Anyone made a shed or something similar that’s stronger than Fort Knox?

I’m a joiner so I’m thinking of a timber/chicken wire/3′ thick armour plate construction.

Only needs to be big enough to fit two bikes in without being tall enough to stand in so massively over engineered is the order of the day.

just in the process of putting a list together to do the same.
i was thinking about buying a asguard bike store. i then thought i could build a more secure store myself.

Problem with wood is an 18v jigsaw will open it up in under a minute, if I were making one I’d use sheet steel.

Problem with wood is an 18v jigsaw will open it up in under a minute, if I were making one I’d use sheet steel.

The problem with steel is an 18v angle grinder will get you in quickly as well (and if anything they’re more widely available and more pocketable – and more common bike-steely tool)

I’d go with a layer of both – a steel skin, on a plywood carcass bolted together with coach bolts through angle iron corners – with the door frame and door edges in angle iron too

However an 18v rage type saw would happily cut through all of that in a oner

You need to be realistic in your ambition for this project

If you are factoring angle grinders and jigsaws in I would suggest you keep your bikes in a safe or employ security guards

Chicken wire laminated in ply would stop a jigsaw/angle grinder attack. For a while obviously.

I had one of the Trimetals bike stores at my old house. Policeman security advisor said it was about as good as it’s possible to get.

When the builders were working on our yard they angle ground the padlocks off in ‘a couple of seconds’

If they want it enough, they’ll get it, doesn’t matter what effort you put in, the scrotes will find a way round.
Simple.

Wood and steel with something toxic to insulate between. Doesn’t make it any more secure but if your bikes do go, there’s one less bike thief to worry about.

if you’re building small then maybe build thick – someone can come equipped to cut through anything – its the time it takes thats the factor – thieves work fast because their bottle will go after a few minutes – so just make anything take longer. As a joiner maybe just use wood but plenty of it – something thick and wide scaffold planks for instance – and design it in a way so that if you cut through one plank the rest of the structure is still viable. A layer of something fibrous behind the wood (same principle as chain saw armour) would jam up any blades

I recall from somewhere a long time ago someone making a bike store out of a upturned skip in his garage 8)

Personally, if I was building something for myself, I’d make it noisy. Thieves don’t want attention so anything that generates a whole load of racket will put them off.

3′ will take a while to cut through…

Sandwich in some fibre loft insulation. It will block any mechanical saw.

I went for:
Shiplap external,for appearance,
Fibre-glass insulation,
chicken wire,
9mm ply lining

APF

Where do you live? In a Mad Max movie?

And bung a baby monitor in it it too, I have one in mine and apart from the odd squirrel alert it gives me peace of mind (just make sure its one with a ‘noisegate’ so its only triggered by noise over a certain level). Don’t forget to keep a set of bombers near the backdoor too.

The partition walls separating the customer areas from staff areas in banks are made from a ply – mesh – ply sandwich. I would imagine something like that but with a weathering external layer would be suitably tricky to get through.

In the waste industry the one thing that kills every rotating machine is the 1 tonne builders bag. Loosely sandwich one of them in.

No matter how secure the walls are you still need to fit a door. So there will always be a weak point.

I work on stealth rather than strength. If they don’t know bikes are there then that’s the ultimate defence.

They’re chained to the ground but a determined thief will get them whatever you do.

Have you considered an underground bunker?

Anti-theft solutions:

1. Pink Hammerite paint renders any bike thiefproof….

2. Find a way to keep the bikes inside the house.

3. Move to somewhere more civilised*. I usually have a few £thou worth of bikes lying outside my house all night, unlocked (as is my door and car).

*These sort of places tend to have better riding too 🙂

Mine are garaged so I have no need for one

But I’m interested in seeing pics of what people have made, purely out of interest

Sandwich in some fibre loft insulation. It will block any mechanical saw.

I went for:
Shiplap external,for appearance,
Fibre-glass insulation,
chicken wire,
9mm ply lining

This sounds about right. I would consider one of those blank firing shotgun shell things for the door ( http://www.henrykrank.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2964 ) but I’d be guaranteed to forget about it and give myself a heart attack.

I work on stealth rather than strength. If they don’t know bikes are there then that’s the ultimate defence.

Pretty much this. My hack bike is on display, proud for all to see, but my good bike is hidden in plain sight. Plus, it will become very noisy if you touch it.