[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Gun Safe Question (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 12/30/2004 1:10:59 PM EDT
|
Wife bought me a gun safe for Christmas but it hasn't arrived yet. The thing will be between 600-800lbs. I can't remember the exact weight. I'll have it delivered to house by movers but my question is ... Where to put it? I can probably fit it into the garage but I don't want to put upstairs due to weight concerns. I have an unfinished basement that I'd consider to be the perfect place for it but the stairs down to the basement are wooden and LIGHT. You try and move a safe down those stairs as-is and it'll rocket to the bottom. I really really want this thing downstairs but how? Do professional moving services have heavy-duty ramps or something they can put down somehow OVER the stairs or am I SOL for the basement as a location? |
|
Another consideration is moisture, many basements have a moisture problem, mine does, you don't want a rusty safe or rusty guns. If you don't...you're lucky, but those stairs might be a big obstacle, from your description they wouldn't be safe for a safe....no pun intended! 
|
Good point. I'll suggest this to the guys delivering it but they've probably done this more than once anyway and I'm sure they'll be able to size up the situation. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll feel a lot better having the firearms locked up while we're away from the house for extended periods of time too. |
|
Shore up the Stairs with some heavy planks, Buy yourself a goldenrod (dehumidifier) & put it in the basement. The garage is the worst place for a safe First, when the door is open anyone can see in. Second, it is very easy to throw a winch cable around the safe, Pull it into a truck & BY BY GUNS. |
you're saying one guy handled 1300 lbs by himself...sounds kind of hokey. but if he did...good for him 
|
That's what I'm saying 2 brothers & dad. Winched it off the truck, moved on plastic rollers, set on it's side at the top of the stairs. Strap around, strap hooked to that. Dad was below the safe, but he wasn't taking the load. ALl the load was born by the guy sitting on his but at the top of the stairs, feet braced on each side of the doorway. I watched the whole deal, even helped move it when it was down in the basement. Plastic rollers work great |
|
Believe me the stairs will be no problem. The movers will let you know if it is but my parents had a big, heavy 80-year-old upright piano moved in and out of two basements up and down rickety wooden stairs. Basement is a good place for the safe. Get a Goldenrod and also a stand-alone dehumidifier. Put a vapor barrier under the safe. If it's in the basement bad guys will never be able to remove the whole unit but from your garage removing the whole thing is easy. GunLvr |
|
Hmm ... Well, I called the movers last night and they did indeed have every intention of moving the safe into the house when it got here. I mentioned to them that I wanted it moved downstairs and the conversation changed tones ... "OK, well, I can promise you your stairs will get torn up ... Are the stairs braced at all underneath" Me: "Absolutely no bracing." "Well, I'll just be honest with you and tell you that I'm not even going to try it." Me: "Well, we'll look at the situation again and call you back once we determine where it needs to go." So, based on that information and some of the things I've read in this thread, I probably need to go with a different moving company or just settle for the garage or one of the rooms in the house. The guy did say that he seriously doubts that having the safe upstairs will present any issues. I have to rethink that though. If he mentioned damage to the stairs, what the hell is it going to do to my carpet since he didn't mention using any type of rollers ... ? I think I'll try another moving company and see what they say. EDITED TO ADD: Garr, I never thought about the fact that anyone could see in but it's obvious and a good reason not to stash in a garage since I live in the 'burbs. Thanks. |
|
Let a professional move it even if it doesn't involve going down stairs. Talk to them about your situation in advance. They'll tell you what they can do and what they are willing to do. If they can't or won't do something, you definitely shouldn't do it either. Moving a safe is an art, much like moving a piano. |
|
My house: built in 1959, wooden (carpeted) stars going down to the basement. No cross bracing under the stairs. Me and two buddies moved by 700+ lb. safe down to the basement with a dolly, no special equipment like treads or rails that a mover should have. GunLvr |
neat trick for moving a safe over carpet, tile, wood or linoleum floors is a few dozen golfballs. some thrift stores will have them for 10¢ or so each. tip it enough to stuff some under and lay out more on the floor in the direction you want to go. PVC pipe or wooden dowels work to, but might scratch wood floors, etc. |
| A "professional" moving company that has experience with moving safes should have a stair crawler at their disposal. It will litereraly walk heavy items up or down stairs. JMO but I would look for someone who can guarantee that they can safely (no pun intended) move your safe. Look for someone who is insured and bonded. better safe than sorry... |
The golf ball idea works like a charm as long as you have one guy paying attention to the distribution and you go slow. |
|
My safe ended up in the garage. At 2,000 pounds empty it was too heavy for the main floor or the stairs going to the basement. I really dont care for it being out there, but it is anchored in 12 area with 5/8ths concrete anchors, and tucked in to the least accesable corner. |
The Safe Movers that delivered my safe had an electric handtruck that lowered the safe 3 steps length using an electric motor & worm drive, Neatest hand truck I have ever saw. |
|
I am not sure what type of construction your house is made of, but I would not go upstairs. If your house breaks out into a fire, the floor may cave in. It might survive the fire but I wouldn't want my guns smacking against each other after the safe feel through the floor. p.s. Remember the hottest part of a fire is most likely going to be in the center of the house. Keep it as low as possible (Though a basement may have moisture problems) and against an outside perimeter wall. |
|
OK ... Located some movers who said they'd move it into the basement tomorrow. I'll let you know if I have a staircase left or not. They essentially are going to do what fight4yourrights suggested ... Pad the heck out of the staircase and rails and slide it down on it's side. Should be interesting. I'm looking forward to having the safe down there tomorrow ... One way or the other ... 
