built-in walk-in safes/vaults & doors

option 1) buy a safe
option 2) build a safe

which one and why?
I would love to have a walk-in safe and am in the middle of building a house. I like the idea of a walk in safe in my basement, but it looks like vault doors cost more than entire safes! minimum of 2k.
Know of anywhere where I can get them cheaper?
What do you suggest for a cheap, but relatively strong vault wall? 2 of the wall are already exterior and underground. im guessing block (maybe concrete filled if need be) b/c thats what the rest of the walls are, so it wouldnt be noticable then. Im waiting on a quote from my builder, but still my main concern right now is the price of the door. ouchy.

Could you just buy a safe and build it into the wall?

If I were building a house now, I really think about including a "safe room" and utilize it as a safe/safe room combo. There are a couple of companies that specialize in the "bullet/people resist wall board. I looked them up on the Internet thinking of turning a walk-in-closet to that type of combo. Just a thought. No, not inexpensive, but serves two purposes.

Respectfully,
Kyle

Armcore.com (866-688-3088)
Armortex.com (888-521-8666)

When the wife and I were house shopping we looked at a couple that had poured basement walls with a doorway going to a room under the garage with a poured concrete garage floor. The door was sized for a vault door (you can specify the dimensions when ordering the door but door about average).

It has been about 10 years but the cost of a Liberty vault door was about half what I paid for my Liberty safe. These doors are not made of sheet tin, they are usually equivalent of the doors from the top of the line safes.

Putting the vault under the garage is great because most houses do not have basement space under the garage so you could put a swing-out book case (I saw a company that makes them at a home show) in front of the vault and most people would never suspect there was a vault there. Added benefit is a superior storm shelter if in tornado prone areas.

go to They make a good door, are honest, stand behind their product and are reasonably priced.
I've bought a couple of items from them.
Peaceful

When my son-in-law was doing carpentry on a new house construction, the basement was poured, it had a double wall running the full length of the house on the front side. The "hidden room" was only about 6 feet wide, maybe a little wider, but ran the length of the house so it was a pretty good size room. More like a long corridor. Conduit was in place for electricity but we didn't know how he planned on handling ventilation.

The roof was not placed on the structure of the "hidden room" yet, but my son-in-law said, it was going to be a reinforced concrete walkway along the front side of the home which ran from the driveway up to the front door of the house.

There was a door cut out from the basement going into the room. Not sure if he was going to have a vault door installed or just a secret hidden door for access.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by peaceful

go to They make a good door, are honest, stand behind their product and are reasonably priced.
I've bought a couple of items from them.
Peaceful

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go to where?

Yea, I will probably make it a safe room as well if i do it.
Im guessing the only differance really being ventalation (which im guessing i want anyways) and having the door be lockable / unlockable from inside.

Reason for not just buying a safe: would like it to be bigger

oh, and as far as doors.. F350 you say back in the day you were finding the doors to be 1/2 the price of safes.
Right now I can find plenty of safes for 800-1500.
I cant find a door for under 2k

Start here...:hand10:

Vault Doors Gun Safes Gun Vault Doors Vault Rooms
Gun Safe Buyers' Guide

Quote:

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Originally Posted by friesepferd

What do you suggest for a cheap, but relatively strong vault wall? 2 of the wall are already exterior and underground. im guessing block (maybe concrete filled if need be) b/c thats what the rest of the walls are, so it wouldnt be noticable then.

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Block walls are pretty quickly defeated with even small, 4-pound sledgehammers. The whole point of safes and vaults is to slow the thief down... if a guy sees a heavy-duty door mounted in a block wall, if he has any sense at he'll start pounding on the blocks instead of the door. Poured concrete with appropriate rebar or heavy wire is the way to go... it's a one-time expense.

A friend went a similar rout and was also dissuaded by the cost of a vault door. For an affordable price (compared to the vault doors) he got a heavy steel door with a reinforced frame, and equipped it with a couple of substantial locks. It would take a torch, a heavy cutoff wheel or a forklift to defeat that door.

[QUOTE=gasmitty;1560133]Block walls are pretty quickly defeated with even small, 4-pound sledgehammers. The whole point of safes and vaults is to slow the thief down... if a guy sees a heavy-duty door mounted in a block wall, if he has any sense at he'll start pounding on the blocks instead of the door. Poured concrete with appropriate rebar or heavy wire is the way to go... it's a one-time expense.= Quote]

See post # 3

That's why the bullet/people resistant " panels sound attractive to me, because they have a metal mesh barrier in the core. I suspect they have doors too, but have not checked.

Respectfully
Kyle

My friend researched this very thing recently check for his Browning safe thread in this forum. He ended up ordering a Browning G65F. Building a new house...a couple extra thousand over a thirty year mortgage would be worth it to me. Definitely look at the company recommended by retsupt99

YouTube - Hidden Secret Passages by Creative Home Engineering

At 1:05 is what I want...... too cool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nlax2011

YouTube - Hidden Secret Passages by Creative Home Engineering

At 1:05 is what I want...... too cool.

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this is every little kids dream... I freaking want any of them that is so cool...

Option 2 don't just build a safe.. build a safe room..

check into any pizza shop or similar that may have gone out of bussiness. You can build around the cooler walls with cinder block re-enforced rebar. and use the cooler door with a good locking system. I have something similar and it's a VERY good system