diff --git a/lib/app/lower.js b/lib/app/lower.js
index fff9bf5cdb..98b06cb503 100644
--- a/lib/app/lower.js
+++ b/lib/app/lower.js
@@ -17,15 +17,25 @@ var _ = require('lodash');
  * @api public
  */
 
-module.exports = function lower(cb) {
+module.exports = function lower(options, cb) {
   var sails = this;
 
   sails.log.verbose('Lowering sails...');
+
+  // Options are optional
+  if ('function' == typeof options) {
+    cb = options;
+    options = null;
+  }
+
   // Callback is optional
   cb = cb || function(err) {
     if (err) return sails.log.error(err);
   };
 
+  options = options || {};
+  options.delay = options.delay || 100;
+
   // Flag `sails._exiting` as soon as the app has begun to shutdown.
   // This may be used by hooks and other parts of core.
   // (e.g. to stop handling HTTP requests and prevent ugly error msgs)
@@ -62,24 +72,37 @@ module.exports = function lower(cb) {
     async.series([
 
       function shutdownSockets(cb) {
-        if (!_.isObject(sails.hooks) || !sails.hooks.sockets) {
+
+        // If the sockets hook is disabled, skip this.
+        // Also skip if the socket server is piggybacking on the main HTTP server, to avoid
+        // the onClose event possibly being called multiple times (because you can't tell
+        // socket.io to close without it trying to close the http server).  If we're piggybacking
+        // we'll call sails.io.close in the main "shutdownHTTP" code below.
+        if (!_.isObject(sails.hooks) || !sails.hooks.sockets || (sails.io.httpServer && sails.hooks.http.server === sails.io.httpServer)) {
           return cb();
         }
 
         try {
           sails.log.verbose('Shutting down socket server...');
-          var timeOut = setTimeout(cb, 100);
-          sails.io.server.unref();
-          sails.io.server.close();
-          sails.io.server.on('close', function() {
-            sails.log.verbose('Socket server shut down successfully.');
-            clearTimeout(timeOut);
-            cb();
-          });
+          timeOut = setTimeout(function() {
+            sails.io.httpServer.removeListener('close', onClose);
+            return cb();
+          }, 100);
+          sails.io.httpServer.unref();
+          sails.io.httpServer.once('close', onClose);
+          sails.io.close();
         } catch (e) {
+          sails.log.verbose("Error occurred closing socket server: ", e);
           clearTimeout(timeOut);
           cb();
         }
+
+        function onClose() {
+          sails.log.verbose('Socket server shut down successfully.');
+          clearTimeout(timeOut);
+          cb();
+        }
+
       },
 
       function shutdownHTTP(cb) {
@@ -92,25 +115,36 @@ module.exports = function lower(cb) {
         try {
           sails.log.verbose('Shutting down HTTP server...');
 
-          // Give the server 100ms to close all existing connections
-          // and emit the "close" event.  After that, unbind our
-          // "close" listener and continue (this prevents the cb
-          // from being called twice).
-          timeOut = setTimeout(function() {
-            sails.hooks.http.server.removeListener('close', onClose);
-            return cb();
-          }, 100);
-
           // Allow process to exit once this server is closed
           sails.hooks.http.server.unref();
 
-          // Stop the server from accepting new connections
-          sails.hooks.http.server.close();
+          // If we have a socket server and it's piggybacking on the main HTTP server, tell
+          // socket.io to close now.  This may call `.close()` on the HTTP server, which will
+          // happen again below, but the second synchronous call to .close() will have no
+          // additional effect.  Leaving this as-is in case future versions of socket.io
+          // DON'T automatically close the http server for you.
+          if (sails.io && sails.io.httpServer && sails.hooks.http.server === sails.io.httpServer) {
+            sails.io.close();
+          }
+
+          // If the "hard shutdown" option is on, destroy the server immediately,
+          // severing all connections
+          if (options.hardShutdown) {
+            sails.hooks.http.destroy();
+          }
+          // Otherwise just stop the server from accepting new connections,
+          // and wait options.delay for the existing connections to close
+          // gracefully before destroying.
+          else {
+            timeOut = setTimeout(sails.hooks.http.destroy, options.delay);
+            sails.hooks.http.server.close();
+          }
 
           // Wait for the existing connections to close
-          sails.hooks.http.server.on('close', onClose);
+          sails.hooks.http.server.once('close', onClose);
 
         } catch (e) {
+          sails.log.verbose("Error occurred closing HTTP server: ", e);
           clearTimeout(timeOut);
           cb();
         }
diff --git a/lib/hooks/http/initialize.js b/lib/hooks/http/initialize.js
index 5a94c6f32a..4340c4195f 100644
--- a/lib/hooks/http/initialize.js
+++ b/lib/hooks/http/initialize.js
@@ -48,6 +48,25 @@ module.exports = function(sails) {
             sails.hooks.http.server = createServer(serverOptions, sails.hooks.http.app);
         } else sails.hooks.http.server = createServer(sails.hooks.http.app);
 
+        // Keep track of all connections that come in, so we can destroy
+        // them later if we want to.
+        var connections = {};
+
+        sails.hooks.http.server.on('connection', function(conn) {
+          var key = conn.remoteAddress + ':' + conn.remotePort;
+          connections[key] = conn;
+          conn.on('close', function() {
+            delete connections[key];
+          });
+        });
+
+        // Create a `destroy` method we can use to do a hard shutdown of the server.
+        sails.hooks.http.destroy = function(cb) {
+          sails.log.verbose("Destroying http server...");
+          sails.hooks.http.server.close(cb);
+          for (var key in connections)
+            connections[key].destroy();
+        };
 
         // Configure views if hook enabled
         if (sails.hooks.views) {