We just bought a new house and I want to convert a fairly large broom closet into a secured gun safe. Anyone done this before? It is in the laundry room on a room with no exterior building walls. Aside from fire rating, which I do not see how I can change that part, anyone have recommendations on locking mechanisms that they like or dislike?

Easiest is to camouflage it with a hidden door. Otherwise you'll be doing a large retrofit to strengthen the walls and give you a way to hang a safe type door or heavy steel door. Also having a safe door won't do any good unless you strengthen the walls because it's easy to knock a hole in the wall with studs on 16" centers.

AnScAggie said:

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Easiest is to camouflage it with a hidden door. Otherwise you'll be doing a large retrofit to strengthen the walls and give you a way to hang a safe type door or heavy steel door. Also having a safe door won't do any good unless you strengthen the walls because it's easy to knock a hole in the wall with studs on 16" centers.

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This. Had a friend who did this. Door hidden in the wall (lots of wood work). Can't even notice it.

Wish I could help, but I only turn gun safes into closets

AnScAggie said:

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Easiest is to camouflage it with a hidden door. Otherwise you'll be doing a large retrofit to strengthen the walls and give you a way to hang a safe type door or heavy steel door. Also having a safe door won't do any good unless you strengthen the walls because it's easy to knock a hole in the wall with studs on 16" centers.

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Yep, security though obscurity.

I've seen a coat closet converted like this. Basically cut the door down a bit, add a deadbolt and framed in the bottom 6" of the door way. Then mounted a custom built halltree on 2 Heavy duty sliders. They added a separate small bench in front and it looks like a halltree and bench on the wall, would never guess its hiding anything behind it unless you walk around to account for the missing couple of sqft.
Halltree slides open and then there is a locking door behind it.

Serves as a great bench to put shoes on/off and still gave a place to hang coats and such.

The house I bought has a walk in gun closet. I didn't find out until after I bought the house. LOL I was pleasantly surprised.

The door was hidden behind a pinball machine (which they left) in the basement. It's not too crazy secure, but it has solid wood/cinderblock walls and a padlock on the door. The biggest thing is that no one would ever suspect it would be there. You could get in there with a chainsaw or a sledgehammer pretty easy, but it keeps stuff safe from kids or the casual thief.

It has a workbench/barstool in it. I just love the room I have now. And there is a cabinet where I can store all the ammo. It was already labeled. I have a wire rack where I store targets, rifle rest, gun cases. There is also a wooden shelf for more storage. The prior guy installed an adjustable hardware-type hook system on a wall that all my rifles rest on.

The weird thing is the guy mounted all his handguns on the wall and had nicknames for them like "Clint" and "Justice."

GeorgiAg said:

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The house I bought has a walk in gun closet. I didn't find out until after I bought the house. LOL I was pleasantly surprised.

The door was hidden behind a pinball machine (which they left) in the basement. It's not too crazy secure, but it has solid wood/cinderblock walls and a padlock on the door. The biggest thing is that no one would ever suspect it would be there. You could get in there with a chainsaw or a sledgehammer pretty easy, but it keeps stuff safe from kids or the casual thief.

It has a workbench/barstool in it. I just love the room I have now. And there is a cabinet where I can store all the ammo. It was already labeled. I have a wire rack where I store targets, rifle rest, gun cases. There is also a wooden shelf for more storage. The prior guy installed an adjustable hardware-type hook system on a wall that all my rifles rest on.

The weird thing is the guy mounted all his handguns on the wall and had nicknames for them like "Clint" and "Justice."

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That is awesome.

I am sure there are those on here more knowledgable about this than I am, but be careful about a closet that doesn't have an air vent with regard to humidity level and guns. You might want to investigate that first.

You can buy what is essentially a safe door to put on your closet, but you'll still only have drywall on three sides and need to reinforce/re-frame your doorway to hold the safe door.

I agree with the above posters who said to conceal your closet. Gain fire protection by cramming the biggest fire resistant safe you can into the closet, and bolt it down so that no one can tip it over to drill through it.

One somewhat easy way to gain some security is to install a layer of expanded metal between the studs and sheetrock. I've done this on projects before for rooms used to store expensive equipment. It's not gonna stop a sawzall or bolt cutters, but it will stop a simple kick or sledge hammer through the sheetrock.

At first I read "closet" as "casket." That would be cool.

I should have added that this is a closet that is fully placed in a corner and is custom built with 1/2' plywood. Dehumidifier and locking mechanism are what I am really concerned about. Looking at concealability as well as security since it is in the laundry room, no guests will be going in there for the most part and wouldn't be seen by an intruder I would imagine

bdgol07 said:

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I should have added that this is a closet that is fully placed in a corner and is custom built with 1/2' plywood. Dehumidifier and locking mechanism are what I am really concerned about. Looking at concealability as well as security since it is in the laundry room, no guests will be going in there for the most part and wouldn't be seen by an intruder I would imagine

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If it's an obvious bump out from the wall, sheetrock it in and then put a fake air return cover on it to hide the size, then make the door a coat rack.