Gun & Ammo Storage

I have seen some amazing man caves and gun storage mecca's. I am thinking I am going to have some spare time on my hands this winter so I may do something to this space and pretty it up a bit. Maybe an island on wheels with a permanently mounted gun vice, put up a couple of walls to hang the bows on perhaps.

Let's see how you store your toys? Someone out there MUST have the Taj Mahal of gun rooms - and a very understanding wife - LOL.

I have two Protector safes - one for guns, and the other for ammo and my camera equipment. I bought them at Costco 10 years ago for $400/each and they are HEAVY!

https://i.imgur.com/VoxPaJ2.jpg

Is that glock supposed to be hanging there John.LOL

Mines a mess.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...076498e9f7.jpg

Doesn’t show all the guns

Nice collection.

My wife and I are thinking ahead, rather than move to a bigger place we want to do an addition in a few years. The plan is to bump out, change the main floor to have larger bedrooms for kids and a bathroom just for us and then expand the basement with that to include an office, multi-purpose room and a windowless secured room for me :D. The thing I am fighting with, what size, the width will be 8ft but is 10ft long enough? Maybe 12ft?

I had a flood here and I can tell you, anyone who stores guns in the basement, get them off the ground. I had a 2x6 box under the cabinets and ended up with about 4in of water. When we were finished with all the repairs I made boxes that are 12in high and may go even higher when I make the new room. You can always store things underneath that are not as critical but 100 year old gun stocks are hard to come by.

I like the idea of a full work bench that I can roll away from the wall, something independent of a fixed reloading bench, put a gun vise on there and a soft washable top layer to put under any guns you are working, that sort of thing.

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Originally Posted by Fox

My wife and I are thinking ahead, rather than move to a bigger place we want to do an addition in a few years. The plan is to bump out, change the main floor to have larger bedrooms for kids and a bathroom just for us and then expand the basement with that to include an office, multi-purpose room and a windowless secured room for me :D. The thing I am fighting with, what size, the width will be 8ft but is 10ft long enough? Maybe 12ft?

I had a flood here and I can tell you, anyone who stores guns in the basement, get them off the ground. I had a 2x6 box under the cabinets and ended up with about 4in of water. When we were finished with all the repairs I made boxes that are 12in high and may go even higher when I make the new room. You can always store things underneath that are not as critical but 100 year old gun stocks are hard to come by.

I like the idea of a full work bench that I can roll away from the wall, something independent of a fixed reloading bench, put a gun vise on there and a soft washable top layer to put under any guns you are working, that sort of thing.

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I did an inspection years ago on the best firearms storage are I’ve seen. The guy had a block walled room, 10x12 with an old vault door. He got the door used from a demo company.....and of course, it was alarmed !!! His collection pretty much filled that room....

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

Is that glock supposed to be hanging there John.LOL

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LOL.......Terry that my friend is a practice gun (honest). I just keep it in the holster so I do not loose it. A buddy of mine is an armorer for movie sets and he used my G17 as a mold and made up 20 or so of them made of rubber (they look very real) - he gave me one for lending him my Glock. Perfect solution when he needs to outfit a movie shoot that has 20 NYC cops that will not use their side arm. In shoots where they are using the side arm they use a real Glock and a special barrel insert that allows blanks to cycle the action. Pretty cool actually.

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Originally Posted by Fox

My wife and I are thinking ahead, rather than move to a bigger place we want to do an addition in a few years. The plan is to bump out, change the main floor to have larger bedrooms for kids and a bathroom just for us and then expand the basement with that to include an office, multi-purpose room and a windowless secured room for me :D. The thing I am fighting with, what size, the width will be 8ft but is 10ft long enough? Maybe 12ft?

I had a flood here and I can tell you, anyone who stores guns in the basement, get them off the ground. I had a 2x6 box under the cabinets and ended up with about 4in of water. When we were finished with all the repairs I made boxes that are 12in high and may go even higher when I make the new room. You can always store things underneath that are not as critical but 100 year old gun stocks are hard to come by.

