Monday, February 23, 2015

DIY Castle 2 - The Keep (safe room)

Your prototypical castle has a keep, a fortified structure within the castle walls as a secondary fallback defensive position in the event that the castle walls are breached.  The keep for a modern castle is a safe room.  The term safe room conjures of images of high tech vaults that only the super rich could afford.  However, a safe room can be built very affordably by the typical home owner.

The first consideration for a safe room is placement.  This will vary based on the design of the home and needs of the home owner.  If you live by yourself or just you and your spouse, the master bedroom might be your best option.  When you are asleep at night, you are already locked in your safe room.  If you have a child, you could make your child's room a safe room.  When intruders are banging on the door, just run to your child's room and lock yourselves in.  If you live alone and are paranoid about taking a shower because you might not hear an intruder breaking in, then make the bathroom your safe room.  Another good option is the master bedroom walk in closet.  Some modifications that are about to be suggested are less than aesthetic, but you may not be concerned about the aesthetics of your closet.

Once you have chosen a location, the first step is replacing or reinforcing the door itself.  Interior doors are not as sturdy as exterior doors.  You could buy a steel exterior door (about $100-150) and hang it in your existing door frame.  Be aware that exterior doors have slightly different dimensions.  They are slightly thicker, so the door will protrude from the trim into the room a little.  They are also slighter shorter, so there will be a gap at the bottom.  You can cut a piece of wood to size and screw it to the bottom of the door to cover this gap.

A more aesthetic option for hanging a steel door is to remove and replace the door jamb.  This involves removing the old jamb with a chisel.  Then place a board along the top of the opening to account for the interior/exterior door height difference.  Next make your own jamb and nail it to the frame in the correct location to account for the thickness of the door.  Some putty, caulk and paint will be involved.  If you don't have a table saw and a router table, this may not be your best option.

Another option is to buy and install a complete exterior door and frame set.  This would also be more aesthetic, would not require expensive tools, but would be a little more expensive for materials.

Lastly, there is the economy option.  Screw a piece of plywood to your existing door.  Although you can paint it to match your door, this is not going to be pretty.  You might not mind it on the inside of your walk in closet though.  A sheet of 3/4" thick oak plywood runs about $50.  Lowes or Home Depot will have a panel saw to cut it to size for you.  You will need to make a cut out for the door knob and deadbolt (you should add a deadbolt).  Screw this to the inside of your door with numerous 2" deck screws or case hardened screws.  Paint if you like.

Next you need to reinforce the latch plate, door around the deadbolt, and hinges.  This is covered in my previous post.

Additional door reinforcement is good idea.  I like the door bar from barricade.com that sells for about $70.  You still want a deadbolt though.  The deadbolt is fast to activate and will buy you time to put the bar in place.  Note the exterior steel door mounted where the closet door used to hang.


Now that your door is secure, you need to think about the walls.  It doesn't take much to break through dry wall.  You could buy some 1x4" oak boards and screw them horizontally to the studs at 2', 3' and 4' above the floor.  Then paint to match your wall or trim - your choice.  Or if an intruder is breaking through your safe room wall, you might choose to defend yourself.  You should obey all applicable laws in your area.

Inside my safe room I have two phones.  One is cheap phone that doesn't require electricity that is plugged into a phone jack that I installed.  The other is an old cell phone plugged into a charger.  Cell phones that no longer have carrier subscriptions are still able to dial 911.

I also have a 5 gallon plastic bucket and lid with bottled water and trail mix inside.  If we are stuck inside the safe room for a while, we won't go hungry or thirsty.  You don't want to deal with "daddy, I'm hungry" at a stressful time.  The bucket can be used as an emergency toilet.  I think I'll add a can of Lysol too.






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