I have a buddy that is building a new house. They are downsizing from their current place and thus, their house will be smaller and space will be limited.

He currently has his safe in the basement but in the new place, his intention was to put it in his garage.

the garage is to be heated in the winter so that, to me, isn't a big deal really. (not ideal though) My concern for him is the summer.

We live in the midwest and have brutal winters and the summers get very hot as well.

I advised him not to put it in the garage due to the heat and humidity during the summer. He is now having second thoughts.

I would think that even with a good dehumidifier it wouldn't be a good atmosphere for his guns.

thoughts?

Thoughts on a safe in the garage. Unless it's hidden, it might be seen by passerby's and neighbors when the garage door is open. Extreme high temps and humidity changes might not be good for wood stocks. Definitely bolt it down with big fasteners.

My first concern would be the garage door. If it has an automatic opener, the "combination" from the remote needs to be very secure. In my area, the openers are older, and thieves can use an automated transmitter, opening any door on the street in a few minutes.

Generally, not recommended. The point on heat/cold/humidity is well taken. If your friend's garage is visible from the street, there's a small but not inconsiderable risk of others seeing the safe. Out of sight, out of mind....

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50 Years of DSOTM

Definitely bolt it down, cover it or disguise it, and use a dehumidifier inside, both a desiccant and a Golden Rod electric type.

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No good deed goes unpunished.

I had the same choice when I moved into my present house. I opted to put safe in the basement part of the downstairs not the garage part. The basement part also has a dehumidifier in it for the warmer months and a furnace for the colder months. It also puts the safe closer to my "gun area"

If using the garage the cars leak off all that stuff that is in the frame area and wheels and the humidity goes out of sight,+ those big doors opening and closing also do serious job of air exchanging.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

Use the box it came in and paint it to match the décor. Lift it off when needed. A Golden Rod works well. Climate control is the best option and bolt it down. Ours is alarmed to central.
Don't show and tell. It will bite you in the backside.. Kids are the worse telegraph.

I think thefts of and from actual gun safes are pretty rare. Unless you went by my house for the fifteen minutes the truck was backed to garage and the safe was unloaded before I dropped the door, you wouldn't know I had one in my office.

Everybody that drives by my house on a pretty day knows I have a freezer, a refrigerator, two large Craftsman roll arounds, and three bicycles (along with a bunch of plastic totes filled with stuff they are welcome to steal.

My office - very difficult to get to and even harder, if not impossible to move a safe out of without a crew.
My garage - Pickup truck and a tommy lift = me with less of my stuff.

You decide . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Even with the newer models that can't be defeated by breaking the code, there is a very easy way to physically gain access unless the door is physically secured with a padlock or the like. I won't give the details here, but you can't rely on any automatic opener to provide real security.

IMO, the most concerning thing is the heat and humidity. I am not sure how confident I would be that a dehumidifier would do the job under those conditions.

I know my garage can get close to or even over 100 degrees at times during the summer. I have to imagine the safe would be sweltering inside as well.

How about killing two birds with one stone.

Since it is the Midwest, and the house is to be constructed, design
it with a dual-purpose, concrete tornado safe-room/gun vault, master-bedroom closet, outfitted with one of the vault doors readily available.

Gives a retreat area should a twister (or home invasion ) strike and a climate controlled gun storage area that is readily accessible.

Been there done that. In sunny Florida, in the heat of the summer, it's in excess of 100 in the garage at times. Put one or two cars in there that have been driven and engines are hot, well, you pass 110 and more.

Without air conditioning/heating your garage, you may find the contents of your safe are not so...... Safe.

If the choice is safe in garage, or no safe, that would be the only way I would put one in your garage. But really, even the foot print of a moderate safe is pretty small, so put it inside if at all possible.

BTW, after monitoring the temperature and humidity in my safe that was in the garage for just a few months, changes were made to avoid the big temperature and humidity swings.

Reminds me of a guy I knew that bought a 5,000 plus square foot
house and put two big gun safes in the garage. To my way of thinking,
my guns are a huge priority in my life and I am putting them
where they are safe and close. Priorities!

