A Floor Safe – hidden and secure.

Are floor safes burglar proof?

No, nothing can claim to be burglar proof. Well perhaps Fort Knox and the Bank of England can make that claim but for everything else there will be a top professional burglar that will devise a way to break into it.

A safe with a good UL rating properly installed in your floor, encased in concrete, will beat Mr. Average Burglar, or even Mr. Above Average Burglar in most cases.

For one thing, to get the safe out and carry it off so as to work on opening it, will entail spending far too much time and making far too much noise.

In practical terms the housebreaker will have to work on your little vault where it is. And that too is going to involve work, noise and time. A thief likes none of those things.

Another advantage of a floor safe is that it can be easily hidden, more easily hidden than a large freestanding safe anyway.

Conventional wisdom says just throw a rug over the safe. Yes, but any housebreaker that suspects that you have a floor safe is going to take a peep under any rugs. How about a heavy piece of furniture over your little secret? It will mean that you will have to shift the piece of furniture every time you need to get to your safe, but that inconvenience may be a small price to pay.

Installing an in-floor safe and encasing it in concrete is perhaps not the easiest of do-it-yourself projects. If you feel that the job is best left to a professional then there is no shame at all in that. The cost of the job will depend on exactly where and how you want your safe installed, the amount of concrete and other material used and naturally, the time it takes to complete the task.

Pay a little more for a trusted builder, it is worth it, after all this is an investment in the security of items that you value.

A trusted tradesman that you have used in the past is more likely to keep quite about the location of the floor safe that he has installed for you. A cheap-jack that you have had no former dealings with could possibly mention your safe to a friend, who talks to a friend, who in turn talks to someone in a bar who happens to be your local unfriendly burglar.

Of course you don't need reminding that it is not usually practical to install a safe in an upper floor. It would have to be a very shallow vault that you could install in an upstairs bedroom floor.

Should you decide to install your floor safe yourself, then take a little time to study the manufacturers instructions. Make sure you know exactly what you need to do and the tools and materials that you will need.

Installation details will differ from safe to safe, but the following will give a general plan for installing an underfloor safe.

Be familiar with the floor plan of your home. Know where support beams are located as well as electric cables, telephone wires and plumbing.

Before attempting to install your in floor safe, familiarize yourself with its workings and test locking and unlocking several times.

If your vault has a lift off door you will probably have to remove it before installation. Fit dust cover over the opening.Mark out the outline of your safe allowing and extra three to four inches all round. Use a jackhammer, or an awful lot of muscle an sweat, to break up any existing concrete. The hole will need to be three to six inches deeper than the external depth of your underfloor safe.

It is recommended to wrap your safe with with heavy quality waterproof sheeting before installation to combat the effects of moisture.

Mix up a volume of concrete and pour in enough to lay a base as per the manufacturer's instructions. Position your underfloor safe in the hole, get help for this if you need it. Make sure that you have the safe level and at the correct height. Carefully tip the concrete mix in the space around the sides and leave for at least 48 hours to dry.

Just like any kind of safe, house floor safes are available that protect your valuables from theft, from fire or from both of these things. Just because a particular safe offers good burglar resistance does not automatically mean that it offers good protection from fire.

The temperatures generated by a house fire are awesome and those temperatures are reached rapidly too. Keep in mind that it is not only the flames that you have to worry about but also the heat. If you are storing important documents, letters and other papers of sentimental value, or indeed good old-fashioned combustible bank notes remember that above a certain temperature they will ignite.

A safe encased in concrete at ground level (heat rises) may give a little extra protection against fire, but if fire resistance is important to you then purchase a floor safe that is classified as fire resistant as well as burglar resistant.

Water has a habit of finding its way through the smallest of cracks and gaps. Many floor safes are described as being watertight or having a water-resistant cover, and indeed many will have been designed to keep out water.

But . . . are they really one hundred percent watertight in all circumstances?

You will most likely install your in-floor safe so that it is below ground level, quite possibly in your basement. What if a pipe bursts? A burst pipe means a lot of water, is your watertight safe going to be so absolutely watertight then?

What if you suffer a fire? Hey, good luck the fire station is nearby and the fire crew is busy putting out the fire with . . . water.

Have you ever seen how much water it takes to put out a house fire? Gallons and gallons of the stuff. And there is a good chance that the intense heat of the fire will damage any water seal around the safe's door.

If you are keeping something, a document or two perhaps, in your house floor safe that absolutely has to be protected from water why not enclose it in a sealed waterproof bag or plastic container. Belt and braces perhaps, but the man with a belt and braces never had his pants fall down.

If you have difficulty in bending then you may not think that a floor safe is the greatest thing since sliced whole-wheat bread, unless you can access your safe from a low sitting position perhaps.

A big advantage with floor safes over wall safes is the range of sizes available.

There is not the restriction of depth that you have with wall safes. Sizes start at about a rather small 8x8x6 inches and go all the way up to 3 feet wide by 3 feet deep, which should be large enough for all of your documents and trinkets.

You can have one that is round; you can have one that is square. You can have doors that are lids that simply lift off, when unlocked of course, to conventional hinged doors. You can have conventional key locking, combination locking, electronic locking or a mix of types.

Construction can be of various thickness’ of steel to polyethylene, yes that’s right polyethylene, for the body of the safe which would be encased in concrete, the top and door is made of steel.

In-floor safes are available in a wide range of prices. Starting at the very cheap, which will get you nothing more than an under the floor cash box, to the quite pricey for a state of the art under the floor vault. Generally though you get a good degree of security for a very reasonable price with a floor safe.

Find your Floor Safe at Amazon.com

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