I like the idea of a full work bench that I can roll away from the wall, something independent of a fixed reloading bench, put a gun vise on there and a soft washable top layer to put under any guns you are working, that sort of thing.

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Fox,
I would highly recommend staying and renovating vs moving. Renovating allows you to just add the amount of space you need where you need it, and you get to pick the finishes you want. My wife and I did the same thing. We downsized to an area we wanted to live (with young kids) and the plan was in 5 years either move or renovate. After 1 year we decided to renovate and have never been happier. Every new house I looked at in the area I wanted to live, came with a long list of things I would have to renovate or fix.

The reno itself is a PITA but in the end it worth it. We added a second floor master bedroom, ensuite, and two walk in closets, bumped the front of the house out with a covered front porch and added a covered back porch off the kitchen. The basement under my extension is my gun room - that is what I am eying next.

I had a good one in old house. Still the process of building new room, but I have several safe, and 2 X 6ft tall Costco Steel cabinets for reloading......equipment. Pictures to follow

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Originally Posted by 410001661

Fox,
I would highly recommend staying and renovating vs moving. Renovating allows you to just add the amount of space you need where you need it, and you get to pick the finishes you want. My wife and I did the same thing. We downsized to an area we wanted to live (with young kids) and the plan was in 5 years either move or renovate. After 1 year we decided to renovate and have never been happier. Every new house I looked at in the area I wanted to live, came with a long list of things I would have to renovate or fix.

The reno itself is a PITA but in the end it worth it. We added a second floor master bedroom, ensuite, and two walk in closets, bumped the front of the house out with a covered front porch and added a covered back porch off the kitchen. The basement under my extension is my gun room - that is what I am eying next.

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I do 3D CAD for a living, I am modeling up the room and we are 3 years away from being able to pull money from the equity, which is the ideal way to pay for it.

I plan on Ikea wardrobes for hunting clothes and gear on 1 wall, with doors to keep it clean. I have a 7.5ft x 16in solid ash reloading bench I made, this will remain on the back wall. The other wall will be for gun cabinets. Above the reloading bench will be locking cabinets for powder and such. I am debating above the gun cabinets, maybe some wood gun racks with a hinged locking feature, since the whole room will have a solid core door with dead bolt it will be a room "not easily broken in to" so I can put guns on the wall, even with ammo, but I would lock them to the wall as a secondary measure. I need to work out how to display my cartridge collection and vintage ammo box collection but working on my collection of wood working tools so shadow boxes is probably going to be the way to go.

I do have a small rolling 2 level bench I was given from work, maybe 24x18 and short, that should roll around the room, and I will make a rolling bench 24in wide and up to 60in long, although I am not sure I need it that long. This will be a butcher block cable with butcher block shelf, I have some old butcher block work benches from the 60s from work, they look cool and will be very strong. Have that on castors and it should never be in the way, as long as I only try to do 1 task at a time.

This is all if we can do an 8x12 room for me, if it goes down to 8x10 or 8x8 then my plans will have to change.

Just make sure that the doors open out...buddy of mine forgot that little detail, and had to change the door out, as it was too easy to kick in.

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Originally Posted by Fox

I do 3D CAD for a living, I am modeling up the room and we are 3 years away from being able to pull money from the equity, which is the ideal way to pay for it.

I plan on Ikea wardrobes for hunting clothes and gear on 1 wall, with doors to keep it clean. I have a 7.5ft x 16in solid ash reloading bench I made, this will remain on the back wall. The other wall will be for gun cabinets. Above the reloading bench will be locking cabinets for powder and such. I am debating above the gun cabinets, maybe some wood gun racks with a hinged locking feature, since the whole room will have a solid core door with dead bolt it will be a room "not easily broken in to" so I can put guns on the wall, even with ammo, but I would lock them to the wall as a secondary measure. I need to work out how to display my cartridge collection and vintage ammo box collection but working on my collection of wood working tools so shadow boxes is probably going to be the way to go.

