How to bolt down a safe

A safe is an essential item for many homes and businesses in order to protect valuable belongings. These possessions can vary greatly. In a home we might need to protect cash, jewellery, family heirlooms, valuable collections and important legal documents, such as property deeds, passports and a will. In a business this could also be petty cash, IT equipment such as laptops, digital storage mediums for protecting important data, product specifications and legal documents such as contracts.

These storage needs can have financial value or personal value, and in some cases both, but our main aim is to protect them from theft or access by unauthorised personnel. In many cases we can conceal a safe by hiding it in a drawer or cupboard, or installing it in a wall or floor cavity and covering it up with artwork or carpet flooring. However, we might not have that option, or the safe we need is too large to be concealed, or we need regular access to it. In this kind of situation we might need to bolt the safe to the floor.

Why do we need to bolt a safe down?

Bolting a safe to the wall or floor will prevent a thief from being able to quickly lift the safe and take it from your premises. You might think that the locking mechanism you have installed with the safe is sufficient security to guard against access and theft, but in many situations a thief will be working quickly to gather as much as they can before absconding from your premises. So they will often pick up a safe and leave, and then worry about accessing its contents later. Even if this is not possible, you are unlikely to see the contents ever again. So if you can’t hide a safe, then bolting it down is the best way to prevent a thief running off with it.

Six basic steps to bolting down a safe

Here are the six basic steps you need to take to ensure a safe is securely bolted to a wall or floor:

1. Location

It is essential that you find the best possible location for your safe. Ideally this should be in a less obvious room, ie. where a thief may not ordinarily look, but it also needs to be practical. Bolting a safe down isn’t a temporary measure, it requires drilling and securing with heavy duty bolts, so you won’t be moving it any time soon. So find a location where you can easily manoeuvre round the safe, where it doesn’t get in the way of opening and closing doors and where you can safely open the safe door itself without it knocking an obstruction. You should also consider the climactic conditions of this location, so if it is in a basement for example, will the safe get damp and could the basement be prone to flooding? If this is the case, this might not be the best location to keep valuable items, even though the safe should be robust to offer some protection.

2. Test the structure

Another important consideration for the location of the safe is whether the area is structurally strong enough. Depending on the size of the safe you choose, it could be very heavy, so is the floor and wall structure strong enough to bear the weight, and can these surfaces take the bolts you are going to be drilling through? Bolting a safe to a plasterboard wall or to wooden floorboards might not be safe and might not be properly secure. You should also check to see if there are any pipes or electrical wires in the way, as drilling through these could cause a major problem. While performing this exercise you also need to look at carpet and skirting boards. The safe needs to sit flush with the floor and the wall, otherwise a thief could quickly shove a crowbar underneath or behind it and prize it out of place. So you will need to remove the section of carpet the safe sits on and the section of skirting board behind it, if these exist.

3. Position the safe

Now you can properly locate the safe and test it. Is access around it okay? Can the door be opened safely? Is it flush to the floor and wall?

4. Mark the holes

Most safes come with pre-drilled mounting holes in the floor or wall of the safe. So mark these holes on the floor, wall or both with a pencil, the number of holes will depend on the size of the safe. If you can remove the safe for drilling the holes then do so, otherwise you may need to drill through these holes with the safe in situ.

5. Drilling the holes

Make sure you have the right sized drill bit and bolts for the holes. If you are drilling into concrete floors or solid load-bearing walls, then you will need a masonry drill and drill bit. Make sure your hole is long and deep enough to fully secure the bolts. The deeper the hole the more strength and security you will achieve, but at the same time make sure you are not drilling too deep that you impact on the stability of the floor or wall structure.

6. Secure the bolts

Having cleaned the excess dust and debris and located the safe, you can now secure the bolts. Use a wrench or pliers, and a nut and washer combination to achieve as tight a connection as possible. Once secured, test the stability of the safe by attempting to move it. If you can move the safe at all it needs to be re-secured, as a thief could therefore get a crowbar under it.

Now your safe is bolted to the floor and fully secure you can enjoy security of your possessions long term. So order your safe online at MB Direct using our range of professional safes, and make sure you fully protect your belongings.