We're selling our little ranch home, so we decided to repaint the master bedroom. For the past two years I've had my 36" Champion in there, I had it sitting in the corner, against two exterior sheetrock walls, and I'm running a 120v 20" dehumidifier rod inside. I moved the safe away from the wall Saturday, and there were black spots in the corner, about a 20" diameter area on the north and east walls. It wasn't full on furry, and it cleaned up easily with mold control cleaner, but I still don't want it! I know it takes moisture to start mold/mildew growth, am I just getting condensation behind the safe since it wasn't completely tight to the wall? It sat about 1/4" away, which I thought would help with temp change here in SD winters.
I had planned on putting this safe on a raised platform in our new house basement, that's also fully climate controlled as our current home is. There's a perfect spot (I thought) where I could easily bolt it to the poured exterior 8" walls, inside a large basement closet. Now I'm second thinking that idea, as the walls are not insulated at all, and I don't want future moisture issues.
The basement is only half insulated (properly, I might add), so the other half is just the bare foundations. Insulating them properly reduces your basement about 6", so I'm not sure I'll do this or not in the future, but I'm wondering if perhaps I should insulate this closet with moisture and vapor barriers and Foamular insulation and frame out on top of that, but I'm afraid any moisture that would escape would get stuck behind the safe again. Would like to hear recommendation.
My only other option is to bolt the gun safe in a recessed area in the heated insulated garage, but I REALLY don't want it out there, even though it would be super easy to do. Also super easy to steal!
Thanks for reading!