You’re obviously not going to plop your guns on the dining table or hang them with the pots and pans. You need a proper and secure place to keep them, where they’re out of reach of your kids as well as hard to steal by a robber that may make their way into your house. Like a safe!
We’ve talked about gun safes before on this blog, but this is where we tell you how to actually install them. The topic was requested by a reader. If you too have a topic you’d like us to give you some information of (whether or not related to what we write on), drop us a line in the comments or through the contact page.
Installing a gun safe is pretty easy if you really set your heart to it. All you need to account for is the size, the weight and the appropriateness of the safe and its location, and that is all you need worry about.
Some pointers before we start installing the safe.
- Heavy safes do better with strong surfaces underneath them. Like we talked about in our previous blog about fire safety with gun safes, make sure you don’t put your heavy safe over wooden flooring, because in case of a fire, the floor can burn and cause the safe to fall through, dent and cause the contents to roast or catch fire, defeating the entire purpose.
- Keep a metal safe away from sources of moisture. No matter how strong your safe is, it is probably still susceptible to rusting. Keep it away from leaky pipes, overwatered plants, kiddie pools, bathtubs… you get the idea.
- Safes can never be your sole line of defense against a robbery. No commercially available safe is unbreakable; it is only dissuading to the robber to go through all that effort, so he’ll make a run by grabbing something less expensive. You cannot keep everything you own in the safe. It is better to also invest in a CCTV system, a good alarm system and good electronic doorbells.
Now, for the steps to install a gun safe in the house.
Carry the safe to the proper place
Carrying the safe is the most difficult part of the procedure if you have a heavy safe. A medium safe can weigh between 75 to 200 lbs, which can make things hard if you don’t know how to move the load off the platform, or operate a dolly, or have any other contraption in mind. There are a few options here.
- Tip the safe to the front for a tiny angle and insert sturdy wooden rods under the base. These should become a set of wheels. The more, the better. Just make sure the rods are equal in diameter or they’ll slip.
- The other option is to tip it to a side (gradually) and place it onto a skateboard-like platform with free moving wheels. It can then be rolled to whichever place you want it to go.
- Another way to move your safe is to use a refrigerator dolly. Tip the safe a little to one side and put the dolly’s plate under the safe. Next, tip the safe to the side of the dolly, till the centre of the safe is right above the wheel. You’ll know when the safe needs the least effort to balance and to move. You can carry it anywhere you like, drop the safe, tip it to the other side again and pull the dolly out.
Wasn’t that easy? Here’s a pro tip, just in case. Tilting the safe sideways is easier and arguably safer, because the door is heavier than the other three sides. You can move the safe easier with this in mind.
Make space
The next step to proceed to before you get down to the actual installation is to account for space, and make sure there is plenty of it. The space you install the safe in shouldn’t become harder to navigate, nor should the safe pose a risk to the safety of the structure or residents of the building, especially in dangerous situations like fires, earthquakes or other such calamities. Here are some pointers based on where you’d like the safe installed.
on the ground
If you want the space to be on the ground, the first thing to watch out for is the flooring. Safes are pretty heavy. It might be exceptionally difficult to get a heavy safe upstairs, but you certainly don’t want to imagine how things might turn out if the safe falls through the floor.
A lot of floor related problems with gun safes can be with wooden flooring, though concrete flooring is not immune in the least. Wooden floorboards can rot with exposure to moisture over a long time. They can serve as fuel to a raging house fire. So choose a safe place to put your guns on.
On the wall
The wall can be a viable place to hang your safes on as well. Keeping the safe behind a door can be a good way to save your valuables from a robber’s attention. It works wonders for people who have less space in their homes but still need a safe to keep their guns in.
Easier still, you can have the gun safe hide in plain sight under a false floor in a hard to reach drawer. Even if someone you don’t want accessing your stuff chances upon it, they probably won’t think of trying to pull the floor up to reveal something that might be hidden inside it.
Install
Now here’s the easy part. All it takes to install a safe is the instruction manual of the safe and a few handy home tools that shouldn’t be too hard to find at your nearest hardware shop.
If you plan on screwing the safe into the floor, the safe should have holes at the proper places already. Just remove the covering and put in a screw casing or wall plug (depending upon the thickness you’re trying to screw until) with a washer. Use a drill to make some holes before. Next, with the screws in the casing, put the casing in the holes and hammer down till it won’t go any further. Screw tightly and you’re done!
To install the safe inside a wall, you need to first mark the wall to figure out the proper dimension of the safe on it. Make sure you don’t saw over an electrical box or through a vertical beam. Consult your building plan for help in this regard. Once the area is cut, you need only slide in the case and screw the safe where needed.
Pretty easy, no?
Reinforce
It’s not just essential to install a strong safe, it is also important to reinforce the security. Take the following steps.
Make sure you change the password of the safe if there is such a facility. Change the password regularly, like once a month. You can have your own system of remembering what it was; only don’t reveal it to someone outside.
Make things fireproof. You can insulate the safe by laying in sheets of material like mineral wood, cellulose or standard insulation boards.
Protect the safe from environmental elements. Give it a paint job if necessary, get any surrounding leaks fixed and make sure the electronic circuitry is not disturbed. Keep bugs out.
Cloak
Cloaking the safe is the best way to make sure your guns and other valuables are the least at risk. Hang a painting over an in-the-wall safe so people cannot expect to find something behind it. If you have a small safe, keep it hidden inside another cupboard, deep in the recess of a section hidden with some clothes and stockings. Bigger safes can be harder to mask. At the same time, make sure it doesn’t become too inconvenient for you to access your guns and valuables either. Also, keep in mind to also keep the safe away from the hands on kids so they don’t get their hands on your guns.
There’s the average way to do things that we just told you about, or you could do something completely unexpected, straight from a thriller novel like building a hidden safe that opens with a book. This guy did it and posted a video on YouTube for everyone to learn. Check it out as well.
Securing your safe is not too hard. Installing a gun safe is vital to keep your guns and valuables safe, as well as to ensure the safety of your family. You can make things as elaborate as you want. So, what are your plans for your gun safe?
