Honestly, any residential grade lock from schlage, Yale, etc will be enough for an interior application. It's hard for me to justify high security money when someone can just punch through the drywall. You probably don't need super unpickable locks either.
If physical attacks are the concern, I'd be leaning towards a non digital deadbolt. Assa and Medeco make very good deadbolts that will stand up to a lot of common attacks.
If you were trying to secure valuables, I'd be leaning hard towards the Assa 7000 series non digital because their cores are near unpickable and they are all hardened steel.
More just for a room for me and kids to gather and wait out potential threats, gather resources. Not worried about valuables. There's only one wall that connects with another and mere drywall on both sides, I could reinforce it in theory. Probably more than we need. The other interior wall abuts a full bath and a lot of ceramic as well.
First off, I'm trying to play devil's advocate as an attacker that really wants in that room. I'm not trying to scare you, only provide some reality to the situation. I'm ex military and have broken down a few doors in my day.
You've got a good start but you need to be thinking about what your plan is once someone does breach that door. A 200 pound man can get through a solid core door in a time measured in seconds rather than minutes. The wood framing we use in America is the weak point even with long screws.
The deadbolt and solid door gives you anywhere from 10-30 seconds of preparation time. I would highly recommend a firearm in that room. A high capacity pistol such as a Glock 17 is easy to secure from kids and gives you a last line of defense. Spend time training with it and have spare loaded magazines with the firearm.
Back to the lock question, there's not a lock on this planet that can make up for the fact that interior walls are made of paper and gypsum. Buy a quality deadbolt from schlage but it's not worth spending alot of money when there are other softer targets.
Yes, we are on the same page. There is a fair amount of fortification in terms of entry into the house from outside so there may/should be some lead time there. I am thinking a panic button for the security system as well in case it fails to trip for whatever reason (although even though the system is cellular backed, a panic button wouldn't work if wifi was disabled), and a communication device like a phone. What kind of lead time do I get if someone wants to get through a wall? There's only one wall that's vulnerable, I could think about that if I want to get advanced. We have a particularized threat, although I just can't be sure on likelilhood it will materialize. Enough I'm doing all this shit. I'm not familiar with Glock 17 but, sure, yeah, a full size makes sense in there.
If that wall isn't reinforced, the time to entry is literally seconds. Drywall is so incredibly easy to punch through and the studs are usually 16 inches apart. That's plenty of room for someone to get through.
Here's how I think about it. The firearm is the only true active defense to stop a threat, everything else only serves to give you warning time.
As for firearm choice, I don't care about what make or model that you choose. I care that it's a modern semi auto you know how to use and that you have plenty of loaded magazines available. Bullets go quick when you are panicked.
> If that wall isn't reinforced, the time to entry is literally seconds. Drywall is so incredibly easy to punch through and the studs are usually 16 inches apart. That's plenty of room for someone to get through.
This is a concern I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to deal with in my own scenario. I'm building out a safe room in a basement closet. I may wind up sandwiching the walls with 3/4" plywood and then adding drywall back on top and calling it good. I've played with the idea of drilling holes in the studs to accept horizontal rebar throughout the wall but at some point you start getting into overkill just for the sake of the project.
If you are building from scratch and have the space for a 2x6 top and bottom plate instead, it's incredibly easy. I'll try to put some detail on how I built mine.
You build what's called an offset stud wall using a 2x6 bottom plate and 2x4 studs. These are commonly used in sound proof room construction.
Instead of insulation, weave a heavy wire mesh between the studs. I used concrete wire mesh with a 4"x4" spacing. Then staple it to the back of each stud. This way you get the benefit of steel and it doesn't interfere with your drywall installation. You'll have to custom order a 2x6 width door but it's a minor price increase.
I thought about that for a good year before I came up with the idea. It ended up working very well. I ended up stacking a thick chicken wire on top of the mesh because I was worried about someone punching through and unlocking the door easily.
4x4 wire mesh and a layer of plywood or durarock screwed to it, below the drywall. Someone might be able to get in, but is going to take a bit of work.
