Safe Rooms in an Apartment?

[dlombard]

Hi all,

After conducting an exhaustive Google search, I somehow managed to turn up THE VERY SAME article on how to setup a safe room in your home about a dozen times. All of the advice was geared around a HOUSE where there maybe many rooms that make up interior as well as an exterior compartments of the building.

Like a lot of people, I live in an apartment. Every single room in the house has a window (albeit small ones in the bathroom). The closets do not have lockable doors. Both bedrooms have large windows. The kitchen is not isolated in any way and the living room features a big window and is directly accessible from the front door. The most likely invasion scenario is through a window that enters either the master bedroom or the living room in my case.

Anyone come up with any good ideas on how to setup a safe room in a place like this? We're not moving anytime soon so "move" is not a good answer to the question...

Any thoughts or constructive comments would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[jimbo728]

My first thought is to set up as much of a covert defense system as is practical in your living room or bedroom and try to come up with the best solutions to as many situations as you can dream up.
By covert, I mean cleverly hidden weapons and alarms, passive and user activated.
Jim

 

[Biggfoot44]

I know you don't want to hear it, but moving is by far the almost only solution.

IF the landlord would permit you to substantially rebuild it, you would have major $$ sunk into it, with no return when you do eventually move on ( unless you plan on living there for life).

So either move, or convince yourself the threat level is acceptable after all.

 

[Retired LTC USAR]

For the windows, you could have a clear film applied which makes it harder to break in. I believe one type is made by 3M. Not sure of the cost, but from firsthand experience it works very well.

 

[Gamecock]

Not sure why windows are of concern for a safe room. I think of a safe room as a bastion against an intruder. Someone inside, not outside.

Anywho, you can make a bullet proof a wall with a bookcase filled with books. Books are surprisingly good at stopping bullets.

 

[dlombard]

That was my first thought. My wife owns a ton of books and I keep building new shelves all the time for them. She keeps asking me to arrange them all over our home, so I'm thinking of ways to do that but in such a way that it offers some ballistic resilience in whatever room becomes the "safe room."

In a place under 700 sqft., I don't have to worry about multiple routes to this place. In all likelihood, this will be the master bedroom because it's the one place where we're guaranteed to be most of the time that something like this happens. In my mind, that puts us in a good position for a living room attack vector.

Space is another concern however. Our bedroom set makes such an arrangement challenging, but I'll figure something out. The 3M tape on the windows is an excellent idea, and one I think that could make the main bedroom a very good retreat zone. The other problem I have is that my wife installed a shoerack on the door that makes it impossible to close so I have to figure out a way to deal with that too.

 

[Big Cholla]

Way back when we started teaching ccw and home defense to the public, I was part of a 'think tank' that explored the options. For the renter books was placed high on the cover list. But, here in LV there is a product used by the casino decorators making it available while it isn't so available in other areas. It is 1.5" plexiglas sheets. It comes in 4'x8' and 5'x8' sizes in colors including clear. Our test proved that it was total protection against all pistol calibers at the time and good for rifle up to but not including .308 Win. We theorized that one could take 4'x8' sheets and make a wainscot layer around the necessary walls of a safe room and hold it in place with a few well located lag screws. The door should be replaced with a steel clad exterior door with two dead bolts (one high and one low). For a renter all the mods to the rental unit could be easily and cheaply repaired before moving and taking the door and the plexiglas sheets. ............

 

[Smoke]

In a place under 700 sqft., I don't have to worry about multiple routes to this place. In all likelihood, this will be the master bedroom because it's the one place where we're guaranteed to be most of the time that something like this happens. In my mind, that puts us in a good position for a living room attack vector.

First, don't you just love how people ignore your very clear statement that moving isn't an option and tell you to move anyway?

I live in a 720 square foot apartment. We're on the second floor with one window in each room (but on the outside wall). Our front(only) door opens into a hallway and we(obviously)have no windows on the inside wall.

