Need Help Framing for Vault Door & Gun Room?

[AR_Forever]

OK my wife has given me the green light to get a vault door instead of a gun safe. I need some ideas framing for the vault door. Here is the soon to be gun room 5 1/2" wide x 9' high x 3 1/2 Feet deep. Depending on how far back I recess the door I can put a cabinet or false wall to hide the safe.



For the ceiling I was thinking of bolting angle iron to the top of the 3 concrete walls and welding steel plate to the angle iron and I-Beam. I would install dry wall on top of the steel plate for fireproofing.

Next going to raise the floor about 6" in case the basement were to flood. Also thoughts are to install vertical steel beams for the vault door support. I would embed a steel beam across the raised floor for the vault door. Install / weld steel plate around the door to seal the room.

Anyone have some recommendations or have done this before? I'm going to measure for the angle iron this week and get ready to frame the angle iron, mix and pour the floor this weekend and run electrical. Regardless if I pour concrete I still can put the angle iron in for the ceiling.

One recommendation was to pour a new concrete wall the same heigth of the vault door frame and fit the width to vault door frame. Then enclose the rest in steel (top portion).

Thanks,

[Ice Pirate]

First a question. Do you have a floating pad floor in your basement? If so, then your wall/door should hang from the ceiling, and not be built on top of the floating pad. These types of floors are common in most houses and the floor will rise and fall with the moisture content in the ground below. If you build on top of the pad and then the pad rises over the next few years, it will drive the new wall and vault door up into the floor above.

First and formost, check your local building codes and get a building permit. I know it's a royal PITA, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Over a reletivly short span as that, it MAY be ok to run a structural steel member across the tops of the adjacent concreat walls, I'm assuming they are part of the foundation and load bearing, and hang your wall and door from that. You'll still need to provide a gap at the bottom to allow for floor pad movement.

You might be better off, again depending on codes, to cut through the pad floor, add a proper footer, and then build a wall atop that and have it attach to the adjacent walls. That way it becomes an extension to the housing's foundation.

Do yourself a favor though, and check your building codes. Other wise, you might have to rip it out when you go to sell. Do it right the first time.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[AR_Forever]

Icepirate,

Great info. The concrete floor I think is free floating, all of the walls in the basement and stairs are floating. I have a call into a few vault door mfg's. One I know recommends a concrete wall at 8" thick.

I think you are right on the building permit and wall. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up cutting out a section of the floor and digging footers for a new wall being attached to the existing concrete walls. PITA for sure.

I think it will be worth it but may start to cost more then just buying a large safe for the garage. It could be a huge re-sell value add though.

[Ice Pirate]

Good idea. You'll be much happier for it.

BTW: As much as even I would like to see pics of your vault once done, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't post a thing about it. You never know who is surfing these sites, and it wouldn't take much to connect the dots of who has what and where they live. That's why I don't do a lot of posting here. I may just be paranoid, but after 3 burgleries, I think it's justified.

Good luck with your vault. It sounds like you are on the right course.

[LippCJ7]

ok Maybe its me but why go through all the hassle of building this closet sized area into a safe room when you should just build a safe to fit the area? For instance why dig the floor out when you could just put 3/16 steel plate for the floor and all other sides welded into a box then a couple rows of drywall then another box of 3/16 steel and weld your door to it then all you have to do is bolt it if you want to, to the floor(which I agree will move with expansion). Point being with a floating floor why make the safe a part of the house when I think it would be easier to just make a jumbo sized safe that only attaches to the floor. The other reason I ask this is because I have been contemplating a similar idea in my house? what do you think? Also I am in DC