How To Secure A Safe Without Bolting It To The Floor?

How To Secure A Safe Without Bolting It To The Floor

A gun safe is an essential piece of equipment that you should have in your home. It’s necessary to keep your firearms and ammunition secure and out of reach from children or unauthorized persons.

The best way to secure a gun safe is to bolt it to the floor. This will prevent anyone from accessing the contents without knowing how to open it. However, this method can be difficult for those who are not accustomed to using tools and drilling holes into the floor.

If you want a more convenient option, then you can buy a portable gun safe that can be easily mounted anywhere. However, they are easy enough for one person to carry, so you should make sure to bolt them down.

Now, if the floor is not an option, you will have to find some other ways to secure your safe without bolting it to the floor.

Safe Without Bolting

Different Ways To Secure A Safe When You Can’t Bolt it to the floor

There are a variety of alternatives that you can choose from. But, in the end, the purpose of this is simply to make it harder for burglars to transport your home security safe.

1. Secure The Safe To Large Wooden Pallets With Bolts

Bolting your safe to a large wooden pallet is a great way to make it more secure. Their size and weight are such that they cannot slide through doorways. Taking the pallet out will require the thief to deconstruct it, which is a difficult and time-consuming task.

2. Use A Security Cable To Secure The Safe

A beginner may find it challenging to determine which hardware to use for anchoring their safe and how to use the appropriate hand tools.

There’s no need to deal with any of that, as you can secure your gun safe with a security cable instead. Most vehicle gun safes come with thick steel cables.

Secure your safe to a bulky structure with a thick security cable that you can purchase from the hardware store. Any rigid and sturdy supporting structure such as a steel beam, metal beam, pillar, or any other permanent structure can be used.

Ensure that you use steel chains or cables that are thick and difficult to cut through. You want to put as many obstacles in the burglar’s path as possible.

gun Safe

3. Hide The Safe Behind A Fake Wall

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Since it seems absurd, many gun owners and burglars do not consider this method, despite seeing it in multiple movies.

Nonetheless, it is a viable method, and a professional can build a fake wall for you so that you have the perfect hideaway. It is impossible to steal a safe if the thief doesn’t know where it is.

4. Bolt Together A Few Gun Safes

You can also combine two gun safes to secure them easily and quickly. The safes should be of the same size and model. They can then be bolted together more easily since their anchor holes are aligned.

There’s no need to drill into anything or vacuum any dust afterward. A combination of small biometric handgun safes does not provide a significant enough size or weight increase to hinder a thief’s task.

This option works exclusively for large and medium safes. To use this method correctly, you should have two safes that are the same size and have the same design, so the anchor holes line up correctly.

5. Put The Safe In A Fake Cabinet Or Behind An Artwork

Every thief on the planet knows that safes are hidden behind art pieces and paintings because of Hollywood. The trick is to use multiple paintings to confuse the thieves.

Another way to secure your safe is to keep it hidden in the kitchen, one of the most inconspicuous spots in the house. Put your safe inside a fake kitchen cabinet that is bolted down to a corner. The storage furniture can be anywhere, not just in the kitchen.

bedside gun safe

6. Fix The Safe To The Floor Or Furniture With Glue

You can also quickly and easily secure your gun by gluing it to different structures. For this task, you will need strong polymer glue. They are typically marketed as super glues and are used to assemble ceramics, metals, glass, and wood.

Mark the outline of the safe on the floor with tape before you glue it to the floor. Now that you have traced the outline, you can know where to apply the super glue. This glue is very strong, so you don’t have to use excessive amounts of it.

Spread it evenly with a scraper, and it will work perfectly. The safe should then be placed at a designated location and allowed to bond to the floor.

7. You Can Hide The Safe Under Hardwood Floors

There may be a problem drilling holes in your floor. But that does not mean you cannot use your floor for theft prevention. Hardwood floors, however, will not be suitable for this method.

If you are unfamiliar with flooring work, you may want to hire a professional. A person who does not know what they are doing may be unable to install flooring correctly.

If you are up for the challenge, you will need a prying tool to remove the floorboards. To make your job easier, you can use a grinder to slice the hardwood boards if they are too long.

When you have propped up enough floorboards to make room for your gun safe, you should check for hidden mechanisms and pipes. You don’t want to damage them and have to spend a fortune on repairs.

Place the safe and arrange the floorboards to seal the room when you are sure there are no pipes or mechanisms. The floorboards can also be accessed easily when necessary by installing a concealed window that blends into the regular flooring.

gun safe for home

8. Adding Weight

The average man can easily carry a safe weighing around 110 pounds. By adding metal bars or sandbags, you can secure your safe even further. If a thief tries to lift the safe, it will be too heavy, or at least heavy enough to make him think twice about it.

The best way to secure your gun safe if you don’t have a lot of time or money to spend doing it is this method. It’s simple and secure without compromising time or money.

Make your safe heavy to move easily by adding hundreds of pounds of weight. Place weight plates or discs inside your safe after putting it in a concealed location that won’t attract attention from visitors or thieves.

