High Security Doors

Seven types of custom high security door for homes, available with ballistic and forced-entry protection, built to your exact opening. Ballistic glass, sidelights and transoms are engineered into the assembly where a project needs them.

Most projects run $12,000 to $25,000+

Prices vary by door type and protection level. Large or double doors may exceed this.

Or call us on 945-677-FORT (3678) — weekdays, 9 to 5 CT

Gloss black Georgian double entry door with a fanlight, set in a pedimented stone portico.

As featured in

  • realtor.comSeptember 2019
  • BloombergDecember 2024
  • Daily MailDecember 2024
  • Fox BusinessMay 2024
  • Business InsiderFebruary 2025
  • france.tvApril 2024

Compare all seven high security doors for homes

One construction standard across the range. These are not tiers: the ranges overlap because a walk-in gun room door and a front entrance are different jobs, not better and worse versions of the same thing. All seven are residential security doors. Six are made to measure for the opening they fill rather than a stock size adapted to fit; the seventh is pre-engineered and configured online.

Exterior entrances

High security entry door in stained hardwood, a matched pair with slim vertical vision panels and full-height glass sidelights, set in a grey brick porch.

High security entry doors, without looking like one

Built for exterior openings, our high security front doors are as stunning as they are secure. Each one is custom crafted for the character of the home, and can include ballistic glass sidelights, transoms, intricate millwork, high-sheen finishes. All while protecting from sophisticated assaults.

Related Bulletproof windows for the rest of the facade

Price
$9,000 to $30,000+
Ballistic
Handgun or rifle protection (Level 3 or 8)
Forced entry
Tested to FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 minutes)
Build time
12 to 14 weeks
Best for
Front and rear entrances
Bulletproof front door in a white stucco portico — a pale panelled door with a brass lion knocker, fanlight above, giving no sign of the ballistic steel inside.

Bulletproof doors, when stopping rounds is the requirement

All of our doors can be upgraded beyond the base forced entry resistant level to discreetly include ballistic steel. Welded in to door leaf and frame, the door system can stop multiple rounds, specified from higher power handguns up to military rifles. Doors feature the same hand-crafted cladding and glass options all to the same security levels.

Related Safe room walls, so the door is not the only protected surface

Price
$15,000 to $30,000+
Ballistic
Handgun or rifle protection (Level 3 or 8)
Forced entry
Tested to FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 minutes)
Build time
12 to 14 weeks
Best for
Any opening, ballistics-led

Tell us about your opening

Interior rooms

White panic room door standing open, showing the passive bolts along the hinge edge.

Panic room doors, built to protect people

The core carries two inches of Rockwool for sound, and the leaf swings out of the room as well as into it, so nobody is trapped by a blocked doorway. Milled to match the hallway doors, because being undetected amplifies a safe room’s security.

Related How to build the panic room itself

Price
$12,000 to $25,000+
Ballistic
Handgun or rifle protection (Level 3 or 8)
Forced entry
Tested to FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 minutes)
Build time
12 to 14 weeks
Best for
Safe rooms and panic rooms
Vault room door standing open, showing three hardened steel bolts projecting from the strike edge and the frameless glass panel beyond.

Vault room doors, built to protect what is inside

Our custom vault room doors are designed to discreetly protect valuables, whether that is for jewelry, watches, documents, firearms, precious metals, etc. They can double as a panic room. Fire resistant upgrades are available, and biometric access allows for convenient entry and auto-locking exit.

Related Ballistic panels for the vault walls

Price
$9,000 to $25,000+
Ballistic
Handgun or rifle protection (Level 3 or 8)
Forced entry
Tested to FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 minutes)
Build time
12 to 14 weeks
Best for
Home vaults and collections
Gun room door standing open, showing the armored edge of the leaf and the cabinet inside.

Gun room doors, sized for a walk-in room

Sized for a walk-in room rather than a standard doorway. Thermal insulation discreetly protects the valuables inside, whether that is firearms, jewelry or documents, while the wood cladding keeps it from advertising what is behind it. That is the same reason it keeps children out, and attackers from knowing what is worth taking.

