Fort Knox safe

Placing any safe in a corner which greatly prevents a pry attack certainly gets my approval because that's exactly how I placed my Amsec BF and had it firmly bolted to the concrete slab as well.
If you can afford the steel upgrade package then by all means do it.
This is certainly not an overkill but a very good move.

My FK Guardian is in a corner & bolted to concrete slab

Instead of bolting the safe to the floor, I bolted mine with a 3/8 diameter lag bolt from near the top of the inside of the safe through the safe into a 2x4 wall stud. The only way that safe is going to be moved without opening the door is to knock out the wallboard and cut the wall stud off with a saw. Now, in the event I want to move the safe to another location, I'm only dealing with spackling up one small hole in the wall as opposed to filling holes in floor tile, carpet, etc. I also think it is every bit as strong as drilling holes into a concrete floor.

Well that's one way to do it Barney but most people dont really want to drill thru the wall of their expensive safe and I can tell you right away that lag bolt in a 2x4 stud is no match to four half inch diameter Redhead,Hilti,etc. concrete anchors sunk four inches deep in a concrete slab.

You aren't going to pull either one lose without a whole lot of work. A 3/8" hole through the back wall of the safe up against the wall with a lag bolt in it is a lot less than 4 holes drilled through the floor of the safe. Also when you go to relocate it and my experience says it very well may happen, you now have 4 holes in the floor and floor covering you have to deal with.

Or you could just buy a heavy enough safe to begin with. My Ft. Knox weighs 880# empty. I figure if they can move it they brought plenty of help.

High,you will find several people on this forum that have moved safes that heavy by themselves.
The main reason I would bolt a safe down is to keep it from tipping over when the heavy door is fully opened and to keep a criminal from dropping the safe on it's back to gain maximum leverage for a pry attack.

HighExpert said:

Or you could just buy a heavy enough safe to begin with. My Ft. Knox weighs 880# empty. I figure if they can move it they brought plenty of help.

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My new one is 1700lbs, and it's bolted down. It's a lot easier to pry them on their backs, and moving one out is easier if you don't care what you damage. They moved it in with three guys, and could easily move it out with two.

The other problem with drilling the back is that it diminishes the fire resistance quite a bit. With my $569 30-minute Costco Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) I didn't care. With my 2-hour at 1500 Summit, I CARE. And a 3/8 lag screw isn't much when you don't care about wall damage - I could pull or break it in 30 seconds or less with a crowbar. It will, however, keep the safe from tipping onto the door accidentally.

10-4 makes good sense. I guess I need to do some bolting down.

HighExpert said:

10-4 makes good sense. I guess I need to do some bolting down.

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It's time well spent. My Rhino weighs 1050 pounds and I installed it by myself.

Fella's;

Bolting in additional plates does not really provide all the additional protection that a manufacturer wants you to think it does. Wall thickness must be integral to meet the U.L. standard for good reason. Bolted add-ons simply aren't effective enough for U.L. to certify that that method meets the standards to be considered a true safe. Here's another thing to consider; when you've paid for all that boomph, you're getting real close to the price of a real safe. I know which one I'd rather have, and I've already voted with my wallet.

900F

keep a criminal from dropping the safe on it's back to gain maximum leverage for a pry attack.

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Have you ever noticed that in all those demos where they drop a safe onto its back then go at it with pry bars, they start with the safe in the middle of a big room with lots of work space, or in parking lot? This way, they can tip it onto its back without first moving it. But who parks their safe in the middle of a room?

A very heavy safe with its back to the wall in a room where there isn't enough space to manipulate it onto its back is not as prone to pry attack as we are led to believe. Bolt a safe down and you make it easier for pry bars to get leverage.

Mine is free standing on carpet, and it's in a small room. The safe cannot be placed onto its back in the space where it sits without first moving a bunch of other stuff. Such a safe may be less prone to pry attack than one that's bolted securely, as a pry attack would only scoot it around.

However, there's another aspect to consider regarding the videos and prying attacks. That's the viewer's attention span.

In other words, are you going to sit still and watch them do it for six minutes instead of under two? The point of videos such as "Security On Sale" is to point out that the bent sheet metal that the bolts lock up behind isn't giving you good protection. Protection, that if you own an RSC built that way, you certainly paid good money for. The videos should be considered as educational, not shams.

But to suppose that if your unit is built that way and bolted upright that it can't be compromised is a fool's paradise. It'll just take a little longer, and not all that much more time either if a pry attack is the only thing being considered. There are other ways to do it, but I'm not going to detail them on open forum for what should be obvious reasons.

900F