General security and convenience issues aside, most geographical locations are not suitable for a garage gun safe. That said, the advantages are that you can usually go for a much bigger, heavier safe... plus bolting down and disguising/camouflaging the safe from casual viewers can usually be pretty easy. Fewer worries about flooding, excessive humidity and corrosion vs. basement gun safes too. Protecting it with alarm(s) and camera(s) is usually easier as well. It's not the best solution or for everyone, but where it's possible and done right, it's not the worst solution either.

Since it is new construction, this is an opportunity to put the safe in the floor. Easier to conceal, and much harder to break into. And you loose less floor space.

If he is having the house built then build a space for the safe.
People happen to see the safe in the garage they are likely to come back later and force the owner to open it. Out of sight out of mind.
There was a man that had guns and a collection of watches he kept in a safe in his home. Some thugs broke into his house while he was there. The man didn't have any gun on himself and the thugs using guns forced him to open the safe. They took his guns and collection of watches.
The one bad thing about having a collection of just about anything is you don't want people to even know about it. Kind of sucks for showing off your guns or expensive collections.
That floor safe could be good but again I would wonder about water or dampness damages.

Master bedroom walk in closet

Unless his garage is going to be climate controlled and insulated. Not a good idea.

Plus the obvious about access and visibility.

You say he is building the house? This would seem to be the opportunity to incorporate a safe, or even a safe room, just the way you wanted it. JMO.

Bingo!!! We have a winner!

That's a fact. As I've often said, the very best safe of all is the one no one knows about or could ever find.

Expanded metal on the windows, good door with top notch locks and enough of them. I had it demonstrated how easy it is for a knowledgeable person to break in.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I wouldn't do it. I am in the midwest as well. I'd like to do it but I'm not going to.

That is how I think but he is the tightest man in america. LOL. He had a budget in mind for the house long ago. I warned him he would never be within it and at minimum to plan for 10% over.......He was adamant about it.....I was right... HA.

So, he isn't wanting to do anything further to increase his construction cost.

I understand the arguments for why that is not particularly smart but I doubt he will budge.

I did talk to him today and he is going to bolt it down but I doubt he goes to any further lengths than that and a dehumidifier.

He probably has 6 or 8 guns, nothing of special value to speak of. Mostly shotguns and a couple rifles.

Can you provide more details?

So this is just a gun locker and not a real safe?

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

He already has a stand up, liberty safe. Probaby 24 wide and 40-50" tall

I agree with everything you have said. Honestly, he never thought this through. The framing, roofing and windows are already in.

We actually just started having this conversation a couple weeks ago. He just never gave it a second thought. He just always assumed he would just put it in his garage and never considered any issues or concerns or doing anything special.

He doesn't want it in the basement either and there is no room on the main floor. That sucker is going in the garage. He just needs to figure out how to live with his decision the best he can.

He really isn't one to worry too much. We are wired a bit different!!

Oh Lordy! That's a "mini-safe or gun cabinet in the back of a closet" kind of collection/accumulation. Cover it with a little insurance and call it done!

Yeah, that's why he doesn't get too uptight about it. He isn't the kind of guy to stock pile. he just has a handful of average guns.

In all likelyhood, this probably wasn't the ideal situation for a massive thread debate but the concept in and of itself is certainly a good one.

I know I would never do it if I could avoid it. But that's just me

I was a Cop for 35 years. Bad guys get info on things like gun safes from the delivery guy, anyone who goes into your garage, the kid's friends, the meter reader, the wife's hairdresser......
Once I know it's in the garage, I back a heavy pu with a lift or a wrecker into the garage, opening the door is like opening a cardboard box, now with the garage door down I hook up to the safe or locker or whatever, open the door and drive away. If it's bolted down, I cut the braces. Around Houston and Galveston they used to, maybe still do, back into a store when it was closed and take the safes.
I'd put it as close as possible to the middle of the house.

Since I have a safe in the garage and one in the house, I'm doing it both ways already.
But one thing that I absolutely recommend- bolt it down hard and fast!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

There are companies that specialize in building cabinets, bookcases, and other furniture that are designed to hide and secure firearms and other valuables, yet allow quick access. I know a man who built a storage space in his tongue and groove pine paneled walls to hide his firearms. You'd never suspect it existed.

