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*This is probably not the best advice, so it's worth what you paid for it* 99.99999% of RSL "Gun Safes" out there just use gypsum board for their fire protection. Go to lowes/home depot and get 1/2" or 3/4" drywall. Pull out everything from the safe, including carpeting so it's just the metal. Put at least one more layer on the top than on the sides, and have at least one layer on the bottom. Construct it so that the walls are holding up the top piece. The corners and spots behind the hinges (if internal) are going to be tricky, and you'll probably have to leave bare steel behind the hinges. IF there is a way to put a board on the inside of the door with ZERO risk of it falling and getting into the bolt works, do that as well. This might require drilling and bolting supports for the drywall to the door. Once that's done, recarpet (You'll have extra since you'll be losing a decent amount of interior space), or have your wife do it  , then put the shelving back in. With mine, I think they just screwed the supports right into the drywall. Next step might be tricky. If you're doesn't have a seal around the door, you'll need to find one. One thing you could try is to contact safe companies around your area and ask them if you can just buy some from them. They might accommodate you and let you do that. It's important because as the safe heats up, the seal expands, sealing your safe. Last, make sure that you have some form of a dehumidifier in the safe now. I have heard of people putting pieces of drywall on the outside of the safe, but don't know how effective that is. Also, storing cases of bottled water on top of the safe seems to be a common idea, as the fire heats and melts the bottles, they're suppose to leak all over the safe cooling it. Good luck, and if you screw up and ruin your safe, remember what I said, I'm no expert, this is just how I'd do it. |
Great! thanks. Any idea how long that would last though? Say my place is on fire for 25 minutes. |
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Drywaller (Carpenter) here, Be sure to use "x" type drywall, this is the fire rated material. X - type has some additives in it to help hold up under the heat (fiberglass in the gypsum?) Each 5/8" sheet should be good for 1/2hr. under normal fire conditions. Your mileage WILL vary. Hope this helps Fc2 |
Mine's 12 gauge steel constructed with two layers of 5/8" on all sides, one on the bottom, 3 on the top, and one on the door and it's rated for 1 hour at 1500 degrees. If you did one on each side, and two on the top and are able to get one into the door, that should be between 30-45 minutes. For most safes, the fire ratings are kind of a joke. Many have their own system of testing, so it's kind of an educated guess. I'd go look at liberty safe's website, and try to put as many layers as they do for the time rating you want. Liberty has the best fire protection out of any Residential Security Container that I've looked at, excluding Sturdy safe (they use a fiberglass blanket, which is much better than drywall). Specifically look at this page which gives you the # and thickenss of drywall needed for certain times, and then this page which should help you figure out how to fill in and construct the tricker parts of the safe like the door frame. |
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My friend had a fire that completely destroyed his upstairs. The heat was so bad it torched both cars in the driveway. He had a stack on with no fire protection under the stairs in the basement and the guns and ammo suffered no damage other than water. I'd move it to the basement if that's an option. |
2nd story apartment. I'm VERY limited! |
If it's in a basement, have your plumber tap a water line and run it directly over your safe. Then have him install a commercial sprinkler head over it. A decent plumber and materials shouldn't run you more than $200 bucks. Problem solved. They also make different heads that will activate at different temps. 
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Follow this mans advise on the use of type x rock. it is the fire rated gypsum required in areas in the building code. |
I don't think I would go this route. Most safe contents are ruined by the water damage from high pressure firehoses. You'd do better to waterproof your safe more than fireproofing it. The idea of a heat activated expanding seal is a good one. |
| Another +1 for the fire rated sheetrock. This is the same stuff that is inside my fire rated safe. When I first found out that fire rated sheetrock was the fire protection inside of my safe I kinda felt cheated a little bit, but I did a little more research and found out thats what all the big name companies use, so I started to feel a little better about my purchase. |
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. Yeah, I'm the guy who posts the burned up gun pictures. I lost over $140,000 worth of firearms in a fire in 2006. At least, that was the insurance company's valuation... and they did pay it. The majority of these guns were in supposedly fire-proof safes. I learned a hell of a lot from that fire. Remember, even a fire rated safe is only good for a very short period of protection. No matter how many layers of sheetrock you hve in your safe, you probably won't have more than about an hours worth of fire protection. The first thing you want to do once the fire is "out" is get to your gun safes, pull them out of the embers, get all of the guns out of them, so you can oil & clean them to prevent damage from the heat and water. And I can tell you from personal experience that when a Glock gets hot enough it burns, melts, and flows all over the guns on shelf below it.  |
I've never seen these pictures, would you mind posting them, or giving a link maybe in the archives of where they're posted? |
What is your new storage system, since you learned alot about fire-resistant safes in your unfortunate fire... AC |