Gun Safe Mounting in Garage - Rust, Pedestal & Bolt Down

[Triumph]

I live in a very high humidity environment and am forced to mount my safe on the garage floor. The garage floor is sometimes cold & damp. I do not want to set it directly on the concrete as the concrete sweats and will cause rust.

I would also like to raise the safe 3-6 inches if possible & still need to bolt it down.

For the rust alone I was considering a horse stall mat (very thick rubber) under the safe.

Also grinding on how to raise the safe without compromising security.

Any ideas would be appreciated. 2 issues: Rust prevention & raising safe 3-6 inches

 

[Magoo]

Why not pour a 3-6 inch high pad of concrete to place it on? Drill through your existing concrete and place bolts that extend from the old, though the new concrete and horsepad, and into the safe.
Maybe build a "closet" around it and install a dehumidifier. There are some made just for small spaces like that (Sears has 'em).

 

[heeler]

Triumph,go over to Fort Knox's website and take a look at their safe pedestal under their accessories.
It is carpeted and raises the safe 5 inches high.
It must be pretty strong as most Knox models I looked at and priced were pretty heavy units.
The one and only Knox dealer in our town is a family owned place and they are pretty easy to deal with.

 

[CapnMac]

Pressure-treated lumber set on "sill seal" (or Grace ICW window flashing) which keeps the lumber up off the concrete, too (very needful in Harris Co).

I wandered off into a technical bit on how to frame a base up, and realized that the number one issue you need to check first, is how thick a slab the garage has.

I'd get the locations for the anchor bolts laid out very carefully on the floor.

Then, I'd take a small masonry bit to one of those locations, and drill at least 6", or until you punch through the slab. (I've seen slabs as thin as 3" in Harris Co; and it's hard to get much bearing surface for a wedgebolt in that thin a slab.) If you wind up with a "thin" slab, that will bring up some different answers to this.

Oh, and having done this before a time or two, consider a "wing" wall to tuck behind the safe, facing towards the vehicle-entry door. Keeping the safe out of vehicle headlights helps not let passers-by see it, too. Which means you can leave the garage door open while painting shutters, working on cars, other wood-working or honey-do tasks.

Also, very much worthwhile to spend $3-500 on a camera system pointed at the safe door. The low-light cams are quite "happy" to be in the garage (and less spendy than weatherproof cams). Hearing a "bump in the night" it can be very reassuring to be able to see that safe on a computer or tv monitor before leaving the bedroom. The camera also lets you check that the dehumidifier is running, too, by using a pilot light outlet.

 

[seed]

Get a de-humidifier and set it up to drain outside with a hose. It has been a decade and a half since I bought one but the problem I ran into was the coils freezing up in temperatures below 65 degrees...which was not good for when I needed it most at my cold and rainy-wet Winter location at which I lived at the time. If I was not using a heater, my more powerful de-humidifier would freeze up, even though it had a defrost feature. My less powerful one did not have this problem as the coils were spaced further apart and allowed more air-flow to go over the coils and not freeze together. The other problem I had with the more powerful one was that it would act like a bit of a heater, by design apparently. Again, my less powerful one did not do this.

Years later I very casually looked at de-humidifiers on-line and noticed that they had newer designs which could run at lower temperatures. I don't know what design changes they made, but if I were to be in the market for another de-humidifier I would of course find out. Meanwhile, while I appreciated the moisture-gathering abilities of the more powerful unit I had, I'm not sure it would be useful to me nowadays due to its minimum-temperature requirements along with its air-heating function. Maybe these newer examples out there have solved the issues I faced.

 

[45crittergitter]

Be sure to use stainless anchor bolts.

 

[heeler]

^^....That's thinking ahead

 

[Polar Express]

That horse mat will actually hold moisture, thus promoting rust. I really like the idea of the 'wing wall', and mount your safe sideways behind it for all the reasons mentioned.

If you need to fir it up, you can use longer anchor bolts and strips of UHMW if you can find them, or 1/4" thick aluminum strips, or cut up a plastic cutting board. Even wood will work, but it too can retain moisture. You don't really need that much space, just enough so the condensation doesn't get to the steel bottom on your box.

With regards to inside the safe, I have heard of the idea of those piano dryer rods, run inside the box. I don't know if that would be enough, perhaps someone else who has tried could chime in on that one. (I just heard of the idea, I won't vouch for it. )

A de-hu /heater will take up a lot of room inside a safe box, and we all know how precious that space can be. But, less space is better than rusted hardware. I wonder if there's a way you could duct air into and out of the safe box, and still retain the security factor. I've never been to the gulf coast of Texas, but I've heard its plenty humid. I suspect airflow will still be your best ally, but I have no credible advice to offer on that topic.

Good luck,
PE

 

[seed]

When I mentioned a dehumidifier, I did not mean putting one in the safe but rather a unit for the whole garage. They work very well.

And for an added measure, you can always put dessicant in the safe...I use a plug-in rechargable I picked up from Amazon (actually, I have four -- two for each safe which I put in one at a time and swap out when needed). I also prop up a crutch against the door of my tall safe in the basement (converted into a room), creating a seal with the gaskets in the door to minimize air exchange. This increases dessicant charge life significantly.

And don't forget to get Bore-Stores for each of your guns and for groups of mags.

I've had guns stored like this for about 15 years -- most of these years without a dehumidifier. No problems, even during a handful of occasions when I forgot to put out the extended drainage pipes outside and the basement room floor flooded. The humidity in there was off the charts. Again, no problems.

 

[d2wing]

They make dryer rods for guns safe, they are low powered heaters. Maybe a small dog bowl heater or something would work.