Best Location for Gun Safe Installation

It’s advisable to consider gun safe placement as one of its security features. The less obvious the gun safe is the less likely a burglar will quickly notice the safe and head straight to it.

Another important thing to consider is the environment in which the gun safe is going to be stored. Basements often offer low theft risk but can potentially have a high flood risk or high humidity. An interior hallway may have low humidity and a regulated temperature but have a high theft risk due to its visibility.

Don’t purchase a gun safe before ascertaining your ability to maneuver it to the position where you want it to be installed and anchored. It may be hard or even impossible to maneuver a large 500-pound or 1,000-pound gun safe through a narrow hallway and into its intended room or down a set of narrow stairs into a basement.

You will want to consult with professionals regarding how much weight your floors can carry, especially if you want to install a gun safe upstairs in your home. Floors in newer homes are built to bear a significant amount of dead weight, or weight that doesn’t move, but the last thing any gun safe buyer wants to do is have a gun safe plummet through their floor. This is especially important for gun safes that are 1,000 pounds or more. As a rule of thumb, if you have your eye set on a safe that’s in the 1,000 to 2,000-pound range, you’ll likely want to place it on a concrete slab floor.

Proper closing and locking are heavily reliant on the safe being level. The locks and bolts may not align properly if the gun safe isn’t level, and there’s a risk of a heavy gun safe door swinging open or closing unexpectedly if the gun safe isn’t properly leveled. Ensuring gun safes are perfectly level is one of the great services we provide at Dixie Safe & Lock Service Inc.

It’s generally recommended to use bolts that are at least one-half inch or larger when anchoring a gun safe. If you do anchor your gun safe to a concrete slab floor, be cognizant of the risks. Under no circumstances should a post-tensioned concrete slab be drilled into. These slabs are crisscrossed with high-strength steel cables under thousands of pounds of pressure. Hitting a steel cable and damaging it can cause the whole cable to rip up and out of the concrete with incredible force, doing massive damage to anything in the way.

Our gun safe experts have safely moved and securely installed a lot of gun safes over the years. Even if you have a situation where you can’t easily install a gun safe, chances are good we can develop a customized solution to meet your needs. Our safe installation experts can ensure your safe is securely anchored in a place that will reduce chance of theft and the potential for flood or fire damage.