How To Keep A Gun Safe From Tipping Over?

Even if your safe is perfect and the floor beneath it is perfectly level, there is still a good chance that your safe could tip over if you don’t bolt it down properly.

That is because most of the weight is on the front of a gun safe, and when you open the door, you can easily push the safe forward and back.

If you can rock your safe with ease when the door is open, bolt it down ASAP. If you install it on a carpet, it will take several days for the safe to flatten down the carpet. If I were you, I wouldn’t wait that long.

It doesn’t matter how much your safe weighs; you will have to bolt it down sooner or later. There is also a security risk.

Someone you don’t want to come into your house can easily tip the safe over, pry it open take all of your valuables.

The best way to prevent a safe from tipping over is to lag bolt them into the wall behind them and also into the concrete. Almost all the safe will have pre-drilled holes on the back. You can brace the safe to the studs in the wall behind it.

How To Make Sure The Safe Level To The Ground?

Safes that rock can be dangerous especially if it’s on a carpet. When the door is opened, they can tip, which can cause the safe to fall over. If not, they can just cause the door to swing hard enough to damage something.

In most cases, the chances of the bottom of the safe being completely flat are extremely slim unless the safe is made of steel plate. Furthermore, most floors aren’t level either, so when you have the safe, you will have a problem with it rocking.

It’s important to bolt safes down, but there’s an easy solution that experienced gun safe reviewers like us know about. The local hardware store offers wood shims for 99 cents a package. The shims can be used to make the safe level by placing them under its corners.

In this situation, the safe will probably be on a tack strip if it is up against the wall. In order to make up the difference, you’ll need to add multiple shims under the front. As a result of the weight of the safe, the shims will be forced into the carpet and pad until they form a solid base.

You know you’ve got it right when the safe stops rocking, and the door doesn’t swing in any direction. Keep the shims on for now. Make sure the safe sits for 24 hours, and then adjust it if necessary.

Why Are Gun Safes Worthless If They Can’t Be Bolted To The Floor?

Let’s look at this purely from a security standpoint. First of all, if it’s a large safe, it will tip over easily. All it takes to make the safe disappear is a good dolly, a few strong dudes, a hand truck, and a cart. This way, one or two guys can take your safe right out of your house.

Advantages Of Anchoring Your Gun Safe

An anchoring system for safes comes with additional benefits besides preventing them from falling over. Some of these are:

The safe should be protected from thieves carrying it all. Burglars can break open any safe with sufficient time and effort. To work in the safe, they usually transport it away to open at a later time.

Make your gun more secure. Adding bolts to your safe can make it much more secure. An upside-down safe is much easier to break than one that is upright.

A bolted door can be knocked down from the side, and the body-to-weight ratio can be leveraged to pry it open if it is not bolted.

Things You Can Do To Keep Your Gun Safe From Tipping Over

The first thing you will need to ensure is that the small gun safe is properly stable. Stabilizing the safe will prevent it from being tipped over. Here are some other things that you can do.

Plan Ahead

You should prepare the installation crew for your safe before it arrives, so they are prepared when it arrives.

In the event your safe cannot be anchored to your floor, let your installers know. To determine what options are available for installation, you can always speak with your gun safe dealer.

Anchoring A Safe To The Floor

Drilling some holes in the floor isn’t enough to anchor a safe. The method of anchoring will depend on the flooring and the subfloor.

It is common for the main level floor of basements and crawlspaces to be made of plywood supported by some underneath joists for stability.

Wood anchors are required for these. Concrete anchors may be necessary if your safe is going to the basement or if it will be placed below grade.

• For this, you will need to replace the floor caps and panels.
• Drill holes in four different anchoring points.
• Anchor bolts should be fitted with washers included in the kit.
• The bolts should be installed with a socket set once the holes have been drilled.

How To Anchor A Safe

Anchoring Your Safe To A Hard Floor

The anchoring of a gun safe may be difficult if you have a concrete subfloor. A hammer drill that you can use to drill through concrete is required in addition to anchoring the device. Kits that are designed specifically to anchor safes are available.

You will also want to check whether your flooring isn’t a post-tension type. On a post-tension type, the steel cables reinforce the slabs, which is important since they can withstand thousands of pounds of pressure.