Related Creating the gun vault room around it

Price
$12,000 to $20,000+
Ballistic
Handgun or rifle protection (Level 3 or 8)
Forced entry
Tested to FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 minutes)
Build time
12 to 14 weeks
Best for
Walk-in gun rooms

Tell us about your opening

Pocket doors, where a swing will not fit

Cutaway of an armored pocket door, showing the steel pocket frame, the header track it hangs from and the Rockwool packed behind the leaf.

Armored pocket doors that disappear into the wall

A pocket door that hides in plain sight, engineered for openings with no swing clearance. Hidden overhead tracks, built for the weight, let a light touch slide it shut with multi-point locking. Despite the ballistic-weight steel, it stops powerful assaults and optionally bullets too, with upgrades for electronic locks or motorized lockdown at the push of a button.

Related Fitting a safe room into an existing house

Price
From $15,000+
Ballistic
Handgun or rifle protection (Level 3 or 8)
Forced entry
Built on the hinged FE-5 / FE-15 structure (not separately tested)
Build time
14 to 15 weeks
Best for
Safe rooms and master suites

Ready to order online

Panel milling options available on the semi-custom vault room door.

The vault room door you can configure and order online

Start with a pre-configured base, so it gives you a head start on the design. Choose the security level, panel style, frame size and lock, and the price updates as you build it. The same design process still applies. This just gets you to a clearer starting point faster, and we confirm the details before production. A 25% non-refundable deposit starts the shop drawings and the build.

Related Technical data for every door we build

Price
Exact price configured online
Ballistic
Level 3 or 8 optional
Build time
10 to 12 weeks
Best for
Vault rooms, faster turnaround

All seven side by side

Every price is for a complete door system, not a door leaf on its own. The two rating scales are explained in full below. Lead time is from approval to delivery, including freight.
DoorPrice fromBallisticForced entryLead time
High security entry doors $9,000 to $30,000+ Level 3 or 8 FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 min)12 to 14 weeks
Bulletproof doors $15,000 to $30,000+ Level 3 or 8 FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 min)12 to 14 weeks
Panic room doors $12,000 to $25,000+ Level 3 or 8 FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 min)12 to 14 weeks
Vault room doors $9,000 to $25,000+ Level 3 or 8 FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 min)12 to 14 weeks
Gun room doors $12,000 to $20,000+ Level 3 or 8 FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 min)12 to 14 weeks
Armored pocket doors From $15,000+ Level 3 or 8 Built on the hinged FE-5 / FE-15 structure14 to 15 weeks
Semi-custom vault room door Exact price configured online Level 3 or 8 optional FE-5 or FE-15 (6 attackers, 15 or 45 min)10 to 12 weeks
What the doors have in common

Every door in the range starts from the same steel core, the same multiple-layer construction, the same hardware options and the same milled finishes — so the protection is consistent, and so is the way the door sits in a house. Tell us the opening and the threat you’re planning for, and we’ll walk you through which build fits best and why.

What an armored door costs, and what the price includes

The ranges above reflect the complete, finished system — engineered and assembled as one unit, then shipped with its frame. They’re built for security from the ground up and are assembled and tested before shipping.

  • Secure steel core
  • Custom milled cladding
  • Armored frame
  • Multi-point locking
  • Hinges and hardware
  • Insulation and thermal seal
  • Factory assembled and tested
  • Shipped with frame and trim

Not sure which of the seven fits your opening?

Send a photo of the doorway and tell us what the room needs to do. No tape measure needed — we will come back with the door types that fit your goals and a preliminary starting price range.

Request a quote Or skip the form and call 945-677-FORT (3678)

How protection is rated

A bulletproof — or, in technical terms, bullet resistant — door is considered in most people’s minds the sign of powerful security, but there is much more to consider. Our base model doors are tested to US Department of State SD-STD-01.01 Rev H assault standards, a common specification for US Embassies. For ballistics, the steel used is tested to the European FB4 and FB6 standards and specified by protection level.

Two technicians attacking a Fortified Estate armored door with a sledgehammer and an axe during a forced-entry test.

Forced-entry attack test, conducted to US Department of State standard SD-STD-01.01 Rev H.