It's an apartment, we don't own it, we can't remodel. So we concentrated on the door. Longer screws in the hinges and a brace under the door knob. If someone wants in they'll get in but not before I have time to turn off the TV, walk to the safe, grab my rifle and load up a magazine, grab my body armor, go sit down at the kitchen table, make a sandwich, eat it and pick my teeth while pointing my rifle straight at the door and waiting for them to get it open.

On a serious note, we concentrate on being aware of our surroundings. We never open the door unless we know exactly who's on the other side. We don't do anything that indicates that we own anything valuable, if it weren't for the fact that I'm required to open carry at work none of our neighbors would even know we own guns and really they only know about that one.

(Side note, they dress me up like robocop for work. One night there was an incident in our parking lot just about the time I was leaving for work and there were probably 8 or 10 cops out there.

While I'm walking down the hall to put my work junk in my car my next door neighbor comes running to me and tries to give me a statement. I actually had to stop her and say "Laura, LOOK AT MY FACE. I'm not a cop I'm Linda's husband" the look on her face was priceless.)

Any way I said all that to say this, if you concentrate on not doing things targets do you are much less likely to become a target.


Master Lock Security Bar (265DCCSEN) - Specialty Safety & Security Items - Ace Hardware

 

[Rangerpat]

Bathroom with a telephone, gun, and a reinforced lockable door.

 

[sipowicz]

My saferoom is the bedroom....nothing ever happens in there.

 

[bigdaddyrobb]

You really are better off to update the front door with longer screws in the frame both at the lock plate(s) and the hinges. If someone does try and break in you have plenty of warning to call, arm, and secure yourself in a bedroom. Depending on the Master Bedroom closet maybe re-enforce that door and all the walls around it.

 

[Gamecock]

Bathroom with a telephone, gun, and a reinforced lockable door.

And a little refrigerator for beer.

 

[Smoke]

And a little refrigerator for beer.

Ice in the bathtub

 

[ISCS Yoda]

My saferoom is the bedroom....nothing ever happens in there.

Ouch! Yer killin' me!!!!

A literal safe room is very hard to construct. They're usually interior rooms with no windows, brick or cinder block or some other solid material for walls, steel, lockable, doors, etc. They are essentially designed for storm protection.

In a house that is already built that you can't modify or can't afford to modify, and I live in a small house, you add alarms, you make sure you have good deadbolts on solid doors, you have dogs, you can prop doors with bars made for the purpose so they're very hard to open, you lock windows and doors, and you stay armed.

I have never even thought about having a safe room isolated for that purpose. If I built a home I would but my house is old and I think of it as a large, free standing apartment. There are guns, dogs, locks, alarms, etc. I'd like a safe room for tornados but it's impractical where I am living presently so I'll risk that and if someone breaks in, well, there will be hell to pay. I don't worry about it.

I do like the idea of an interior window covering that stops bullets, although I am far more concerned with storm tossed stones and branches.

I just don't think worrying about a safe room is a very practical concern for most home owners and almost all apartment dwellers.

 

[arjay]

I just sleep under the bed with the dog

 

[bigwheelzip]

If your considering bookcases for ballistic protection, anchor them VERY securely to the walls. I lived in LA during the Northridge and Bear Lake earthquakes, and experienced the relocation of everything that was not secured. The further off the ground you live, the greater the movement in your apartment.

 

[dlombard]

First, don't you just love how people ignore your very clear statement that moving isn't an option and tell you to move anyway?

I live in a 720 square foot apartment. We're on the second floor with one window in each room (but on the outside wall). Our front(only) door opens into a hallway and we(obviously)have no windows on the inside wall.

It's an apartment, we don't own it, we can't remodel. So we concentrated on the door. Longer screws in the hinges and a brace under the door knob. If someone wants in they'll get in but not before I have time to turn off the TV, walk to the safe, grab my rifle and load up a magazine, grab my body armor, go sit down at the kitchen table, make a sandwich, eat it and pick my teeth while pointing my rifle straight at the door and waiting for them to get it open.

