Posted: Tuesday, 2 July 2013 @ 13:59
You’ve just bought your brand new safe online, you’re happy with the price, and it was delivered on time. Now all you have to do the most important part of owning a safe - chose a secure and safe place to fix it into position. Hopefully you’ve chosen well and your safe is difficult to crack on-site, but is it secure enough to deter its removal to somewhere it can be cracked?
Mounting your safe;
Your safe needs to be in an accessible place for you to use it, but also somewhere out of sight or even somewhere assured by your insurance company. This can mean that where one safe is fitted to a concrete floor, another has to be fitted to a stone wall. You must consider the surface and characteristics of your fixings when mounting your safe.
Here’s a quick list of the most common materials you will face:
Solid Floors: Concrete Solid floor constructions have the best fixing characteristics and should be used where possible.
Sand and Cement Screed over Concrete Screed is a weak mix of sharp sand and cement designed for leveling over concrete. This layer has a thickness of between 25 - 75mm. Fixing a safe to this type of floor requires a loose bolt sleeve anchor long enough to penetrate into the concrete below the screed.
Sand and cement screed over precast concrete hollow core beams: These are concrete beams with a hollow section running the length of the beam. Fixing to this type of floor construction will depend on where you drill. If you’re lucky enough to drill through into a solid section of the concrete, then the loose bolt sleeve anchor will be sufficient. However should your drill disappear into the hollow section fixing, then an epoxy resin chemical anchor is needed.
Sand and cement screed over block and beam construction Block and beam constructions are floors constructed using pre-stressed concrete beams supporting standard concrete, or Thermalite blocks spanning between them with a sand and cement screed over them. Fixing into this type of floor construction material will have different effects. The concrete block will give a good fixing and a loose sleeve anchor will be sufficient. The Thermalite blocks however are of such low density that they will not have sufficient strength to hold a sleeve anchor, fixing with am epoxy resin chemical anchor will solve this problem.
Timber Floors The best way to fix to any timber floor on joists is to use a coach screw directly into the joist. If this is not possible then the safe bolt must pass through the safe, into the floorboard, and an 18mm plywood board large enough to go between the joists and bolted together to give a sandwich effect. It’s a lot of work, but fixing only into the floorboard will not be enough to secure the safe sufficiently. Of course it goes without saying - please be aware of pipes and cables running below, and if possible test for cables and pipes before carrying out any work.
This can only be a guide on fixing into walls and floors. With today's modern building techniques and high-spec housing, other considerations will need to be taken into account, like how underfloor heating and different types of floor insulation will all affect an installation.
If you’re still unsure then why not call the experts? We have the tools and experience to deal with any safe and fitting. We know how and when a safe is fitted securely – call the people in the know, you’ll be in safe hands!