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Safe Spot

Bowman

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Apr 21, 2009
0
1
48
I have a house up in the mountains that I go to every weekend. I am tired of filling my car with 6 different weapons that I may or may not fire when I get up there.

I have decided to get a Liberty Safe which weighs 1565 lbs empty. I have one just like it here in the city but it is bolted to a cement garage floor.

My house in the mountains is cedar and sits on cement foundation blocks. I would like to have the safe on display in the front room of this house, however, I can see the safe falling right through the floor.

Does anybody know what I will need to do to reinforce the floor. I also want the safe bolted down. My house is remote but it is alarmed. A heavy/bolted safe would be too hard to move before the Sheriff had time to respond.

What is the best way to reinforce my floor. I do have about a 2 foot crawl space under the floor. Is it possible to place concrete under the floor to bolt up to the safe? Would that provide sufficient support for the safe as well?
 
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Not quite sure why you would place a visible attractant in a remote location, alarm system or not.
 
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I can place the safe out in my garage up there and conceal it with hinged shelving. That crossed my mind too as the garage floor is cement and would not require any reinforcement. Unfortunately the garage is not alarmed.

By "remote", I mean you cannot see the house from the main road. The house is approximately 5 minutes from a little town. Response time from the Sheriff is anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes.

Maybe you're right Cavscout. The only reason that I would want the safe in a visible place is because I really like the design and I think it would look good in living room.
 
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I have to agree the safe is to keep people from stealing your weapons, it's also to keep children out. I can't see a safe as being anything else. To me it's not for looking at but for the locking properties.

But to each his own. I also lean this way cause of the past. My dad had his guns hanging on a gun rack in the living room. Some people came by and really liked them couldn't stop talking about them. That night we went out to eat. Came home to find our female GSD dead under the rose bushs and a set of car track leading into them. The big male dog we had there at the time for breeding was ok. He kept the people inside the car, we know it was the people that liked the guns. They waited until we left and came back. Thanks to big mean dogs not really mean but makes you think. My dad built my uncle a big oak gun cabniet with glass doors and he also displayed his guns in the living room came back home one day to have them all stolen.

So a safe is a safe hard to get into but I still like the saying an old man told me once. If you can't see it you can't steal it.
 
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KHOOKS</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have to agree the safe is to keep people from stealing your weapons, it's also to keep children out. I can't see a safe as being anything else. To me it's not for looking at but for the locking properties.

But to each his own. I also lean this way cause of the past. My dad had his guns hanging on a gun rack in the living room. Some people came by and really liked them couldn't stop talking about them. That night we went out to eat. Came home to find our female GSD dead under the rose bushs and a set of car track leading into them. The big male dog we had there at the time for breeding was ok. He kept the people inside the car, we know it was the people that liked the guns. They waited until we left and came back. Thanks to big mean dogs not really mean but makes you think. My dad built my uncle a big oak gun cabniet with glass doors and he also displayed his guns in the living room came back home one day to have them all stolen.

So a safe is a safe hard to get into but I still like the saying an old man told me once. If you can't see it you can't steal it.
</div></div>

Sorry to hear about your GSD. It's too bad those scumbags weren't caught.

I like your quote which happens to be true. Maybe building a false wall inside of my garage is the way to go. My only hesitation is the fact that the garage is not alarmed. If they did happen to stumble across my safe inside of the garage, they would have a least a few days to work on it.
 
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Bowman,

I think I'd want the safe in an area where its covered by an alarm. In your situation, you'd need to weigh up the pro's and cons of either a) getting the alarm extended to cover the garage or b) Getting a concrete pad or some other major construction work done in the house...

Personally, I think I'd go with a smaller safe and install it in the house. Instead of a conventional gun safe, I think I'd look at something that could be sunk into the ground and at least partially (or better still) fully hidden.

Could you take up a section of the wooden floor and put in stall a concrete pad under the house? Then bolt the safe "on its back" so it such that its door would be flush with the wooden floor ?

Regards,

Peter
 
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If the safe is going to be a permanent feature in the room, then simply cut out a hole in the floor just under the size of the safe's base. Dig down about 6 inches and level the bottom of the hole. Then build a plywood form and pour concrete, finishing flush to the existing floor. Set your anchors or anchor bolts and lock her down. I'd leave the plywood in place. Just use an exterior treated grade to deter rot and insects.

You could do it from underneath, but 2 feet isn't much room to work under there.
 
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Bowman,

You could try to find a horizontal gun safe. They look like a piece of furniture.

Amsec Horizontal gun safe

I understand that this safe has been discontinued, however they can be found. Best place to hide something is in plain site.