I do have a small rolling 2 level bench I was given from work, maybe 24x18 and short, that should roll around the room, and I will make a rolling bench 24in wide and up to 60in long, although I am not sure I need it that long. This will be a butcher block cable with butcher block shelf, I have some old butcher block work benches from the 60s from work, they look cool and will be very strong. Have that on castors and it should never be in the way, as long as I only try to do 1 task at a time.

This is all if we can do an 8x12 room for me, if it goes down to 8x10 or 8x8 then my plans will have to change.

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Perfect.......then you know the drill, and you can do that yourself! The best thing we ever did was hire a designer when we were in the initial stages. He did all the drawings and a 3D of what it would look like when it was completed.

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Originally Posted by 410001661

Perfect.......then you know the drill, and you can do that yourself! The best thing we ever did was hire a designer when we were in the initial stages. He did all the drawings and a 3D of what it would look like when it was completed.

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The problem is getting someone to even give you a ballpark cost per square foot of an addition now, not a quote, a bloody ballpark. We want to save for 3 years based on paying that additional amount on the mortgage, that way we are doing a pressure test as well as saving to pay for the increases from now until then.

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Originally Posted by Fox

The problem is getting someone to even give you a ballpark cost per square foot of an addition now, not a quote, a bloody ballpark. We want to save for 3 years based on paying that additional amount on the mortgage, that way we are doing a pressure test as well as saving to pay for the increases from now until then.

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Company that insurance sent out to appraise my sugar shack said 2x4 are $20 dollars now steel has gone up 20%. January another 10% coming. Crazy.

Estimate for my building 25000

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Originally Posted by js4fn

Company that insurance sent out to appraise my sugar shack said 2x4 are $20 dollars now steel has gone up 20%. January another 10% coming. Crazy.

Estimate for my building 25000

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3 years from now I do not expect the same Covid related expenses.

I built a bunch of stuff this spring, wanted to make a pool deck this summer but material just did not exist so delaying that until stock shows up again, hopefully next spring.

The cost of the material has not gone up but the demand has and trucking has been limited. Once the vaccine gets here there will be a delay but we will get back to normal.

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Originally Posted by Fox

The problem is getting someone to even give you a ballpark cost per square foot of an addition now, not a quote, a bloody ballpark. We want to save for 3 years based on paying that additional amount on the mortgage, that way we are doing a pressure test as well as saving to pay for the increases from now until then.

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Shop around for building contractors. Have them out to your place and show them exactly what you want.
Tell them straight up you want finished price for the job. We went through about 5 contractors before we settled on one. Put time limits on your job requirements for building, the last thing you want is to have a contractor drag their feet for months to finish.
If your on septic, depending on your by-laws, putting in another bathroom may require approval based on your septic holding tank size. The only way to prove size for us was by excavation for a visual inspection, by building inspector. Instead we built a possible (future) bathroom with rough in to avoid the bs bylaws. After the final inspection was complete the bathroom was finished.

Always save scrap lumber and when you see free lumber grab it? I also salvage lumber when possible. Luckily I had lots of lumber around or each deer stand would have cost 300 bucks. oonlyhhad to buy 16 ft 2x4 for the ladder

Fox, I agree 100%

Getting quotes during COVID are a moving target - everyone is busy and prices are all over the place. The last two electrical jobs I did (side jobs) I quoted them back in June and the job started in Aug & Sept. Most of the material costs went up a bit, mostly wire and cable, but no where close to that of lumber and other building material. I agreed to do one job (reno) on T&M and the other job (new 500 square foot work shop) the electrical portion went up by 10% - in the big picture it is a rounding error.

When I was talking to GC's for my home renovation I took most of the ambiguity out of the job.......I provided drawings from my designer of what I wanted done, a specification for the material I wanted them to use used and a scope of work stating what work I wanted him to complete (ex) walls are to be finished up to and including primed, finished drywall, and what work I am going to complete. I pulled all the permits with the city and closed them out when the job was complete. Once a contract is signed try not to change anything and avoid scope creek or as it will just cost you lots of money.

Being a Cad designer you are going to have all the details nailed down - a huge advantage. I had to pay my designer to do this for me but it was well worth it as it eliminated any issues moving forward.