|
So... Did it go down the stairs or through them? |
|
Ok ... Now for the update ... Summary: Moved down today in the basement without incident. Will try and post pics here later. THANKS for your input, it DID help!!!! Want the drama? Read details below. I am in the Information Technology field so I was able to work from home that Tuesday. Waited all day for these guys to show up. They said they'd call me around noon to let me know what time they'd be over for the safe. Well, I'm working from home and look up at the clock and it's a little past 1.00pm. Damn! I had a bad feeling about them so I gave the moving company a call and was told that they were running a little behind on the prior job but that I'd get another call in the next hour. The "next hour" rolls by and I get a call at 2.30pm (I think it was around there anyway). The guy said that he couldn't get a truck out there but that I was to call another number that he gave me and these guys would come out and do it that day. I didn't say much at this time to the guy but hung up thinking, "Yeah, right ... The guys at this other number might be the best moving company that walked the face of the Earth but the last thing they're doing is sitting around waiting for someone to call them to move a gun safe at the last minute". I went ahead and called the number that the guy just gave me over the phone and they said that there was no way that they could do the job. Again, no surprise on my end. Now, I'm pissed. While our company is flexible about working from home, it's nothing that they like us to do on a regular basis. But, if the employee is trustworthy, they'll allow it from time to time. So, I didn't exactly burn a day but I can't really work from home a second day in a row unless I REALLY NEEDED TO. I made up my mind that closer to the end of the day, I was going to call the original company back and let them know how I felt. Well, I didn't have to. They called ME back and asked if I had found anyone to move it: ME: "Hell, no!" THEM: "Well, my situation is that a job took later than I was anticipating and the truck that I need to move it won't be available until 9pm" ME: "Well, my situation is that I burned a day of work, the boss wasn't thrilled that I took off and so I'm a little pissed!" THEM: "Well, we can do it this coming weekend if you like. But, you really need to provide bracing for those stairs or we'll have to charge you for the bracing." At this point, I tell him that we'll shoot for 9am the next Saturday (today). After I hung up, I started calling around to some other moving companies. Guys, you won't BELIEVE the trouble I had lining someone up to move this thing. Not to mention the fact that I was irritated that I had to provide the bracing. So, I thought I'd stick with these guys and see what would come next Saturday. Friday (yesterday) rolls around. I get home from work and I go down to measure the length of the floor to the bottom of what I deemed were "critical" wooden stairs that needed bracing. I wrote down the lengths and went to Home Depot to have 2x4's cut to the specified lenght, 2 per stair. I was fully aware that I might have goofed on some of the measurements so I went ahead and threw in some measurements for some "non-critical" stairs as well because being off even 1/16th of an inch would have made the brace useless. I'm glad I did that. I did in fact have some issues due to uneven cement floor and warped wood on the stairs. It all came out in the wash though. I had enough 2x4's to make a SOLID bracing. Underneath the stair case, I had two 2x4's under each of the "critical" steps. A total of 10 2x4's supporting the stair case ... they fit FLUSH with the bottom of the stair and I made sure that they were exactly perpendicular to the floor so that the weight would be directed straight down the length of the 2x4 supports. After bracing it, I went back and jumped on the stair case and made certain it would hold ... The bracing job was a GOOD job. The movers arrived today. They were four guys with a Jamaican(sp) accent. Pretty big guys for the most part. They were pretty cool as it turns out and did a professional job. The stair case only shuddered ONCE. That was when the initial weight was placed on it. After that it didn't so much as move. I was glad I braced it. The guys that moved it were pretty funny too ... In St. Louis, there's a street called St. Charles Rock road. They told me that they were moving a large safe in the back of a truck and they got pulled over by the St. Louis PD(?) because someone had called in that four black guys were moving a safe in the back of a truck They were laughing about it and said that someone had thought they wanted the valuables inside so badly that they just took the whole damned safe.The cost of the move was $300.00 ... Worth it to me. Not one scracth on the stairs ... They moved it down it's side and then used a dolly to posistion it. One last note ... I looked at the number on the receipt and from what it appears, the guy that originally cancelled on me STILL wasn't they guy that did the move. The name of the company and the number was different. Seems like he contracted it out again. I don't care ... The move is done, I have the safe, no lives were lost, no property damaged ... I'm satisfied. Hopefully pics to follow ... ? |