Bob
 
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: tucker301</div><div class="ubbcode-body">If the safe is going to be a permanent feature in the room, then simply cut out a hole in the floor just under the size of the safe's base. Dig down about 6 inches and level the bottom of the hole. Then build a plywood form and pour concrete, finishing flush to the existing floor. Set your anchors or anchor bolts and lock her down. I'd leave the plywood in place. Just use an exterior treated grade to deter rot and insects.
I agree this would be the best way also add some rebar in the concrete.

You could do it from underneath, but 2 feet isn't much room to work under there. </div></div>
 
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Concrete piers under the area where your safe will be and we'll reinforce the floor joists with 4x4 or 4x6 on top of the piers. Let me know when you want me up there to handle your dirty work!!
 
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Thx for the help guys. Yeah, I'm thinkin' that I'd feel better if the safe was also protected by the alarm. Unfortunately, the garage is too far away from the main alarm unit so I would have to install another alarm base in the garage. This would subsequently cost me double per month for the alarm monitoring.

I think my best bet would be to place the safe inside of my house but not in plain view. I will probably end up building some type of false wall to conceal it.

I like the idea of cutting a hole in the floor and filling a wood box full of concrete. This would probably be the sturdiest anchor point for the safe. If the house catches on fire, (which is very likely in the mountains) I don't want the safe to crash through the floor into the water and mud especially if I can't access the property for a few days/weeks.

If my house catches on fire, I would expect to see my chimney and my safe standing tall as I approached.

Garcia, I'll let you know. I might need your help moving the safe too if they don't deliver to the sticks.
 
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My main question is, are you planning on using the safe primarily for decoration that gives you the ability to store guns if you bring them with you, or are you planning to leave a good number of your firearms at your cabin for an extended period? Do you travel in between enough to make it useful?

I'm a bit paranoid so I always like having positive control of my guns. I don't think I'd feel comfortable leaving any weapons I really cared about at a cabin unless I was absolutely positive the safe could keep people out, wouldn't attract attention, and would be supported by the cabin's floor.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Tucker's plan for making a concrete pit for the safe sounds like the best route to go if you do decide to put a safe in.
 
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It would be a whole hell of a lot easier to alarm the garage than to try and shore up the floor in a two foot crawl space.

I am not to big on the "safe on display" route. The more people don't know the better.
 
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Just have your current alarm system extended to your garage, will be a lot cheaper than building false walls and pouring concrete under the floor. Call your alarm company and get a quote before you start building....just my $0.2

Mac
 
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as was mentioned i would cut the floor to size, dont cut the joists,pour a footing for cmu blocks, build cmu up to bottom of
joist ,use wood same size as joist to "block in between joists,
fill your box with concrete or to save money fill partially with sand and then concrete to the top of joist, replace old floor or
use plywood to level off to finish floor. place safe on top. "Hilti" has some nice fastening systems for this application.
a nice weekend project.
gl on project
 
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Bowman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Thx for the help guys. Yeah, I'm thinkin' that I'd feel better if the safe was also protected by the alarm. Unfortunately, the garage is too far away from the main alarm unit so I would have to install another alarm base in the garage. This would subsequently cost me double per month for the alarm monitoring.

I think my best bet would be to place the safe inside of my house but not in plain view. I will probably end up building some type of false wall to conceal it.

I like the idea of cutting a hole in the floor and filling a wood box full of concrete. This would probably be the sturdiest anchor point for the safe. If the house catches on fire, (which is very likely in the mountains) I don't want the safe to crash through the floor into the water and mud especially if I can't access the property for a few days/weeks.

If my house catches on fire, I would expect to see my chimney and my safe standing tall as I approached.

Garcia, I'll let you know. I might need your help moving the safe too if they don't deliver to the sticks. </div></div>

Good luck with your safe stuff, but just a heads up. If you are going with any of the typical gun safes be very aware of their fire ratings. Yes you will see your chimney and your gun safe, however your guns will most likely suffer quite a bit of damage if not be destroyed if the safe is involved in a house fire.

In my research I have found it is better to go with a commercial type safe usually sourced from locksmiths/security folks, than the general gun safe lines. Also, sometimes just having the firearm insurance up date is good enough unless you need the firearms secured from kids in the home.
 
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The one thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that not only does the floor need to be shored up were the safe will be placed but it will also need to be shored up under the travel path the safe bust take to its permanent home. If you plan to move the safe on any thing with wheels the sub floor will probably not support them and you run the risk of punching the wheel through the floor. This is not a simple quick and cheap project to get the safe inside, however garages are more often broken into also in my area so that has to be taken into consideration.