Gun vault rust (the vault, not the guns)

[Captaingyro]

I had to move my Cannon gun vault today. It sits on a linoleum-tiled basement floor, against a sub-grade concrete wall. Fortunately, I only had to move it a few feet.

As it slid away from it's long-time resting place, it revealed a rust stain of about one square foot on the tile. I tilted and shimmed the safe so that I could get a good look underneath, and, sure enough, there was quite a bit of thin surface rust covering about a quarter of the vault's bottom. It appears that at some time a little water, probably not more that a tablespoonful, had either leaked down the wall behind the vault, or migrated up through the concrete floor and through the seams in the tile.

I'm kind of glad now that I hadn't gotten around to bolting the vault to the floor; if I had, I'd never have attempted the move and discovered the rust. Also, I'm not sure what good bolts would do if the floor of the vault rusts out around them.

So, what to do? Has anyone dealt with this issue before? I'm thinking about keeping the vault up on some thin wooden slats or runners, both to keep it out of contact with any moisture and to allow a little air circulation. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

 

[rcmodel]

I'm thinking about keeping the vault up on some thin wooden slats or runners

That.

The safe needs to be out of direct contact with the concrete floor or sweating can occur due to difference in ground temp and room temp.

On the other hand, setting it on slats will give a safe thief a nice head start on getting it raised up enough to get a dolly under it.

Perhaps a solid sheet of 3/4" plywood for insulation, or a sheet of heavy plastic for a vapor barrier??
Or both?

rc