+1 This is THE answer. I can't believe all the crap (like refrigerators) that I have moved up and down stairs before I knew these things existed. I rent them from shops and moving companies. It's a handtruck with a powered tread with large teeth or some other arrangement. I strap the refrigerator or whatever to it, move it to the edge, and just flick a switch and it will walk the bastard right up or down stairs, let's one person move gargantuan objects. I will NEVER move another safe, refrigerator, or whatever without one. Of course a strap works at least going downstairs if you have a rope, cable, or people to keep the thing from accelerating out of control. I had this happen to a friend. They couldn't hold the weight (underestimated), they lost control and it went crashing into the floor and wall when it hit the bottom of the stairs. When you gotta move something difficult, ask the professional movers how they do it.... |
I live in a home built in 1993 ... The floors seem kinda "thin" compared to my parents home which was built in late 1970's. I chose not to put it upstairs for that reason ... Someone else mentioned fire eating the floor underneath as well. If you insist on putting it upstairs, as a layman's suggestion, I'd look for a strong I-Beam running under the floor and place the safe as near on top of it as I could. |
The guys that did mine with the strap were from the Safe company where I bought it, so they were very experienced. Only $100 too, but of course I bought the safe from them. |
The first floor shouldn't be a problem. Put it anywhere you like and place a jack post in the basement under the safe for additional support. Jack Post |
not enough guns.... |
You can get a Golden Rod, and also build a small base under the safe, just in case you ever get water on your basement floor. I am getting a huge 40" x 30" 900 lbs. Zanotti safe delivered in 2 weeks, I won't have a problem taking it down to the basement, it comes in 6 pieces,  I am building a 5" high base for it.
|
Yeah, I saw a thread earlier on those Zanotti safes and I considered one as well but my wife thought this safe was a pretty good deal and I like it so far. The thing cost $668 and change which I thought was a decent price given its size. There were times in this saga that I thought about returning it to pick up one of the "modular" safes. You'll have to let us know how the Zanotti assembled. |
Ammo out of the safe. It is for guns not ammo. Take out the shelving because hopefully you will need the space for more guns. Put a chemlight and working flashlight ontop of the safe. Change the batteries each birthday you have. (Therefore you will hopefully never forget) **Edited to say... Didn't they give you the option of placing the safe on a stand? I believe it helps keep the bottom of the safe from rusting or something like that. Mine is on an elevated pad. Nice looking safe though. |
Mine cost me more that 3 times that much, 668.00 is a bargain and that safe is great!, the way I look at it I am getting 2 - 30 x 20 safes (which was the biggest that MAYBE I could fit through my space) in one safe, and I will be able to move it out if I want. After just spending close to $10,000.00 on wooden floor, I was not going to take a chance on any damages. I'll post pictures on my safe thread. PS Don't you feel sorry for that safe? It really looks hungry, feed her more rifles. 
|
|
Glad you got it down safely. You may want to isolate the safe from the cold concrete floor (and maybe the wall it is against if it is noninsulated concrete). The steel safe will conduct the cold from the floor and possibly attract unwanted moisture condensation. I have used a sheet of 3/4" high density polyethylene to set the safe on. Insulates somewhat, lasts forever without no noticeable compression, and won't be damaged by water. It is easily cut to match the footprint of the safe. The anchor bolt holes can be drilled through this and it is rigid and tough enough to resist gouging it out in an attempt to insert a prybar beneath the safe. Moving an 1800# safe into our basement was not fun either. Learned that having a direction change and landing in the stairs makes the job infinitely more difficut since the safe cannot be laid down and must be wrestled into position while going around the corner. |