A damaged cable can come out of the concrete and cause injury or damage. A floor can be seen to be post-tensioned if it is stamped with the post-tension symbol. If not, you should anchor your safe according to these steps:

• Find the safe anchoring holes that have been pre-drilled. 
• The floor caps or paneling can be removed to reveal this.
• Using a hammer drill, drill holes into each of the four anchoring corners.
• Clean the holes if they are dusty.
• Bolts should be put in place, and socket sets should be used to tighten them.

Anchoring Your Safe To A Wall

A cheap gun safe that cannot be bolted to the floor can be bolted to a wall, especially if you are renting. Rather than replacing your carpet or floor when you move, it is easier to repair a few small holes in a wall.

Liberty safes and other safes from other top safe manufacturers are not pre-drilled with holes like many manufacturers do.

Because of this, anchoring your safe to the floor is much simpler than bolting it to a wall. The safe should always be installed by a professional since they will have the right tools and the right knowledge to do the job.

In order to install a safe, the installation team will drill holes in the wall at the precise location of the studs.

Stud-finders are needed for this. Safes shouldn’t be anchored into sheetrock alone. It is not recommended to anchor your safe to sheetrock since the screws could easily be pulled out.

In addition to figuring out where your safe should be placed so that they can anchor into studs, your installers will need to deal with the trickiest aspect of the installation: drilling through your safe.

In order to make drilling through gun safes difficult, they are built tough. For drilling through steel, it will be necessary to use a drill with a powerful bit.

Anchoring A Safe Through Stone Or Tile

Your safe can also be placed on a stone floor if your floor is tiled. To avoid cracking the stone, make sure that the weight is distributed properly within the safe. In general, a bedside gun safe’s weight can be supported by most stones.

On the other hand, anchoring a safe to tiles can be difficult as you risk cracking them. The installer should consider mounting the safe on the wall instead of tiles if you have a tiled floor.

How To Secure A Safe Without Bolting It To The Floor?

Even though people commonly bolt safes to the floor, there are a variety of reasons why this is not a good idea. You might not be able to bolt your safe to the floor if you are renting. It is also not possible to bolt a safe to the floor itself, which causes owners of safes to find an alternative.

Whether you own your home or not, you may be wondering how you can secure a safe without bolting it to the ground. Some hardwood floors are too expensive to drill through. If your floor plan makes it difficult to use traditional techniques for securing a safe, you may need to explore other options.

Though it is best to bolt the safe to the ground, we will explore many alternatives. It can be simple and cheap, or it can be complicated and expensive. What matters is that you’ll find ways to keep your safe secure even without bolting it to the floor.

To prevent your safe from tipping over if anchoring it to the floor is not an option, consider the following measures:

Bolt To Steel

It is also possible to bolt large safes to a large pallet or piece of heavy steel. The safe can no longer be moved through a door.

Steel to bolt. A large safe can be attached to a heavy pallet or steel surface using bolts. The safe can be difficult to move in this way.

There are some disadvantages to these methods, which we will discuss later. Most people use it as an alternative. Maintain it with a nice dehumidifier to give it a longer life.

Bolt Safes Together

Secure the safes together with bolts. In the case of two large safes, you may want to bolt them together. It will be more difficult to knock them over this way.

A large safe can also be bolted together with two smaller ones. Unless the safes are completely disassembled or extremely labor-intensive, you will be unable to move them. Fortunately, you can hinder criminals from moving your safe in any way they can.

Bolt To A Wall

Attach to a wall with bolts. A safe that is attached to the wall can be useful for people who live in rental apartments. Attaching things to walls can often be easier in rental units or apartments. Its effectiveness is almost equivalent to bolting the safe down to the ground.

Final Words

Non-traditional methods of securing a safe are easy. By choosing your safe and determining where it will be located, you have already taken the first step. Compare the pros and cons of different safe-securing methods and consider how they may affect you and your home.

When you install a safe on your own, it can be very dangerous. Additionally, this may cause the safe to be destroyed. So, it is best to get the anchoring done by a professional. You will be able to rest assured that the safe will not topple over once this is done.

This is not something that should be complicated. The value of simplicity cannot be overstated. Several strategies can be used to make a safe even more secure and difficult to move. All of these approaches are straightforward. Follow these tips mentioned above if you want to keep your gun safe from tipping over.