safes could in this room. Getting to guns in the back of a gun safe really sucks, this way they're all easily accessible.

It's also nice to be able to walk in and drop my gun bags in there after I've been at a match for the weekend and not have to unpack everything right away. Additionally it doubles as a storm shelter.

maddiedou said:

---

This seems so overkill except look what I can design

What are yall afraid of and that is a serious question

1. I would run a alarm to the breaker panel if it is outside so that if somebody tried to ahut power it would immediately go off

2. Another alarm from a different company on the doors

3. Bolt the best safe you can buy

4. Put fire sprinklers only in this area if fire concerns you

Now I will say I know nothing about why uall are suggesting such fortknox room and maybe I will learn something from this

This is not a controversial post just dont understand the reasoning behind the safe room

---

Ours doubles as gun room/tornado shelter...the cinderblock with concrete and rebar are more for tornado than gun room.... when you are building new and you want a storm shelter.... might as well make it dual purpose

lexofer said:

---

Quote:

---

Now I will say I know nothing about why uall are suggesting such fortknox room and maybe I will learn something from this

This is not a controversial post just dont understand the reasoning behind the safe room

---

It really wasn't that expensive, my total concrete block room and vault door cost as much as a large, quality gun safe. I can hold far more than multiple gun safes could in this room. Getting to guns in the back of a gun safe really sucks, this way they're all easily accessible.

It's also nice to be able to walk in and drop my gun bags in there after I've been at a match for the weekend and not have to unpack everything right away. Additionally it doubles as a storm shelter.

---

I understand. Makes perfect sense. Thanks

alvtimes said:

---

maddiedou said:

---

This seems so overkill except look what I can design

What are yall afraid of and that is a serious question

1. I would run a alarm to the breaker panel if it is outside so that if somebody tried to ahut power it would immediately go off

2. Another alarm from a different company on the doors

3. Bolt the best safe you can buy

4. Put fire sprinklers only in this area if fire concerns you

Now I will say I know nothing about why uall are suggesting such fortknox room and maybe I will learn something from this

This is not a controversial post just dont understand the reasoning behind the safe room

---

Ours doubles as gun room/tornado shelter...the cinderblock with concrete and rebar are more for tornado than gun room.... when you are building new and you want a storm shelter.... might as well make it dual purpose

---

Thank. I under stand. Yall are so smart. I wish I had thought of this

maddiedou said:

---

This seems so overkill except look what I can design

What are yall afraid of and that is a serious question

1. I would run a alarm to the breaker panel if it is outside so that if somebody tried to ahut power it would immediately go off

2. Another alarm from a different company on the doors

3. Bolt the best safe you can buy

4. Put fire sprinklers only in this area if fire concerns you

Now I will say I know nothing about why uall are suggesting such fortknox room and maybe I will learn something from this

This is not a controversial post just dont understand the reasoning behind the safe room

---

This is overkill. What are y'all afraid of!!!

Here's 4 slightly different ways to ultra protect the same things you did with a gun vault that are also overkill.

Never change TexAgs. Now back to reading about something I'd love to have, but never will.

i built mine as a hybrid gun room/wine cellar... highly recommend.