Weight discs can be substituted with any other object with a high-density weight if you don’t want to spend money on them.

This may be extra lead or metal bars leftover from home renovations. Put them at the bottom of the safe and arrange them efficiently to maximize weight while sacrificing the minimum amount of space.

Find your safe a suitable location first if you choose this approach. It would be ideal to have a concealed area or at least one that is not immediately visible to passersby.

fingerprint gun safe

9. Bolt The Safe To A Steel Slab

A safe’s footprint and weight are several times larger when bolted to a large object such as a steel slab. Therefore, your gun safe will certainly become larger and heavier, dissuading burglars from taking them.

You need at least a 1/4-inch-thick steel slab for this. For the slab to be solid and rigid, you need the minimum thickness so that the tools used by burglars will not bend the slab easily.

Furthermore, you should make the slab wide enough to extend over the doorway. Hence, the safe and slab make it more difficult for a burglar to steal even when turned sideways.

Mark the anchor holes and drill through them on the steel slab to secure the safe. You can bolt the safe to the slab after drilling holes with anchoring bolts, washers, and a hex nut. This is a popular alternative rather than bolting a safe to the floor.

Does A Safe Need To Be Bolted Down?

When it comes to security, people tend to overthink and overcomplicate things. However, there are a few simple ways to ensure that your home is secure without spending too much money.

Do you have a safe? If so, then it’s likely you’ve spent a fair amount of money on it. And for a good reason: Safes are supposed to be an important part of any home security system. But does a safe need to be bolted down?

Not necessarily, as long as you take some precautions and follow some basic rules. For most people, a secure bolt on the bottom of the safe will be enough to ensure that it doesn’t fall over while in use.

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However, there are some cases when this isn’t enough. You might need to buy a locking mechanism that goes over the bolt or drill a hole through the floor and attach it with a chain.

The first step is knowing how much your safe weighs. If the safe weighs less than 100 pounds, it doesn’t need to be bolted down (unless you’re worried about someone lifting it). However, bolting your safe down will give it more security.

When Shouldn’t You Bolt A Safe To The Floor?

Depending on where you live, you may not be able to bolt your safe to the floor. Also, bolting to the floor isn’t an option if the flooring isn’t made from concrete or isn’t strong enough to support heavy safes without compromising structural integrity.

Furthermore, it would be unnecessary to bolt your safe to the floor if you have wooden frames and hardwood flooring. When thieves attempt to rip the safe out from the floor, wooden floors and hardwood boards provide much less resistance than concrete floors.

Most people who rent their homes would not like the idea of bolting the safe to the floor because they do not own the home. Bolting the safe to the floor may make sense, but the rental agreement may not allow it.

Be sure to check the rental agreement before you do anything. Your landlord may impose heavy fines for something like this.

Advantages & Disadvantages Of Securing A Gun Safe Without Bolting To The Floor

In this section, we’re going to discuss the pros and cons of securing a safe without bolting it to the floor:

Pros:

  • An easier and less time-consuming process
  • Because there is less dust, you usually don’t need to wear safety gear
  • Power tools aren’t always necessary to complete these tasks

Cons:

  • Depending on the method used to secure your safe, it may not be as secure
  • There is a possibility that it will be more expensive than bolting to the floor traditionally

Other Ways To Secure A Safe Without Bolting It To The Floor

Bolting a safe is not the only way to secure it. Other options can be used, such as using a chain, padlock, or cable lock.

Chain: If you choose to use a chain, loop it through the handles of the safe and then tie it securely to something sturdy.

Padlock: A padlock is another option for securing a safe. It should be attached to the safe’s handle and then wrapped around anything sturdy like a post or beam in your home.

Cable Lock: A cable lock is another option for securing your bedside safe. It should be attached to the handle of your safe and then wrapped around anything sturdy like a post or beam in your home.

What Is The Maximum Weight That My Floor Can Support?

Building codes in most states stipulate a minimum load capacity of 40 pounds per square foot for all floors of a residential building.

Therefore, mounting your safe to the floor or simply keeping it on the floor may compromise its structural integrity if your safe weighs a thousand pounds with a narrow footprint.

Consider wide safes so that their weight is evenly distributed over the floor and can occupy a large area.

Note From The Author

If your home is suitable for it, drilling holes in concrete floors is the best option. You can, however always improvise better solutions as a gun owner, such as those mentioned in this article.

When budgets are tight, and you don’t want to use a tool, you can make your safe heavier with weights. If money isn’t a constraint, a fake wall seems like a better option than bolting your safe to the floor.

Final Words

If they’re determined, a thief can easily grab a small safe and even a tall gun safe on a hand truck. So keeping your vault secure is the only way to keep your stuff safe.

It’s not uncommon for renters to be denied permission to bolt a safe to the floor, so they need to find a secure alternative. You can secure your safe without bolting it to the floor using some of the methods outlined above.

Safe installations cost currently range from $250 to $800, so many of these options are much cheaper. Several methods are more suitable for small safes, but a diversion safe is an excellent choice if you need to secure a lot of items.

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