Built in Safe Room

[175gr7.62]

I'm starting the plans for the forever house and I'm going to build a safe room into it. I'm using a safe door but I can't decide what the best route to build the actual room is. The 2 options I'm considering are forming up the "room", building a rebar cage, them forming up an outer wall and then pour the wall cavities full of concrete along with the ceilings, then pull all the forms. The other option is to build the walls out of cinderblock,form and support the ceiling, pour the block cavities full of concrete and then the ceiling....finally remove the ceiling forms/supports.

I want to make this for fire protection also so it's going to have ventilation tubes along with a dedicated power source for the fans.

What should I do for fire protection? Will 6" concrete walls stand up to a fire for an hour? If not, what should I insulate with?.....Rockwool? Inside or outside?

I'm looking at 10' x10' right now. It will double as my closet.

[Dale Moser]

I'd go with the 8816 CMU block, have rebar anchored into the slab coming up through them, ladder wire in the bed joints, and fill with mortar/grout as they go up. Form and pour concrete ceiling. They are becoming more common, so there are subs out there who have it figured out. I'm considering doing the same in my upcoming shop.

[curtintex]

Too much to type on my phone, but I’ll circle back later. I’ve built two.


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[Drycreek3189]

I have a storm room in my shop and I went the cement block route. I first put anchor bolts in the existing slab to correspond with the cavities in the blocks. Next, I welded rebar to the anchor bolts to a comfortable height in order to slip the blocks over them. I put a horizontal run of rebar every third block and naturally as the walls went up I welded more vertical rebar on up to ceiling height. Formed the top “fence” with cement blocks that were flat, just turned them up on edge. Braced plywood up underneath and poured the top with a skid steer as the shop was already built. It has provided us with comfort through several tornadic thunderstorms that came just a little too close in the last 25 years.

Forgot to add that we filled the cavities up with grout as we went.

[curtintex]

Built in Safe Room

My first one, I bought a damaged 8’ x 7’ box culvert, stood it on its end and poured the slab around it. I had a company come out and saw cut a hole that accepted my vault door. I poured a 6” ceiling on top. It had, if I remember correctly, 9 inch walls, a 6 inch top and a 24 inch slab beneath it to handle the weight.

My second one, was formed and poured and it was a 10‘ x 10‘. 6 inch walls, 6 inch ceiling and a beam poured into the slab beneath the walls. Bought a vault door from some company out of California. Wrapped the exterior walls with fireproof board and built the house around it.

Both vaults were on the interior of the home and maintain a constant temperature with no condensation and a relative humidity consistent with the rest of the house. I never needed dehumidifiers of any kind. First one I built is 20 years old this year and still holds most of my guns.

Concrete is a very poor insulator and transfers heat pretty easily. The fire might not get to it but the heat will do just as much damage after enough time passes. For fire retardation I would definitely recommend wrapping it with a fire/heat retardant of some kind.

Good luck and let me know if you need anything or I can be of any help.


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[DeerGeek]

Following

[HUNTIN HARD]

I'd go with the 8816 CMU block, have rebar anchored into the slab coming up through them, ladder wire in the bed joints, and fill with mortar/grout as they go up. Form and pour concrete ceiling. They are becoming more common, so there are subs out there who have it figured out. I'm considering doing the same in my upcoming shop.

This is exactly what I’m doing. Should break ground in a week or two. Mine will be an 8x8

[rferg84]

We are building one on our garage of our new build. We reinforced the slab where it is going. I'll check with my contractor on plans but I'm 99% sure it's block walls, rebar, and concrete with a 6" concrete ceiling.

[ctom87]

This would be really neat to follow.

[Sticks&Strings]

I'd go with the 8816 CMU block, have rebar anchored into the slab coming up through them, ladder wire in the bed joints, and fill with mortar/grout as they go up. Form and pour concrete ceiling. They are becoming more common, so there are subs out there who have it figured out. I'm considering doing the same in my upcoming shop.

We built one like this for a client but the ceiling had a double mat rebar layout and we ran some giant stainless pipe 90's out of it for air and wires/a/c. The main issue would be an oven effect or lack of oxygen. It definitely would give you the best odds but I would definitely think you need to get some oxygen to it in case of fire.


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[tps7742]

I'd go with the 8816 CMU block, have rebar anchored into the slab coming up through them, ladder wire in the bed joints, and fill with mortar/grout as they go up. Form and pour concrete ceiling. They are becoming more common, so there are subs out there who have it figured out. I'm considering doing the same in my upcoming shop.

When we were looking at new home builds our builder was building one very similar as you have explained. I am not sure on the type of block but the rest of your explanation was very close. In 2016 this was a 10k option in our case.

[Take Dead Aim]

I have done two for my self and for others. I have done them many different ways depending on the budget. No I don't want to build one for anyone on here. Its not the business I'm in. It just happens friends see mine and then want one. So occasionally I'll do a one off. Back to business at hand. My current one personally is 8' x 12' with 1" steel plates welded together. I poured in place a 1" by 6" plate to weld the walls to floor. We then formed up and poured 8" of concrete around. It's way overkill as the door is always the weak spot. I would worry too much about the walls on fire as again the door is the weak spot.

[marceco]

I put one of these in our houses when we live in Oklahoma . If you ever see pictures of The F5 tornadoes in Moore , Oklahoma or Joplin , Missouri there are a couple of these shelters still standing in the Tornado's Path .

https://www.familysafeshelters.com/

[dawgkllr]

This as described by Dale is perfect.

I'd go with the 8816 CMU block, have rebar anchored into the slab coming up through them, ladder wire in the bed joints, and fill with mortar/grout as they go up. Form and pour concrete ceiling. They are becoming more common, so there are subs out there who have it figured out. I'm considering doing the same in my upcoming shop.

[Tony Pic]

I'm thinking about one of these. Steel plates and heavy gypsum board surrounding it.

https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/1018245919?pid=106307&utm_medium=shopping&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Shooting+-+Gun+Safes+%26+Storage&utm_content=106307&gclid=Cj0KCQiAip-PBhDVARIsAPP2xc3RyH8vpcN38IAF0y8AYM51OMFmUj8xQaI7pdauRq2UbFgGbc3KbxIaAkQVEALw_wcB