Gun storage ideas for a house

[H60DoorGunner]

Hey, Tribe!

Just closed on my first house! For the last 11 years I've been in the army, so buying a house didn't seem feasible for me. That being said, all my guns just got stored in a closet in my apartment, with a cable lock run through everything.

The wife said I should buy a gun safe since we'll be here for a good while. While I agree, I don't want to put my gun safe in the garage, and this being texas, they weren't smart enough to build basements... putting it on the first floor also isn't an option. So that leaves the upstairs.

Will the safe movers be able to move it upstairs easily? I would also like have it recessed in a closet or wall. I'm willing to do the work myself if it's feasible.

Anyways, i'm sure some of y'all have some sweet set-ups. Please pass along any advice, or "wished you hads". Pictures are welcome!

[CaptBeach]

You could always drill some holes in the pad in the garage and bolt the safe to the concrete...BTW...congrats on the first house...

[Jamison]

You could also buy a safe that comes apart, move it upstairs in pieces and assemble.

[Captain Ron]

Normal heavy-duty dolly with big air-filled wheels(not the appliance dolly with tiny wheels). Big guy to help you. Empty the safe of everything and do it one step at a time. Tie the safe to the dolly with a cargo strap, use a packing blanket to keep from scratching the safe. Easy peazy. If your stairs have a landing take some measurements to make sure you have room to turn around. Bolt the safe to the floor and worry about patching the holes with wood putty later.

Think that about covers it! :grin:

[SoCal1]

I almost bought a Zanotti safe for my upstairs bedroom because they are modular and you can move them a piece at a time. Quality safes that are very easy to move. In the end I bought a regular gun safe and had a couple of friends help me brute force it up the stairs.

Later I bought a large safe and bolted down in the garage to have more room. Just be careful if you have a post tension slab. Drilling into one of the tensioned cables can be catastrophic.

[SEANSTRAIT]

My house is on pilings and I moved my safe into it without issues so I wouldn't let stairs keep you from getting what you want. Just get a good dolly and some reliable friends to help.

[Travlin]

Grats on the new home.

Around here the big box stores will sell a safe with no delivery included. I went to a safe dealer and the price was basically within 50 bucks and delivery included. Look around for a safe mover, the guy in this area has all the goodies and makes it look easy for not alot of money.

Friends work too, but after a second floor safe move they may be busy the next time you move :scared:

[steve_k]

I almost bought a Zanotti safe for my upstairs bedroom because they are modular and you can move them a piece at a time. Quality safes that are very easy to move. In the end I bought a regular gun safe and had a couple of friends help me brute force it up the stairs.

Later I bought a large safe and bolted down in the garage to have more room. Just be careful if you have a post tension slab. Drilling into one of the tensioned cables can be catastrophic.

Thanks for mentioning Zanotti safes since I am looking as well and a tear down safe might be good since I could be moving a couple times in the next year or so.

[Shooter Ready]

I have a second floor safe because my bedroom is upstairs and I like to have my guns near me. I have a Cannon, and it weighs about 500 lbs. You will want to use professional safe movers because it is wise to avoid injuring yourself or your friends. I haven't bolted mine down since it is upstairs. I'm also not planning to move for a while.

I've read that professional thieves just jack up the safe and load it onto the truck if the safe is in the usual location, not bolted down in the garage.

[Winchester67]

Great thing about having it upstairs....lot tougher to steal, as mentioned. Yes, getting it up the stairs was a pain. Putting it into a walk in closet caused some friction with the wife, but man it is tough to swing a hammer in that closet now if they are stupid enough to try and sledge it open. That location puts time on your side, and time is what the average thief does not have.

[EseLoco918]

Consider putting the main heavy duty safe in the garage, bolted down and hidden if possible. Then, upstairs near your bed, a stack on type bolted to the wall loaded with your main go-to guns.

[H60DoorGunner]

Thanks for the replies! I didn't know they made gun safes you could take apart. That will make things a lot easier!

Since it will be on the second floor I won't be bolting it down, but I'm thinking about building a book case or some other facade. Thoughts?

[pangloss]

Moving the safe upstairs depends on how well equipped the movers are. The guy that delivered my safe (30" Browning) was able to get it into the ground floor of my house (up one step) without much problem (hydraulic equipment). I put it in the closet under the stairs, which was really a perfect place. However, because of the floorplan of the house, it took a while to get the safe into the closet. I had to take off part of the close door frame, but once there, it was a very discreet location. Getting the safe out of the close when we moved was less of a hassle than I expected, which was a nice surprise.

Now, here comes the part about the stairs: when we got to Kansas, the movers got the safe off the truck and into the house without any problems. The safe was on a dolly (like you'd use for a refrigerator) with one guy holding each handle and the biggest guy (really just a kid, ~19 years old) supporting the safe from below while they went down the stairs into the basement. That's when the dolly broke, the safe went flying, and nearly crushed the guy on the downstairs side. It also put a hole in my wall and tore the carpet at the foot of the stairs. I was actually at Home Depot when this happened, and got home about 60 seconds after the dolly broke. Fortunately no one was hurt. Nevertheless, I felt so bad about what happened (though absolutely not my fault), that I gave the guy my Spyderco Manix 2 for being quick off the X and not getting crushed.

These movers charged me about 60% of the next cheapest estimate for moving from TN to KS, and they simply weren't prepared to deal with a safe. Even if they'd completely destroyed the safe, I could have bought a new one and still come out ahead. I'm just glad no one was hurt. The steps will be an issue for you when/if you move, but if you buy the safe from some one who regularly deals with them, they'll probably have the equipment to get it upstairs. Is there a safe store near where you live? Nashville was big enough that I was able to do everything locally. I still had to pay a delivery fee though. Where I am now, I'd probably have to drive 2 hours to Kansas City if I wanted to actually see a good selection of safes.

