Wasn't sure where to post this question, but here it is. I'm building a 12' x 20' room in the basement of my new house for just hunting stuff. It has a gun vault built off the foundation w/ a steel bank vault door installed. That part I have figured out. The carpeting will be camoflaged. (I see that is available now) The room needs to have several reloading benches along with all the storage for accessories and components.
I will have 2 large closets for my hunting cloths. Any idea's as to how to build the closets to make them "scent free"? I don't know what type of door to put on them to help. Don't think Drywall would be the way to go, but it would seal the outside rooms as far as scents go. I'm pretty excited about getting all my hunting things together in one place and organized.

Hi Shane:

The original owners of my house installed a cedar closet with walls and ceiling made of cedar waferboard plywood. That is where I store my hunting clothes and my gunsafe. They smell good to me and should mask human scent. If there is cedar where you hunt it would work.

One word of advice- keep the damn packrats out!!!!

Like you, I'm building a new house in the future, and I want to have a built in "gun" room. I want a vault door built into the foundation, and a small test range down one side.

Will you put a concrete ceiling on top of the vault area? If you've made plans I'd like a look if possible...

I think the cedar idea is good as well. That is what many older trunks for storing clothes are made of. Moths aren't supposed to like cedar either, and the smell will infuse your clothes so you'll smell like a tree!

Other than that, there may be some high tech solution..

cedar is commonly used--it won't make the clothes scent free, but it will, as mentioned keep the moths out--one thing you could do is when you get ready to go hunting(if local) dig up some dirt and leaves from your hunting area and put it in a garbage bag and then put it in your closet so that scent gets on the clothes--or just wash your clothes the night before you go hunting in some scent free wash--

sheetrock should be sealed and painted--the paint will give off some smell for awhile--

there's some stuff called FRP board which is like masonite, but has a white "baked on" coating on one side---

there's sheet fiberglass also--

tile--

I wouldn't make it air tight--let it breathe--you could vent in air from the outside to get freshair, if you wanted to keep the smells from the reloading out of the clothes--

I'll think some more on this--good luck....chris

Sounds like an awesome room. I'm a builder myself so this stuff is pretty near and dear to me. I have a 15' x 40' trophy room / bar / party room myself with a large built in closet for guns, ammo & gear.

Cedar would be darn nice, but I wouldn't sweat it using painted drywall. Once the paint cures the room should be pretty "scent neutral". Your odors will come from activities taking place in the area more so than the building materials.

Things like smoking, burning candles, gun cleaning solvents, etc. in the same area as your clothing will be what makes them stink. So long as your clothing closet is sealed off from stinky activities in the remainder of the room, I don't think you'll have a problem.

As a hard core bowhunter, I store much of my clothing in large tupperware's to ensure it is sealed off from foreign odors.

Just contact a local janitorial supply and ask them for a pine scented gel cup for a bathroom dispenser, open it up and place it in the closet.

If you cant find any try WWW.Waxie.com

I have a custom cabinet shop so benches and storage areas aren't a problem to build. I too keep all my cloths in plastic bins during hunting season. Since alot of my hunting in done out my back door now, I thought it nice if I could hang up the cloths as I come back from bowhunting. Maybe this isn't practical. I'll ave to check in to the cedar idea, I think you guys are right, if I keep the closet sealed off from the other smells in the house, it should stay fairly clean smelling.
As far as the gun safe goes, I had a 6' x 8' room poured at the same time as the foundation walls off the corner of the basement. All sides including the roof are 8" concrete with rebar throughout. I bought a bank vault door form a local bank which bolts into the wall opening which was poured into the basement wall. I installed a heat run and cold air return into the wall as well as a drain in case I need a dehumidifier in there. It's all dry right now and this weekend, I will be adding plastic and 2x2 walls all around the room, with insulation and drywall to finish out the room. One suggestion was to get a humistat and hook up a single light bulb to it which should burn off any moisture that might get into the room. I don't seem to have any problems yet with anything. If you do a search back on this site to February, I had alot of responses to the built in Gunvault question as that is when I was building my house.
Any other questions feel free to e-mail me and ask.
sandenwood@centurytel.net

Shane.....I would stay away from carpets for a variety of reasons.

1. They can generate static electricity.
2. They are a pain to clean if (when) you spill something.
3. They retain odors.
4. If you drop something it can be hard to find and there are a lot of little parts on my bench most of the time.

Put down a good quality tile floor in a medium earthy color and you will like it better and you can always put a few area rugs down for color if you want......and don't forget venilation!

I'd agree with the camo carpet for your "trophy" room... but I wouldn't have it anywhere near your "gun room" -- and hopefully, these are two separate rooms. As DB Bill pointed out, carpets aren't a good idea around solvents, oils, and other things that you can spill on them. They also hold and retain moisture, which you DON'T want around your guns.

I have an arms room and a room that will be my trophy room, when I get off my ass and finally take things out of their boxes and mount them on the walls. I'll put the camo carpet in that room (pricey stuff, but it's MY money, it's MY room, and they're MY damn trophies)... but no carpet in the arms room. In that room, I've stained a gun cart for my CAS events and I'm Tru-Oiling the stock for my .375 H&H Magnum. I'm not overly "neat" about such things. Any kind of "nice" carpet would be trashed, most rikky-tik.

Anyway, you might want to slightly reconsider your application of carpet.

Good luck, though. I hope things turn out the way you want.

Russ

I wondered about static electricity from the carpeting while reloading. The gun vauit is a separate room outside of the foundation and will most likely have tile or laminate flooring of some type. I thought about laminate flooring as well. It would eliminate the smells from the carpeted area. I mainly just want a room where everything is together and organized so when I go on different types of hunts, I won't have to search the house and garage for what I need.
I'm also building a special cabinet in my garage for my fishing poles and equipment to keep dust and dirt off them year around. My garage is large enough that my fishing boat will be parked directly behind my truck so when I want to go, all I have to do is hook it up. Another cabinet out there for Harley cloths and helmuts.
I have lots of ideas, just little time to complete right now. The house has only been up since April.
Thanks for the good idea's everyone.

Wonderful trophy and gun room. Advice on carpets good, as moisture should be kept below 40% RH, can used dehumidifiers to assist. Also could map wall studs and even ceiling to ease mounting trophies. Some fellows use 3/4 in laminated plywood on walls for a mounting base. You have a great start, now all you need is to book hunts .

pmm

Don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I know what to do now. I'll build laminated, frameless cabinets in place of a closet. This should keep oders out of the cloths as much as possible and keep them hanging together. I have built many closet systems for other people, but for some reason until writing about the harley cabinet/closet I'm building in my garage, never thought about doing it for the house. Formica has a couple of laminates out that are "fallen leaves" (brown) and "new leaves" (green) which would look great on this type of cabinet. I could use a gasket around the overlay door if necessary, but I think an enclosed cabinet would provide enough protection from outside smells. I could also build shelves and drawers which would have better use of the storage space.
What do you guys think?

They make anti-static linoleum floor tiles for computer rooms which could also work well in your gun room. I've never seen them in camo pattern though.