A question about concrete

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Walt
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A question about concrete

Post by Walt »

Hi guys, I'm in need of some help. Hopefully from someone who knows more about this subject than myself. :)

We recently finished building a house. We had a safe room/storm room constructed that doubles as our master bedroom walk-in closet.

The safe room is a 7' x 10' room, with 8" thick solid (poured) concrete walls, and 8" thick solid concrete ceiling. The concrete walls are reinforced with 12' interlocking/interwoven pieces of 1" thick rebar. These also extend into the house foundation.

The door frame is a heavy gauge metal frame that was inserted into the form before the concrete was poured, meaning that the door frame is now filled completely with concrete. The door frame itself is about 5" thick--not quite as thick as the walls.

I don't remember the exact specs on the door, but it's a multilayer, heavy gauge metal door. It weighs several hundred pounds. I'm currently using a heavy duty door knob with lock to secure the door.

Now, on to my question:

I would really like to add some kind of multipoint locking setup to the door, preferably just something that will latch and secure each corner of the door. I've been thinking of a fairly simple sliding bolt setup, screwed into the door, with the bolt sliding into a hole/receiver in the concrete wall. My problem is this: If I just drill a hole into the concrete wall, to accept the bolt as it slides, I only have about 1.5" to work with, which I don't think will be strong enough. I was thinking of attaching some kind of bolt receiver to the door frame, which would entail drilling through the metal door frame, and the concrete beneath. Again, I'm just not sure if this type of attachment is strong enough.

Ideally, I'd like this setup to be able to withstand a pair of decent size grown men ramming into the door, or tornado-force winds.

I'm trying to describe this as I can without pictures. I'll try to post some pics of my setup and room sometime this evening.
--Walt
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HenryJ
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Re: A question about concrete

Post by HenryJ »

Does the door open in, or out?

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Re: A question about concrete

Post by F9K9 »

HenryJ wrote:Does the door open in, or out?
A very good question!
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Re: A question about concrete

Post by AParrette »

If yoou used more than one the force applied to the door would be divided by the number installed. So for a "safe room" id do two per "side" you could go further and sk two at the top and bottom and three.on the sides

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Re: A question about concrete

Post by AParrette »

Also where your hinges are wouldn't matter with the stupid I suggested as guys would try and remove the hinges to be thwarted by the door being made into a "wall"

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Re: A question about concrete

Post by Walt »

The door opens into the room.

I had one of those :idea: ideas last night. All of my solutions until now consisted of attaching something to the outside of the door. I might try to find some commercial one-sided deadbolts that I could put in the door itself. Seems like it might be the most secure option. A jimmy-proof deadbolt sounds even more attractive.

EDIT: I don't know if I conveyed this clearly enough in my first post, but the door frame is not bolted to the concrete wall. The frame, being hollow, was used as part of the form when the concrete was originally poured, meaning it's filled with the same concrete that is in the walls--there is no divider.

This room will be primarily used in bad weather situations, as I live in the most tornadically active county in the United States. It's purpose as a "safe room" is completely secondary.
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Re: A question about concrete

Post by HenryJ »

Cross bar door lock

Cross bar lock

Side bar lock

Door bar (brace rod)

Door bar lock

I had envisioned a bar with a pivot in the center of the door and two hooks or slots. One on each side. Horizontally it is latched. Vertically free.

If you drill holes for side bolts, sleeve them. You could probably epoxy the sleeves in place.

Pics will help. Seeing what there is to play with is good.

Side note: Do you have a ventilation system?

"Speed doesn't kill, suddenly becoming stationary does." - Richard Hammond
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If at first you don't succeed - Don't take up Skydiving!
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