Each year, the number of burglaries increases in America. Faced with this upsurge, more and more individuals are choosing a safe. It is obviously a very good thing to protect our valuables, pistols, long guns, or important documents, but it must still be done properly.
The installation of a safe is not done lightly, and for optimal protection, it is necessary to respect a few rules. Here I explain everything you need to know and how to do it.
Can you put a Safe yourself?
There are two types of safes. The sealed boxes on the floor and the built-in wall safes. For the former, by following the instructions that I will give you below, it is entirely possible for someone who is a little handyman to seal their safe.
For in wall safe, however, it is more complex, and installation necessarily requires the know-how of a mason.
Installation of a safe placed or sealed
You should first know that this type of safes can be attached in different ways. We can simply fix it on a piece of furniture, like the safes that we often find in hotels, on the wall, behind the mirror, or even completely sealed on the floor. The latter technique will further prevent the risks of uprooting, and it is therefore this that we recommend. It is always easy to install small safes for pistols and handguns in the closet or wall as you can also use this for storing other valuables.
To place a cabinet or safe against the wall or on the wall, you will need the following equipment:
- Safe to ask
- Threaded rods with nuts
- Fixing anchors
- Spirit level
- Drill
- Pipe wrench
- Pencil
- Metre
It is first necessary to correctly check the operation of the safe. Which side opens the door in particular. Some models also have an opening or a lock on the top, or on one side, it will be necessary to be able to access it for example in case of forgetting the code. Once all this information has been taken, you must mark the fixing marks on your wall or on the surface of the furniture.
We then drill the holes on the marks and we just insert the dowels. Position by following the threaded rods on the wall. This is an important step that must be done correctly for the binding to be as robust as possible.
It then remains only to position the locker correctly on the rods, screw the washers and the nuts on the rods passing through the interior of the trunk. You should of course not be afraid of tightening as much as possible to make the assembly as compact as possible.
Installation of a built-in wall safe
The built-in safe is more secure. It is first easier to hide it since it is hidden in a wall or in the ground. There are varieties of hidden safe available like biometric safes and more.
Finding it is therefore usually not always easy for the burglar, which is already a very good thing. Such types are safes are also comfortable to store rifles or shotguns easily in it.
It then offers only one facade, in principle more robust than the others, and therefore less chance of rapid opening. The installation is not simple for a beginner handyman, and it is, therefore, necessary to call on a mason for optimal installation. Here is the list of necessary equipment:
- Built-in safe
- Mortar
- Anchor hooks
- Formwork boards
- Wooden wedges
- Hole puncher with a concrete drill
- Angle grinder
- Spirit level
- Pipe wrench
- Mallet
- Chisel
- Classic trowel
- Cat tongue trowel
- Pencil
- Metre
- Cutter
The first step is of course in choosing the location of the safe. Be careful not to choose an area where electrical cables or water pipes pass. Because in addition to needing the mason, you will need in this case an electrician or a plumber to recover your nonsense.
Choose a place as dry as possible, and of course a thick and solid wall. It must be load-bearing, in stone, concrete block, or even concrete. It should be about 10 cm more than the width of the trunk.
Once the location is decided, start by drawing the markers. To do this, add 15 cm in height and 15 cm in width to the dimensions of your trunk. The new dimensions define the size of the formwork.
Then drill the four corners using the perforator with 5 cm more than the depth of the chest, the angle grinder will then be used to cut from one hole to another along the marks.
It is then necessary to clear the interior using the mallet and chisel. It’s a bit of a painful step, even for the mason, but you have to make room for your trunk.
When it is done, it is best to clean the recess as well as possible, if you have a good vacuum cleaner then it will help you to remove a maximum of dust.
Surround the front of your chest with a protective plastic film to prevent scratches, then using wooden wedges, place it in the hole. It is then necessary to mount the anchor rods on the sides of the trunk, to avoid tearing when it is in place. It is then necessary to lay the low plank of the facade formwork which will stabilize the position.
It is then time to start preparing your mortar. Once ready, you will fill the spaces around the hole. Remember to moisten the inside of the hole for better adhesion of the mortar. Then fill by compacting slightly to obtain a homogeneous and necessarily solid mortar.
The cat tongue trowel will be very useful for filling small spaces. It is then necessary to add another floor in front to maintain the mortar well while it dries. When the mortar is dry, remove the formwork boards, and carefully cut the plastic film around the front face of the safe with a cutter.
You will then just have to finish and why not position a frame in front of your safe to hide it.
In which room to set up your safe or how to hide it?
Keep in mind that no safe is impenetrable. The most experienced burglars can open just about any safe in less than 15 minutes when they have the right equipment. It is therefore really imperative to hide it as much as possible so that the thief has trouble finding it before trying to force it.
Of course, the safe behind a painting is known, we have all seen it in many films, and obviously the burglar has surely seen the same films as you. To avoid being as predictable and choose an improbable location as much as possible. The bathroom, the toilet, the bedroom will often be visited less or in any case less searched than the living room. Safes are available at a varying price depending on the feature and performance.
We have reviewed the best safes at affordable prices for complete needs.
If you have a library ( and the book safe doesn’t interest you ), then the safe may be hidden behind books, wherever you want. The bottom of the bookcase can be cut out for easy access to the gun safe, but you can make a hatch that withdraws and completely hides the safe.
Why not put the trunk on the floor? Access is more difficult, also you can place it anywhere in your house. In a corner with floorboards that can be removed, for example, under a carpet, itself under the coffee table.
In reality, you have to be as imaginative as possible. The burglar usually doesn’t have much time to spend in your home.
We must, therefore, make him lose as much as possible. The more the safe will be in an original and improbable place, the more the thief will have trouble falling on it.
Some tapestries allow invisible cuts, for example. With a plate in front of the chest, covered with tapestry, the chest can then be completely invisible on a wall in the corridor. The burglar will then pass several times without seeing anything at all.