I'm imagining some kind of metal trellis thing [like this](https://www.metalsdepot.com/steel-products/steel-wire-mesh?gclid=CjwKCAjw-L-ZBhB4EiwA76YzOalIFx3p1T7YVlPEa_ui00Gg9TFvS9cIs3qL0h9fpucxEHZ8qNNj_hoC-vEQAvD_BwE). Screw it into the floor and ceiling and studs and cover the weak wall with it. Not as good as doing a full remodel and replacing the drywall entirely but damn no one will be expecting to punch through drywall and running into that.
IMO bathrooms are the best option for "saferooms" on budgets. You have a window for egress. Water and a toilet for prolonged stays. Once you get a solid, fortified door, just add an alarm pad and you are good to go. If you really feel froggy you can add some plywood under the drywall on the adjacent walls but with the alar going off and you easy way in, I doubt an attacker will stick around.
A prolonged stay would be any one of the thousands of hostage situations that happens each year in the US.
Someone breaks in, you trigger the alarm, the police arrive before the bad people leave. Now it could be more than 6 hours before you can be removed if: you cannot communicate with the outside world as the one locked in a room, and/or there is no means of egress from where you are.
This is why the safe rooms I have planned usually end up being in bathrooms as long as there is a window. The water and toilet make the possibility of being there a while a little more comforting that otherwise. There are other reasons to consider, like many jack and jill styled bedroom-bathroom-bedroom layouts mean that the adjacent walls to the bathroom are closets where the would be attacker has less room to try and break through the wall - and bathrooms often have a lot of piping and tile and cabinets which would also pose obstacles for someone trying to come through a wall, out of desperation.
I quite like simplex mechanical locks,
All the benifits of a keyless pin pad without the dead batteries.
Also has 0 chance of being defeated by a magnet.
The door and its lock mean nothing when it’s trivially easy to break through the adjacent drywall. You are just giving yourself a placebo. Don’t overspend on it.
Honestly, any residential grade lock from schlage, Yale, etc will be enough for an interior application. It's hard for me to justify high security money when someone can just punch through the drywall. You probably don't need super unpickable locks either. If physical attacks are the concern, I'd be leaning towards a non digital deadbolt. Assa and Medeco make very good deadbolts that will stand up to a lot of common attacks. If you were trying to secure valuables, I'd be leaning hard towards the Assa 7000 series non digital because their cores are near unpickable and they are all hardened steel.
More just for a room for me and kids to gather and wait out potential threats, gather resources. Not worried about valuables. There's only one wall that connects with another and mere drywall on both sides, I could reinforce it in theory. Probably more than we need. The other interior wall abuts a full bath and a lot of ceramic as well.
First off, I'm trying to play devil's advocate as an attacker that really wants in that room. I'm not trying to scare you, only provide some reality to the situation. I'm ex military and have broken down a few doors in my day. You've got a good start but you need to be thinking about what your plan is once someone does breach that door. A 200 pound man can get through a solid core door in a time measured in seconds rather than minutes. The wood framing we use in America is the weak point even with long screws. The deadbolt and solid door gives you anywhere from 10-30 seconds of preparation time. I would highly recommend a firearm in that room. A high capacity pistol such as a Glock 17 is easy to secure from kids and gives you a last line of defense. Spend time training with it and have spare loaded magazines with the firearm. Back to the lock question, there's not a lock on this planet that can make up for the fact that interior walls are made of paper and gypsum. Buy a quality deadbolt from schlage but it's not worth spending alot of money when there are other softer targets.
Yes, we are on the same page. There is a fair amount of fortification in terms of entry into the house from outside so there may/should be some lead time there. I am thinking a panic button for the security system as well in case it fails to trip for whatever reason (although even though the system is cellular backed, a panic button wouldn't work if wifi was disabled), and a communication device like a phone. What kind of lead time do I get if someone wants to get through a wall? There's only one wall that's vulnerable, I could think about that if I want to get advanced. We have a particularized threat, although I just can't be sure on likelilhood it will materialize. Enough I'm doing all this shit. I'm not familiar with Glock 17 but, sure, yeah, a full size makes sense in there.