Always save scrap lumber and when you see free lumber grab it? I also salvage lumber when possible. Luckily I had lots of lumber around or each deer stand would have cost 300 bucks. onlyhhad to buy 16 ft 2x4 for the ladder

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Originally Posted by canadaman30

Shop around for building contractors. Have them out to your place and show them exactly what you want.
Tell them straight up you want finished price for the job. We went through about 5 contractors before we settled on one. Put time limits on your job requirements for building, the last thing you want is to have a contractor drag their feet for months to finish.
If your on septic, depending on your by-laws, putting in another bathroom may require approval based on your septic holding tank size. The only way to prove size for us was by excavation for a visual inspection, by building inspector. Instead we built a possible (future) bathroom with rough in to avoid the bs bylaws. After the final inspection was complete the bathroom was finished.

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So what you are saying is that you do not have a final inspection for your house.

Septic here is based on the number of bedrooms, not the bathrooms. A bedroom requires a closet, so an open room in the basement is just a multi-use space, nobody will be living there but it can be used as a place for people visiting to crash.

We are not planning to add a bathroom, we have an ensuite but it is a 2 piece and tiny. We would be expanding our main bathroom to include that ensuite and then building a new ensuite with a shower and tub, should not affect the septic at all as no bathroom or bedroom numbers are changing. The only concern I have is that our furnace may be too small but we have a small house now and well below what the base furnaces will cover.

Yes I did final inspection. The bathroom was left unfinished with rough-in for future. After final inspection was complete, bathroom was then completed to get around the by-laws.
We were in the same boat about furnace, but more about the concern of airflow if we connected duct work to new addition. The fix was we build a small furnace room and put a new furnace and duct work for the addition and left the old part of houses duct work and furnace the same.

By Laws? Everything in my house and on my property was existing. ;):shades:

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Originally Posted by canadaman30

Yes I did final inspection. The bathroom was left unfinished with rough-in for future. After final inspection was complete, bathroom was then completed to get around the by-laws.
We were in the same boat about furnace, but more about the concern of airflow if we connected duct work to new addition. The fix was we build a small furnace room and put a new furnace and duct work for the addition and left the old part of houses duct work and furnace the same.

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Originally Posted by canadaman30

Yes I did final inspection. The bathroom was left unfinished with rough-in for future. After final inspection was complete, bathroom was then completed to get around the by-laws.
We were in the same boat about furnace, but more about the concern of airflow if we connected duct work to new addition. The fix was we build a small furnace room and put a new furnace and duct work for the addition and left the old part of houses duct work and furnace the same.

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Ok, so what you are saying is that you have a bathroom that was put in after your inspection was done. So, you have a bathroom that was installed without a permit, therefore you do not have an inspection on that bathroom. You may be fine now but if you go to sell that could come back to bite you as you may not have a valid septic system for your house, which is a requirement for most sales.

Its never a problem, see many houses like this out in the country. Heck my last house they could not locate the septic papers because it was installed in the 1960's.

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Originally Posted by Fox

Ok, so what you are saying is that you have a bathroom that was put in after your inspection was done. So, you have a bathroom that was installed without a permit, therefore you do not have an inspection on that bathroom. You may be fine now but if you go to sell that could come back to bite you as you may not have a valid septic system for your house, which is a requirement for most sales.

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Originally Posted by greatwhite

Its never a problem, see many houses like this out in the country. Heck my last house they could not locate the septic papers because it was installed in the 1960's.

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GW..I bought my 170 yr old Farm house with a cess pool in the back yard...a big pit with a pipe coming from the house and a sheet of plywood over top. HaHa..

Not a piece of stamped lumber in the place . Had NO electricity here till the 80's so the wiring and electrical panel looks like a dogs breakfast and was probably done by kin of Ralph and Harry Monroe from Green Acres...

Passed the House inspection though and an inspection from the Insurance company before they signed the policy.

Worth a $1/2 million now HaHa...

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Originally Posted by greatwhite

Its never a problem, see many houses like this out in the country. Heck my last house they could not locate the septic papers because it was installed in the 1960's.