Why both scales matter

They describe different attacks and one does not imply the other. A bullet is a single linear piercing force, and the right material — in our case hardened ballistic steel — will stop it from penetrating the door and hurting someone in the room behind. A human attacker brings a far wider range of tools and angles, depending on their level of sophistication: axes, breaching rams, power tools. And unlike a bullet, a human can adapt mid-attack, identify weaknesses, and concentrate effort there. That is what forced-entry resistance is for.

Which one leads depends on the threat you are actually planning for. A street-facing entrance in a visible property is usually a forced-entry problem first. A safe room exists for the moment someone is already inside and armed, so ballistics lead. Most projects specify both, at different levels, which is what moves the price inside each range. Doors like ours, engineered from the ground up to exceed embassy-grade assaults, are specially formed to repel attack from wide ranging angles, powerful tools, and experienced criminals.

Why people choose one over the other. Forced entry is a time calculation; ballistics is a human risk calculation. Forced entry levels are chosen by how long you need protection to hold — what is in the room, how quickly a threat is detected, how long the police response takes. FE-15 is specified where response times are long enough that holding a door for an extra 30 minutes changes the outcome. Ballistics is chosen by who will be in the room and the criminal firearm threats in the area.

Forced entry, US Department of State

FE means forced entry — how long the door holds against a team of attackers working on it at once. Tested to SD-STD-01.01 Rev H.

30+ man-minutes

FE-5 Standard

Six attackers, three 5-minute intervals per door.

4+ man-hours

FE-15 Standard

Six attackers, three 15-minute intervals per door.

What the test involves

Six experts attack the door at the same time with sledgehammers, carpenter hammers, wood-splitting mauls, axes, four to five foot crowbars, chisels, torches and a 120 lb battering ram that takes two men to swing. Having six of them on it at once is a large part of the difficulty. FE-5 and FE-15 differ in how long that goes on for.

How forced entry doors are tested, in full

Bullet resistance, handguns and rifles

Level describes the class of round the steel is specified to stop.

Handguns

FB4 EU / UL3 US Equiv.

High-power handguns including the .44 Magnum.

Rifles

FB6 EU / UL8 US Equiv.

7.62 x 51 military rifles such as AK-47, M-14, and AR-15.

How the steel is specified

Ballistic steel runs inside the door itself rather than sitting in a panel bolted to one face. The steel itself is tested to the European FB4 and FB6 standards. The assembled door has not been through a UL 752 test of its own, so we describe it by the level it is built to rather than by a label it does not carry — and because the assembly carries more steel than the rated sheet alone, it goes beyond that single-sheet specification.

How the ballistic steel is specified

12 active boltsHardened steel, on the strike side, top and bottom of the door.
4 to 8 passive boltsOn the hinge side, so the door cannot be lifted out.
Single actionOne thumbturn throws every bolt at once. Or set it to auto-lock on close.
Drill-resistant coreManganese steel over the mechanism, plus a relocker.