Anyway, it's great that your getting a safe. My first house was too small for one. Now in the third house, my safe (and ammo and related gear) has a whole windowless room to itself in the basement. I changed the door knob so there's a lock in place, though that door wouldn't keep anyone out who really wanted in.

[toothie]

What's the matter with a little creative carpentry? A false wall or wall panel(s) behind which the safe can live or the valuables can simply be hidden, especially if you DON'T advertise that you have it. If thieves don't know you have it and don't know where to look, how likely are they to find it? The relatives and neighbors do NOT need to know. Period.

[pangloss]

What's the matter with a little creative carpentry? A false wall or wall panel(s) behind which the safe can live or the valuables can simply be hidden, especially if you DON'T advertise that you have it. If thieves don't know you have it and don't know where to look, how likely are they to find it? The relatives and neighbors do NOT need to know. Period.

Fire protection comes to mind.

However, I should add that my current house has a secret compartment that we didn't find until several months after we moved in. I've actually thought about buying a smaller safe to put in there, but it doesn't look like we'll live here long enough to make worth the expense.

[mattmann]

Google search tactical walls for some ideas you could build or buy...

[EDELWEISS]

OK first, is there any chance you could turn a room into your safe? Its not as hard as you might think. You just have to decide how much protection you want. What real threat do you worry about? Email me if you wanna discuss further.

As for safes buy several smaller ones rather than one huge one. The big ones are never big enuf' besides they force you to stack guns infront of guns so it becomes a real P.I.A. to get stuff hidden away in the back. Smaler safes will be cheaper, easyier to move, easier to find a place to put them, harder for a thief to defeat several safes, and they can be bolted together making the possibility of stealling them to open later impossible.

Recessing in a closet works until you have to empty the closet to open the safe. There is a "Bed Safe" that makes the safe the "Box Spring" but geting your guns then becomes an issue.

Trust me turning a small room into a "vault" is do-able and just looks like another room. Call it a "Storm Room" and you may even get a tax break.

[SheepDog68]

Go take apart that is larger than the closet door so it can't be removed without taking the wall down if it not open or as mentioned several smaller ones bolted down. Both of these options are much easier to move should you ever need to.

Sturdy Safe is a lot of box for the money and have options to make them harder rather than prettier.

For moving find out what your floors will support before going too far. I've moved them across wooden floors that were not strong enough on heavy planks or 3/4 inch ply depending on what I needed. Three or four short sections of pipe as rollers will allow you to move them anywhere on a single level or even up or down smallish drops.

I prefer bolted to concrete in a corner or narrow area that is difficult to work in for anyone who wants to work on your box while your not there. Tapcon makes a large bolt sized one that is very strong and easy enough to install. I generally shim it level, bolt it down than grout it in place after everything is set.

SD

[Dr. Dan Choi]

First of all, congrats on the house. Take a look at this page (http://www.6mmbr.com/gunsafes.html) for some great info on safes in general. My first gun safe was a small Liberty, but I quickly outgrew that one. I now have a large Amsec bolted into the floor in the basement. I had to hire professionals to do the job as the safe was way too large for friends and a dolly. In our last renovation, we built some built-in book shelves on the wall connecting our kitchen to our living room. There is a 2.5 foot space between the back wall of the book case and the actual structural wall accessed by a hidden panel outlined in molding to hide the seam of the door. My wife hides the vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies in there, but I got her to agree to let me hang a rifle and sneaky bag in there.

[WinstonSmith]

I'm a big fan of a "decoy safe" (cheaper locking cabinet, e.g. stack-on) in the garage, especially lag bolted into the walls. That way, every service repair crew, nosy neighbor, or random acquaintance/dinner party guest will see that one and if they decide to knock of your house, that's where they'll go first. They're generally inexpensive, and make a great place to hold the .22 LR plinkers and run-of-the-mill 12 gauge shotguns.

As for the rest, I'm a big fan of distributing in several places throughout the house, just because you can. It's nice knowing that you can grab X in the kitchen, Y in the living room, Z in the master bed room, etc.

[Patrick K]

I second the Tactical Walls idea. It's not fire proof and won't stand up to a determined thief but they have to find it to steal it. Good for your bedroom to keep some hardware close and quickly accessible. 43343

[dnater]

Another modular safe to consider is the SnapSafe. I was able to set one up in a closet without any assistance. Another set of hands would have made it easier, but one person can do it (luckily I didn't have many stairs to negotiate). The downside is that it's Chinese and pretty expensive for what you get. I still went with it because it was modular and a perfect fit for the space I wanted to put it. Ordered on the second, delivered on the eighth and installed in about 2 hours. Only took that long because I did it all solo.

[ss58]

Congrats on the house brother. Thanks for your service as well. I am fortunate enough to have been able to build a room in the basement that has a work area and and a steel door. My problem with the house on the market is not the guns its the ammo. i probably have 3 pallets worth and that the real headache. You have gotten great advice from others.

I guess I'm just moaning about the ammo……thats gonna be a bitch. The other thing I've had deal with is finding every gun stashed in every room (an advantage of just myself and the XO….no kids)

Good luck.

[H60DoorGunner]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll buy a buildable safe for now, and remodel a room into a "hard room" as I get time. Some members have given me some really good tips and ideas as far as that.

As ss58 pointed out, ammo is the real rub. That will take some creativity.

[David Bowman]

I have always liked this one. Once it is time to replace the bed, the fight may be one with the wife. :biggrin:

http://bedgunsafe.com/