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Panic rooms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:24 pm
by 10ringo10
panic rooms are they becoming the must have for just the super wealthy ,i know they have them in banks mainly for staff these are usually a room with bullet proof lined walls and a strong secure door and the material is damned hard to cut.
with more crime and poor people, i am sure in the future we are going to be seeing more companys installing these...hell i might even get into this.

food for thought.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:21 pm
by Anavaree
You are talking about a real serious panic room, like in the movies. I think everybody who makes a decent living and has a nice home could use a "panic room". I live in a nice neighborhood and where do you think the criminals are going to go "shopping". Not their neighbors, my neighborhood.
My panic room is a 2 entry/exit, easy to egress room with a phone and a loaded 12gauge tactical shotgun and assorted small arms. It is a place to fall back too in the event of an increasingly more common home invasion. It is not in the greatest locations in my home, but it is the best I have right now. A little planning and heightened awareness around your home can give you the seconds you need to survive.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:53 pm
by 10ringo10
well this is something new to me to be honest, but after fitting a few locks for a local building society some months back they were installing this ballistic board between the walls i got talking to the joiner and it was not the first time he has installed this its common... he had a special blade for his saw and took forever to cut.
id forgotten all about it untill now, i did a bit of research last night on material costs and its not cheap stuff this bullet proof boarding costs 600 dollars a piece 1200 x 2400.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:42 pm
by Josh66
If I were having a house built, I would incorporate something like that into it.

Not necessarily for a home invasion situation (but obviously, I would want it to be able to serve that function), but more like a walk-in safe.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:54 pm
by Violaetor
I would think the logical use of a panic room for a normal individual is pointless, locking yourself in a secure room when someone is "shopping" at your home basically gives them the go ahead to browse at their leisure.

If you need a secure room because you genuinely fear for you and your families safety then by all means get one, but I would have to assume you are delving into some unsavory territory to be needing that in the first place, and if that's the case you probably have a reputation to not be trifled with (or you flaunt yourself and have it coming).

Either way unless you are a high priority target, the more suitable and affordable option would be in/out CCTV with motion and a Tactical 12.

If I had cash to burn, of course I'd get one along with pressure switches, false walls, corridors... People Under the Stairs style!

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:46 am
by rai
ballistic board, Im gonna have to google that,

I don't think that the secure room is really only for people who are hunted by criminals like jodi foster,

Schlage lock company as far back as the early 70's was reccommending installing a deadbolt on a closet door for certain items, that was before the gunsafes were made.

If you live in some community in oklahoma, you might want someplace built to withstand high winds.....

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 9:57 am
by magician59
How about just making the whoe house "Panic" house...That way they don't even get in!

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 11:47 am
by huxleypig
My cellar is going to be my 'panic room'. I say panic room, really I mean a more ridiculous high security man cave. It is the entry point for the water, electricity and gas so I'd have all the resources I'd need to survive.

Really I just want to have a laugh, install a false bookshelf that opens when you pull a certain book. Followed by a false wall that can only be opened via some sort of biometrics and code. Then if my eyeball got ripped out to gain entry then a code would still be required. Maybe have a panic code that deadlocks everything and ignites thermite to destroy everything! My mind is drifting now but I'm sure you get the idea, you can have lots of fun.

I remember seeing some computer equipment (this was a long time ago) that had thermite lining all the hard drives and was there as a failsafe to destroy evidence. For some reason most of it never got activated though.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 2:44 pm
by ARF-GEF
What an interesting topic 10ringo, thanks for starting it!
If any of you get into building one could he psot some tips or guidlines? :D I would be so curious.

Have you considered having the walls made by bircks? Like here where I live all the walls are laid out of brick and I think, though I probably can1T withstand concetraded high caliber fire it can reasonably withstand gunfire. (Even longer barreled guns.) How do I know well the walls in many buildings are just like they were in the 50's and then many walls easily withstood the machine guns of the soviet troops who moved in to supress the revolution against the communist rule.
Anyway that would be worth taking a look at, it might easily be cheaper than fancy stuff.

Really I just want to have a laugh, install a false bookshelf that opens when you pull a certain book. Followed by a false wall that can only be opened via some sort of biometrics and code


locking yourself in a secure room when someone is "shopping" at your home basically gives them the go ahead to browse at their leisure.

I woudl probably keep a charged phone (or phone + charger + spare akku) in it all times.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 2:45 pm
by ARF-GEF
ARF-GEF wrote:What an interesting topic 10ringo, thanks for starting it!
If any of you get into building one could he psot some tips or guidlines? :D I would be so curious.

Have you considered having the walls made by bircks? Like here where I live all the walls are laid out of brick and I think, though I probably can1T withstand concetraded high caliber fire it can reasonably withstand gunfire. (Even longer barreled guns.) How do I know well the walls in many buildings are just like they were in the 50's and then many walls easily withstood the machine guns of the soviet troops who moved in to supress the revolution against the communist rule.
Anyway that would be worth taking a look at, it might easily be cheaper than fancy stuff.

Really I just want to have a laugh, install a false bookshelf that opens when you pull a certain book. Followed by a false wall that can only be opened via some sort of biometrics and code


locking yourself in a secure room when someone is "shopping" at your home basically gives them the go ahead to browse at their leisure.

I woudl probably keep a charged phone (or phone + charger + spare akku) in it all times.
A simple (not smart phone) like the one I keeps functioning for 3 weeks with normal usage, I think it can easily survive 4 weeks if it's not used.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:05 pm
by xeo
Kind off-topic, but not really. This is an awesome movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258000/

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:49 pm
by ARF-GEF
Yeah! Great movie!

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:33 am
by rai
there was something in the news a few years back, some billionaire got killed in a fortified room in Monaco, eventually they charged his male nurse or someone, wife might have been involved, and a fire too.
wikipedia Ted Maher

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:23 am
by railtech
rai wrote:I don't think that the secure room is really only for people who are hunted by criminals like jodi foster,

Schlage lock company as far back as the early 70's was reccommending installing a deadbolt on a closet door for certain items, that was before the gunsafes were made.

If you live in some community in oklahoma, you might want someplace built to withstand high winds.....


I live in a tornado prone area; indeed a huge tornado hit the area a few years ago. Now, about 20% of new houses are being built with "FEMA Compliant" tornado-safe rooms. A much lesser percentage of existing homes are retro-fitting in tornado rooms (because generally, the easiest way to do it is to put a giant steel box in your garage (anchored to the floor), but the problem is: you lose about 1/2 a garage stall, making it useless for a car).

Anyway, the new houses being built with tornado rooms are generally made with cinder block walls, but with rebar and concrete filling the hollow spaces between each block, then all the rebar is tied together in a 4-inch concrete roof. The best ones have two exits that are 90-degrees opposite each other, but most only have one exit.

Re: Panic rooms

PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 11:31 am
by 10ringo10
blows me away why they keep building wood houses in tornado hit areas...easier to bulid or rebuild than stone or concrete housing I assume.