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Grandpas house cannot be sold as a house due to an improper septic system, we found out about that when he died a number of years back now.

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Originally Posted by Fox

Grandpas house cannot be sold as a house due to an improper septic system, we found out about that when he died a number of years back now.

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I think they can still be sold , just classed 'as-is' . That's how 'flippers' make a living.

Most of the rougher places here still sell, just not as 'habitable'...a bulldozer turns it into a 'building lot' in a few hrs..

My septic was upgraded approx 10 yrs ago, not by me. The holding tank size could not be proven by me so excavation was required to do so. That is the reason the bathroom was finished after final inspection. And yes all the plumming and electrical was inspected. The only thing that was done after final inspection was installing toilet shower and sink to all the pre-inspected plumbing lines.

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Originally Posted by Fox

Septic here is based on the number of bedrooms, not the bathrooms.

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In theory septics everywhere in the province are based on the same criteria as their design and installation is governed by the Ontario Building Code. There are no region specific rules, it is province wide. The only thing that varies regionally is how strict the local inspector is when enforcing the provisions of the building code. As for sizing criteria you are more or less correct in your statement. The number of bedrooms is the primary driving factor but fixture count and square footage can come into play if there are more than would be typically expected for the given number of rooms/size of the house - this would apply in your area as well as the rules are uniform across the province.

For non-residential use fixture counts and type of use become the driving factor. For example you put up a shop on your property and you want it to have a bathroom and a shower. Septic design would be based on occupancy and number of fixtures.

The wife dealt with the township, as I recall, tha bathroom was considered office with future plumbing. I'd have to ask as that was her dealings

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Originally Posted by canadaman30

The wife dealt with the township, as I recall, tha bathroom was considered office with future plumbing. I'd have to ask as that was her dealings

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Not uncommon to deal with the township. Typically the enforcement/approval/inspection as it relates to the provincial code gets farmed out to local government. That's where regional differences creep in as one guy interprets the code one way and another guy interprets it another.

In Dufferin county the townships used to do it but it moved up to the county so that one guy does it all now to keep things more consistent.

I leave that stuff with the wife to deal with. Sometimes I don't play well with others that want to make life difficult...lol

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Originally Posted by canadaman30

I leave that stuff with the wife to deal with. Sometimes I don't play well with others that want to make life difficult...lol

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It's actually very similar to the Highway Traffic Act. You have one set of rules that are supposed to be applied uniformly and equally across the province. Regionally though the application and subsequent infractions/tickets/charges for identical behaviour varies depending on what the local police are like.

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Originally Posted by Species8472

I Septic design would be based on occupancy and number of fixtures.

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That was what I was told when they put in my new system...bedrooms equates to occupancy, the driving force to the size of the tank, not how many fixtures you have. Five people using one bathroom or three bathrooms still produces the same amount of waist. I paid a little extra and had them put in the biggest tank, not willing to quibble with the math. :)

back to topic:

Went to a security expert with a buddy who was looking to design a secure room for his collection. Lots on the wish list but cost prohibitive.
He was told, in the business you deal with 3 types of thieves.

Ones that are opportunistic; grab your tool box out of the back of your P/U as they walk by or in the middle of the night.

Two.. smash and grab types, kick in the door and take what they can carry and get out. These guys can be thwarted by simple having having an alarmed two locked doors security system. They know they have limited time once the alarm goes off, so you put obstacles in their way to get at your guns. If they have to work to long to get to your safes they usually won't.

Then there are the professional thieves, a VERY small percentage, maybe 1% of thieves. They will work to get what they came for. Trying to stop them is very expensive and usually not successful. They're the types that will cut a hole in the bedroom floor with a chainsaw to drop into the gun room. He laughed and said some people spent $2k on a secure door in a wall built with 2x4s and 1/2" Gyproc. Takes two minutes to cut a hole beside the safe door and walk in.

That's why the storage rules are lax with terms like 'reasonable deterrent'.....to whom...the smash & grab or the professional. They know a 20v Dewalt 4" angle grinder can cut thru a lot of security rather quickly so it's hard to be specific in what's required to be meet secure storage regulations.