What sort of safe is good enough? I looked into gun safes a while ago. And it appears that anything less than a few thousand dollars (10 or 12 ga steel) can be broken into by a fire axe. You need something in the order of 7 ga steel, weighing a ton, and costing thousands of dollars. Now this is when you start watching Youtube videos on techniques for breaking safes. Then you start feeling queasy, because it seems that with enough time and equipment, all safes can be compromised. So that suggests some sort of alarm system that can alert the authorities. This way you take time away from the robbers. Maybe they won't have enough time to crack your safe.
Gun safes aren't really that safe, as you've seen. Real (as in UL rated) safes start out at about 1/2" thick or more. But a properly installed gun safe will still provide better protection than spending the few thousand trying to reinforce the exterior of a house. The key point is that it has to be bolted down, a safe that isn't attached can pried open much easier than one that is bolted down, or just carried away. There was a recent burglary in the news a few months ago where the homeowners claimed their safe was stolen with $10 million in cash and jewels, the theives just carried the small safe out the door. It is surprisingly easy for a normal sized person to move a 500+lb safe, even easier if you're not worried about damaging anything. 2 people who knew what they were doing could probably handle 1000+ easily without special equipment.
Outward swinging doors seems like a good idea for hurricane territory. Regarding burglars with tools, what prevents a burglar from rigging the door to their truck and driving forward? Yeah, the door may be hard to bash in, but it's also easier to pull
If a theif could rig something strong enough to withstand the pull, nothing will stop them from doing that. It won't matter which way your door swings, even if it's bolted on all 4 sides, you're screwed. No matter how strong you reinforce the door or jamb, the entire frame and surrounding studs are still only held into the top and bottom plates by at most few nails and screws.
And I was just thinking that typhoons are probably another reason. Aren't outward facing exterior doors a feature in some homes in hurricane country? Izzy, help me on this one!
I thought most tornado (and I assumed maybe hurricane) shelters have inward swinging doors to prevent the occupants from getting trapped by falling debris? I don't know anything about this. Many people think the hinges might be the weak point, but it's not easy to remove a locked door from the hinge side, and there are special security screws to prevent this.
To update: Yesterday I beefed up that problematic back/side door. I installed an 8" strike plate with 6 x 4" deck screws sunk right into the king studs.
I'm sure that 6 x 4" screws are plenty strong, but sometimes deck screws are more brittle and will snap rather than bend like a normal wood screw or even a nail.
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