Speaking from experience, putting a safe in the garage isn't a bad idea. Since I work on them routinely, I see lots of safes in the garage. Matter of fact most of them are.

People find creative ways to cover or conceal them when the door is open.

Mine has been in the garage for over ten years. I keep my guns in gun socks. No problems. It's on the other side of the freezer so you can't see it as well.

The constant rise and fall of the temperature in the garage could be a problem if you don't take steps to protect your guns. Also consider the dew point.

Dew Point Calculator

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Having a vault under the floor is the safe location though might not be the safest place. Since, there is no safe place in authority investigation.

Easy solution. Gun safe in the master bedroom closet. Wife's shoes in the garage.

Liberty safes, and others as well, I would think, have holes pre-drilled in the bottom so you can use a lag bolt or other fastener to secure the safe to the concrete floor. This is essential for any safe, especially if it's in the garage.

In several homes over the years, my safe has never been anywhere but in my garage, and I have never had a problem with rusting, no matter the season. A Goldenrod or other electric dehumidifier works by heating the air inside the safe. The heated air then expands, which prevents humid outside air from getting in. As long as the air inside the safe is warmer than the air outside the safe, the principle remains the same.

I have an indoor/outdoor electronic thermometer in my safe. It always shows the inside of the safe to be warmer than the outside. In bitter cold winter weather, it might be well below freezing inside the safe, but as long as it's colder outside the safe, the Goldenrod is doing its job. In summer weather, the temperature is higher inside the safe, again expanding the air inside it, and keeping all that humidity out.

Your friend has nothing fear from putting the safe in his garage.

When we designed our house, I specified the dimensions of one of the closets that would allow my gun safe to fit at one end of the closet such that the safe door aligned with one edge of the closet door. I can use the closet without being blocked by any part of the safe. This also means that the safe is in a air conditioned part of my house. Here in Louisiana, the range of temperatures and humidity at different times of the year would make it unwise to put gun storage in the garage.

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Corripe Cervisiam

If he has the safe or can acquire a template of the bolt-down locations and hole diameters, and the concrete has not been poured yet in the desired location, a concrete embedment plate is a substantially stronger attachment than expansion bolts. Weave a few rebar over the plate, and its really planted.

When I purchased my safe in 2004, I had it placed in the garage. Placed it on some pieces of oak to keep it off the concrete floor. Did not bolt it down. Have had no problems with it being there.

Another idea since he's determined on the garage, and its still being built, is to add a small room in the garage. It could be in the corner connecting to the main house with its access door inside the house but closed off to the garage. He could even use 3' or 4' of an entire wall thus building a false room that no one knows about.
Not that expensive and you could run an AC/heat vent to it for climate control.

I know a guy here in town who hand dug a cellar under his stem wall foundation house. Most houses here are built on a slab.
Then he poured a steel reinforced vault. Added a vault door.
Access is via a circular steel stairway.
Yes this guy is excessive!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

A German friend of mine was a Bundeswehr weapons engineer in his career, and has forgotten more about guns than most of us will ever learn. When he built his home, in a small town near the Dutch border, back in 1968, he built it around his gun safe...

They poured the basement slab, then lowered the safe onto it, and then built the rest of the house. That safe is enormous: About 4 feet wide, 4 feet deep, and 6 feet high.

I don't see a problem, just put it in the wife's walk-in closet, or put it in the kitchen and the fridge goes in the garage. You just need a bachelor to see things clearly.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

I would put it in the master bedroom walk in closet also,this is no problem if he is building a new house. Agree with this others, just plan ahead. None of my stuff is going in the garage. Keep it in the bedroom. I would look at buiding a "safe room" of total concrete in the middle of the house for storm protection and put all my "valuables in there also. M2CW

Sure. It was on a common wall with the house interior. Built a SMALL room around it and added venting from AC/heat. Just enough room for me and my shadow, but it works.

See post 41 from Jessie. Same thing.