Thread: Securing a pistol safe

Hey team, just bought a pistol safe and trying to sort a place to secure it at home. Dwelling is a 1940s hardwood framing home with hardwood floors etc.

I do have a standalone double garage with concrete floor and exposed framing interior about 10 meters from the house as well.

Those that have gone through this before, the simple option is to have it hidden in the garage somewhere but I would like it to be in the house somewhere. How big of a steel plate do I really need to go under the floor? Is there another way to do it?

Love to hear from anyone who has had to do this in the last 12months.

Do you own the dwelling or do you rent?
And how permanently do you want it installed ?
The best thing would be to built up a concrete base or concrete box below the floor of the cupboard where you want to have your safe into.
And having the safe into that concrete box with the door flush below the carpet or flooring of the cupboard. You would then have just the carpet hiding the door out of sight. If it is floorboard, maybe make a discret door with hinges out of the floorboard planks. If you ever decide to sell the house it should not be too bad to patch up if you want to keep the safe, or you could sell the safe with the house as it is. The way the criminality goes in our society it could be a little bonus in a few years time.

heavy steel EA (even angle) - 2 of - running across two bearers in floor under safe

12mm coach bolts up through the 4 holes in the floor of the safe, nuts and washers only accessible from inside safe

Easier to get the distance right between two points with 2 pieces of steel rather than a flat plate with 4 holes

steel is about 10mm thick from memory

That's how I've done it

I'd recommend inside the house rather than the garage

Edit- If I did it again I'd use heavy channel as it is harder to poke a grinder in there to cut the bolt heads off from underneath

Originally Posted by 308

heavy steel EA (even angle) - 2 of - running across two bearers in floor under safe

12mm coach bolts up through the 4 holes in the floor of the safe, nuts and washers only accessible from inside safe

Easier to get the distance right between two points with 2 pieces of steel rather than a flat plate with 4 holes

steel is about 10mm thick from memory

That's how I've done it

I'd recommend inside the house rather than the garage

Edit- If I did it again I'd use heavy channel as it is harder to poke a grinder in there to cut the bolt heads off from underneath

Heavy channel-Do you mean like box section?

I was planning to cut the floorboards and do it all from inside the house due to the lack of clearance underneath but I'm starting to get the feeling that I may be defeating the purpose.

Originally Posted by Friwi

Do you own the dwelling or do you rent?
And how permanently do you want it installed ?
The best thing would be to built up a concrete base or concrete box below the floor of the cupboard where you want to have your safe into.
And having the safe into that concrete box with the door flush below the carpet or flooring of the cupboard. You would then have just the carpet hiding the door out of sight. If it is floorboard, maybe make a discret door with hinges out of the floorboard planks. If you ever decide to sell the house it should not be too bad to patch up if you want to keep the safe, or you could sell the safe with the house as it is. The way the criminality goes in our society it could be a little bonus in a few years time.

We own it. Ah thinking fairly permanent but the use of the room may change in the future so I would like to be able to remove it.

I had thought about cutting floorboards and putting a couple of wooden boxes down and filling them with concrete then bolting the safe to that after replacing the floorboards...

Heavy channel is C-shaped in section so it can be narrow enough that it is harder to nose an angle grinder in there from below - this is assuming that the c-shape is pointing down so that it looks like an "n" if that makes sense

If you don't have room to get in underneath then this advice is all moot

If there is no access from under then a hole in the floor and boxing up a square underneath would work - get some threaded rod say 16mm galv, bend it so that it resists pullout and embed it in the concrete

The way I'd do it is to cut a ply template of the holes in the bottom of the safe and use that ply to hold the -presumably 4- rods in place while the concrete sets. You'd need a hole in the middle to pour the concrete through.
Bend your steel cage up to your satisfaction then tie in your rods, drop 4 nuts in to set height then slide the ply down and secure with 4 nuts on top of the ply
plastic tape over the rods will keep concrete off the threads
pour concrete, add lots of cement, don't buy that rapidset premix stuff it is shite
Rod the concrete or vibrate it to get rid of all the air pockets then leave it for a week
take off tape, lift off ply, use some expanding foam around the gaps to stop vermin
Don't forget dampcourse/malthoid/DPC on top of the concrete to stop moisture coming up and corroding the steel - the "tarpaper" style is better than that plastic crap

I'd recommend a thick layer of grease between the malthoid and the base of the safe to prevent rust and bolt that baby down tight

If rods are too long you can cut them off from inside the safe after it is bolted down

I might be able to cut some of the floor boards and slide a couple of steel plates under. Will see how I get on, cheers guys

Better than having a threaded rod sticking up is threaded inserts. Cast into concrete.
https://ramset.co.nz/product/threaded-insert/
There are other brands also but with a hole in base to pass a R6 bar thru for extra anchoring. Bolt to a board just big enough to support them securely, spaced and placed to suit the safe's holes and attach to the boxing edge before pouring or puddle in during pour. Easy.

I'm going to go with some big pieces of angle iron bolted to the joists. Coach bolts all round should keep it tidy a mate has volunteered to get under the house, I simply don't fit through the gap or under the floor.