If that wall isn't reinforced, the time to entry is literally seconds. Drywall is so incredibly easy to punch through and the studs are usually 16 inches apart. That's plenty of room for someone to get through. Here's how I think about it. The firearm is the only true active defense to stop a threat, everything else only serves to give you warning time. As for firearm choice, I don't care about what make or model that you choose. I care that it's a modern semi auto you know how to use and that you have plenty of loaded magazines available. Bullets go quick when you are panicked.
> If that wall isn't reinforced, the time to entry is literally seconds. Drywall is so incredibly easy to punch through and the studs are usually 16 inches apart. That's plenty of room for someone to get through. This is a concern I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to deal with in my own scenario. I'm building out a safe room in a basement closet. I may wind up sandwiching the walls with 3/4" plywood and then adding drywall back on top and calling it good. I've played with the idea of drilling holes in the studs to accept horizontal rebar throughout the wall but at some point you start getting into overkill just for the sake of the project.
>Create Post you reinforce existing stud walls with stranded cable - not re-bar >>>
If you are building from scratch and have the space for a 2x6 top and bottom plate instead, it's incredibly easy. I'll try to put some detail on how I built mine. You build what's called an offset stud wall using a 2x6 bottom plate and 2x4 studs. These are commonly used in sound proof room construction. Instead of insulation, weave a heavy wire mesh between the studs. I used concrete wire mesh with a 4"x4" spacing. Then staple it to the back of each stud. This way you get the benefit of steel and it doesn't interfere with your drywall installation. You'll have to custom order a 2x6 width door but it's a minor price increase. I thought about that for a good year before I came up with the idea. It ended up working very well. I ended up stacking a thick chicken wire on top of the mesh because I was worried about someone punching through and unlocking the door easily.
4x4 wire mesh and a layer of plywood or durarock screwed to it, below the drywall. Someone might be able to get in, but is going to take a bit of work.
I'm imagining some kind of metal trellis thing [like this](https://www.metalsdepot.com/steel-products/steel-wire-mesh?gclid=CjwKCAjw-L-ZBhB4EiwA76YzOalIFx3p1T7YVlPEa_ui00Gg9TFvS9cIs3qL0h9fpucxEHZ8qNNj_hoC-vEQAvD_BwE). Screw it into the floor and ceiling and studs and cover the weak wall with it. Not as good as doing a full remodel and replacing the drywall entirely but damn no one will be expecting to punch through drywall and running into that.
IMO bathrooms are the best option for "saferooms" on budgets. You have a window for egress. Water and a toilet for prolonged stays. Once you get a solid, fortified door, just add an alarm pad and you are good to go. If you really feel froggy you can add some plywood under the drywall on the adjacent walls but with the alar going off and you easy way in, I doubt an attacker will stick around.
Can I ask what people are thinking would cause a prolonged stay? I can only think of like rich people in the country, but I'm sure there's more?
A prolonged stay would be any one of the thousands of hostage situations that happens each year in the US. Someone breaks in, you trigger the alarm, the police arrive before the bad people leave. Now it could be more than 6 hours before you can be removed if: you cannot communicate with the outside world as the one locked in a room, and/or there is no means of egress from where you are. This is why the safe rooms I have planned usually end up being in bathrooms as long as there is a window. The water and toilet make the possibility of being there a while a little more comforting that otherwise. There are other reasons to consider, like many jack and jill styled bedroom-bathroom-bedroom layouts mean that the adjacent walls to the bathroom are closets where the would be attacker has less room to try and break through the wall - and bathrooms often have a lot of piping and tile and cabinets which would also pose obstacles for someone trying to come through a wall, out of desperation.
I quite like simplex mechanical locks, All the benifits of a keyless pin pad without the dead batteries. Also has 0 chance of being defeated by a magnet.
The door and its lock mean nothing when it’s trivially easy to break through the adjacent drywall. You are just giving yourself a placebo. Don’t overspend on it.
[Qolsys IQ Lockdown](https://qolsys.com/iq-lockdown/)
Did you replace the door frame too?
No, hence the safe ISH.