Tell us about your opening

Questions we get before a quote

Which door do I actually need?
It usually comes down to where the opening is. An exterior entrance points to a high security entry door, a safe room points to a panic room door, and a walk-in collection points to a gun or vault room door. If the opening cannot take a swing, the pocket door is the one that fits. Send us the opening and we will tell you which applies. If the project covers more than one opening, a security assessment is the better starting point.
What is the difference between bulletproof and forced-entry resistance?
They are two separate tested scales and one does not imply the other. Bullet resistance describes what ammunition the door stops; the steel used is tested to the European FB4 and FB6 standards. Forced-entry resistance is measured under US Department of State standard SD-STD-01.01 Rev H and describes how long the door holds against six experts attacking it at once. A door can be specified for one, the other, or both.
What protection level do I actually need?
People land on different answers for different reasons, so it is worth saying what drives the choice rather than prescribing one. Level 3 with FE-5 covers handgun threats and the FE-5 attack test. Level 8 and FE-15 come up where there is rifle exposure, or where emergency response is far enough away that holding the door for longer genuinely changes the outcome. Send the opening and what you are planning for, and we will set out what each option would mean here.
Will it look like a normal door?
That is the whole point of building it to order. Cladding comes in engineered or solid wood, painted finishes match to several hundred RAL colors, and milling profiles are cut to your drawing. Done properly, the only person who knows which door it is should be you.
How heavy is it, and will it feel normal to open every day?
Heavier than a standard door, and engineered so that you stop noticing. For a door of roughly 3 by 7 feet, an FE-5 runs about 250 to 300 lb and an FE-15 about 300 to 350 lb, against roughly 75 lb for an ordinary exterior door. Ballistics add more: an FE-5 at Level 3 is about 300 to 400 lb, and an FE-15 at Level 8 about 450 to 550 lb. As a rough guide, ballistic protection adds around 8 lb per square foot at Level 3 and around 12 at Level 8, and bullet-resistant glass adds roughly 10 to 20 lb per square foot across the same range. A pocket door runs 10 to 20 percent heavier than the equivalent hinged door. What decides whether it feels normal is the engineering rather than the mass: the hinges are designed so that a child or an elderly adult can open the leaf easily, and they are designed and tested for residential use.
Is it fire-rated as well?
The doors are fire-resistant by construction, but they do not carry a US fire label, and that distinction is worth being precise about. A label requires testing one exact configuration and then repeating that same configuration every time, which is not how a bespoke door works. What the doors do have is resistance built into the way they are made — multiple layers of metal, sealing, and dual gasketing that compresses when the door is closed. Fire performance can also be upgraded: plasterboard in the leaf and around the edges, smoke seals, intumescent seals that expand to fill voids as they heat, a door closer so it stays shut, and a threshold. A door built below our FE-5 specification, with those upgrades fitted, was tested in England to EN 1634, where it exceeded 45 minutes for both insulation and integrity. That figure is for that door with those upgrades, not for the range as standard. Building codes sometimes accept characteristic requirements such as thickness and material in place of a minute-rated label, and these doors clear those comfortably — but if your opening needs a labelled assembly, as some commercial and high-rise situations do, say so at the drawing stage.
How much does a bulletproof door cost?
Between $15,000 and $30,000+, depending on how the door is specified. Bulletproof door price moves mainly on the security level specified, the size of the opening, and how elaborate the millwork and finish are. What that figure covers is set out above.
How long does it take?
Shop drawings usually come back within a few days to a week, and how long you take to approve them is up to you. From approval, most doors currently run 12 to 14 weeks. Pocket doors and doors with glass run a little longer, around 14 to 15 weeks. The doors are finished by specialist fabricators in Europe, and freight is included in those figures. Expediting is sometimes possible.
Can I just add a ballistic panel to an existing door?
It is not recommended. A standard door is not built to carry the weight of ballistic material, so it sags and starts binding, which is exactly the wrong failure mode in an emergency. Bolting armor onto an existing leaf also leaves the frame, hinges and lock untouched, and those are what get attacked first.
What is the safest front door?
A steel-core assembly where the frame, hinges and locking are engineered together with the leaf, rather than a strong slab hung in an ordinary frame. Most attacks go at the frame and the lock first, so a door is only as good as what surrounds it. Our high security entry doors cover this in detail.

What clients say

5/5 Rated Excellent on Google

  • “Fortified Estate has been so great to work with. Everything from specifying and recommending all the customization options, to technical help during installation, they were so gracious and helpful.”

    Penny M.

  • “The staff at Fortified Estate … was always available, helpful, gracious and went the extra mile to resolve my complicated delivery issue.”

    Doug H.

  • “The sign of a good company is not when everything goes right, but how they react when something goes wrong. … We talked to many vendors, and Fortified Estate was far more knowledgeable and aware of what we were trying to build than any of the others.”

    Nathan B.

Read our reviews on Google

Tell us about the opening

Send us an opening and we will come back with the door types that fit it, and what they cost.

Who you will hear from
  • Lauren KuopusOperations specialist
  • Michael MendozaTechnical associate
  • Eva MichelleClient concierge
  • Jon HarrisChief security officer

Request a quote

Send a photo of the doorway and the room it serves, plus any details you have. A specialist reads it and replies with the options and a starting price range. Custom shop drawings start after a 25% non-refundable deposit. The project gallery shows completed work.

Request a quote

No obligation at the quote stage.

Book a call

Pick a time with a security specialist. Useful when the project involves more than one opening, or a safe room that is still being designed.

Book a call

A short, no-cost call. We’ll talk through your openings, the protection levels you might consider for each one, and a price range — no commitment required.

Or call the team 945-677-FORT (3678)