On a serious note, we concentrate on being aware of our surroundings. We never open the door unless we know exactly who's on the other side. We don't do anything that indicates that we own anything valuable, if it weren't for the fact that I'm required to open carry at work none of our neighbors would even know we own guns and really they only know about that one.

(Side note, they dress me up like robocop for work. One night there was an incident in our parking lot just about the time I was leaving for work and there were probably 8 or 10 cops out there.

While I'm walking down the hall to put my work junk in my car my next door neighbor comes running to me and tries to give me a statement. I actually had to stop her and say "Laura, LOOK AT MY FACE. I'm not a cop I'm Linda's husband" the look on her face was priceless.)

Any way I said all that to say this, if you concentrate on not doing things targets do you are much less likely to become a target.

Master Lock Security Bar (265DCCSEN) - Specialty Safety & Security Items - Ace Hardware

Haha, love your post. Yeah, whether or not someone owns a gun or not is really nobody's business and I'm certainly not going around telling people just because... If I somehow get the idea I'm with someone who likes to go to the range from time to time, I'll let on and maybe we'll exchange tips and advice, but generally that's not something I'll be discussing. Certainly not with the neighbors. The mix of a) people expecting you to be the hero if the SHTF or b) people thinking you're some kind of crazy person for being a gunowner and not a cop is more drama that you want. Neighbors can be drama enough as it is.

My wife and I are relatively alert people. She's Constantly asking me what that noise/sound was and asks me to go check things out through the peep hole and the like, and I'm happy to do it. We're not the kind of people to go answering the door (or even the phone) if we weren't expecting anyone and even when we are, like a delivery--we check the peep hole.

I wanted to add by the way that I'm in a part of town that, while I'm not foolish and believe it to be crime free (certainly not), it's not "the hood." I used to live in south central L.A. and where I live now, by comparison, is very safe. If I still lived down there (because the rent was amazing and the place was pretty good), I'd not only be looking through the peep hole before answering the door, but I'd be carrying at home and coming to the door with it in my holster on condition 2.

The other issue, too, is that when we go to the cars or back again--we try to make sure that we go routes that doesn't leave us visible from the street, especially if I have to bring anything large. I rarely have things shipped to my home because if the carrier leaves the box at my door and it's got a store logo on it, then I've got a honey pot there. Definitely not getting targeted in the first place is obviously the smartest play.

Mods to the front door that aren't so permanent as to require a bill from our landlord when we move out sound like a good and easy idea, too although because of the way our front door is positioned, it is--I feel--the last place a person trying to sneak into our home would try and trespass. The one window we have that you can actually see from the Street is in the living room, and it wouldn't be that hard to jump this one gate that let's you walk down a side passage, climb up onto a wall and then bust through the window. So it's that one that has me the most concerned.

That 2" plexiglass panel idea another poster had appeals to me quite a bit, but I need to price it out. We Already have a ton of books and magazines so as for loading up the walls with something that should stop bullets, I'm leaning toward leveraging that somehow. Unfortunately, like I posted before: space is a real problem for me so if I have to go with these panels, I think that would work out a lot better.

 

[bigwheelzip]

If I still lived down there ...I'd be carrying at home and coming to the door with it in my holster on condition 2.

There is no reason you shouldn't have a firearm at arms length in the home, or answer the door armed. Perhaps you just need a more convenient, compact weapon.
Home invasions happen in the best neighborhoods also.

 

[Gamecock]

There is no reason you shouldn't have a firearm at arms length in the home, or answer the door armed. Perhaps you just need a more convenient, compact weapon.
Home invasions happen in the best neighborhoods also.

Children would be a reason.

But my son is 27, so I do have firearms at arms length in all places I frequent in my house.

If the doorbell rings, I grab a gun. 'Cept I never answer the door. I'm back out of view in Condition 2, waiting for them to go away. Should they decide to force entry, they will have a serious problem.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Children would be a reason.

Yes, kids change the equation. We had the youngest grandkids visit last week, and we did lock up the ready guns. If kids were a regular feature, we would have to get a couple of small biometric gun safes for our ready pistols.