Is an 800 lb. safe too heavy for the house? PICS ADDED

W

Wyatt Burp

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2008
Messages
6,777
Reaction score
17,711
Location
Northern California
Looks like I'm getting an 800 lb. safe. It will probably go in my even climate garage (humidifier included), but out of curiosity, is this too heavy, especially with stuff in it, for the floor of a house NOT on a slab? We have a crawl place under the house and wonder if extra support is needed below the safe when in the corner of a room. Your experience and insights are much appreciated.
EDIT: Here's the safe. 28"wide, 59" tall.


 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
Normally, it shouldn't be a problem...unless you live in a home that is so old that building codes were non-existent or not enforced, i.e. no substantial floor joists.

I have my safe in our home and there is no problem whatsoever.
 
A neighbor put a bigger one than that in his crawl space home. He built a pier under the safe, and reinforced the jousts where they contacted the pier.

Took him 30 minutes to make it very well supported, no matter how much weight the safe would end up holding.
 
Wyatt, I put a gun safe in my bedroom in about 1995 and the safe empty weight is 650 lbs. I have a pier and beam floor also with a crawl space. I put the safe on the east wall, which made it as close as possible to the foundation footings (concrete footings) that the house sits on. I bolted it to the floor and had plans on going underneath the house and adding support in that area with cinder blocks and such and decided after a while that is wasn't necessary.I kept a vertical and horizontal check on it for a while and all was good so I never added any support underneath the floor. There is no telling what the safe weighs loaded but it is plenty heavy. The fact it is near the concrete footings surrounding the house I know adds to the strength of the area where it sets. I have had no problems with cracks, sagging, and anything out of the ordinary with setting the safe where I did. Just wanted to let you know my experience.
 
My National Security safe weighs a bit more than 800 pounds and has sat in the den, above my garage, for twenty years without falling through. Too bad the little illegitimate youth that burglarized us in 2011 didn't manage to tip it over on himself while ransacking our home.
 
Not sure I understand your description correctly. You state the house is on a conventional foundation and not a slab, then you state that the safe will go in the garage, which I would assume is on a slab. On a conventional foundation, floor joist, sub-flooring, etc., floors are designed to support a specific load which consist of what is referred to as a live load and a dead load. Your safe is a dead load, people are live loads. Your local building department can answer the question of the design loads for your area if your house was built under their jurisdiction. The dead load of the safe is its weight divided by the area of its base in square feet. For example, 800 pounds divided by 16 square feet is 50 lbs/sq ft dead load. This is easily within the parameters for modern construction but without knowing first hand the condition of the house's construction, I couldn't make a flat statement to that effect. Also such a dead weight plus the weight of guns over time will probably result in the floor sagging.
 
I have mine sitting on a wall that runs through the middle of my house and have never had a problem. I made sure though that I situated the safe in a way that 2-3 floor joists were under it instead of just one running long ways with the safe.
I have a crawl space as well and wondered about this before I got a safe.
 
Might be just fine. Might not be.
Your actual construction and materials determine your floor load capacity.

Then.. The design of your safes contact surface will come into play

Search for Floor Load Capacity Calculator and punch in your numbers.

Your safes contact surface (spread over flat bottom or on small 'legs' and the material of the sub floor and flooring contribute

A 800 lb safe with a flat 2x2 foot would impose 200 lbs/sqft. . That's a lot.

If you have 'legs', a local load for each foot could exceed that for the area of the leg. (e.g. 200 lb's per leg over a 2" diameter leg increases the load per sqft: 200 /(2x3.14)/144 is roughly equivalent to an 4585 lbs /sqft. This could punch through pressboard between floor joists.

It may not be a problem for good joists, shiplap subfoor, oak flooring with a 3/4 plywood 'coaster'. . .

You idea of beefing the crawl space is probably a good one, but this doesn't solve the problem of moving it through the house. Figure what that load will be on hard rubber dolly / handtruck wheels and that will scare you! You may need to lay a track with substantial material.

But remember, many people have done this without problems, luck may be with you!
 
An old-timer I used to know picked up a surplus Specie Safe that probably weight somewhere in the 1500 to 2000 lbs. range. He had to brace up his crawl space all the way from where he brought it into the house to where it was to reside. After he got it in place, he left the bracing under the safe but knocked all the other braces out. His idea was if anyone tried to steal the safe, it would go through the floor....:D:eek:;)
 
If you put the safe up against an exterior wall support is quite good. If you put it up against an interior wall between supporting piers underneath you're more likely to experience some sagging.
 
For an example only if a safe is 24 x 30 inches that would = 5 square feet. 800 divded by 5 = 160 psf. If you find the dimensions of your joists or TJI then a web search will allow you to find a site to look at the size of the structural member, its length and spacing such as 16" or 24" on center and give a psf limit for the assembly. Related event, when I was on active duty the classified documents custodian liked all the safes where he could see them at a glance. One of the squad was playing with a ping pong ball dropped it and it rolled to the safes. That was a bit more deflection than wanted
 
OLDNAVYMCPO said:
Not sure I understand your description correctly. You state the house is on a conventional foundation and not a slab, then you state that the safe will go in the garage, which I would assume is on a slab. On a conventional foundation, floor joist, sub-flooring, etc., floors are designed to support a specific load which consist of what is referred to as a live load and a dead load. Your safe is a dead load, people are live loads. Your local building department can answer the question of the design loads for your area if your house was built under their jurisdiction. The dead load of the safe is its weight divided by the area of its base in square feet. For example, 800 pounds divided by 16 square feet is 50 lbs/sq ft dead load. This is easily within the parameters for modern construction but without knowing first hand the condition of the house's construction, I couldn't make a flat statement to that effect. Also such a dead weight plus the weight of guns over time will probably result in the floor sagging.
Click to expand...
I said it will probably go in the garage (which is a slab) but was just curious about how it would work out in our 57 year old house which is single level and over a crawl place. Thanks for all your info about weight, and everyone else, too, for the help.
 
Can the people you're buying it from or the manufacture give you any help with what you need to support it if you put it on a floor in your house?
I'd think about hiring a carpenter too if you don't think yourself capable or reinforcing it.
I bought a 2000 pound safe about ten years ago and had it delivered to my basement by a moving company. I reinforced the stairs and after getting it delivered the owner said don't call me if you ever want it removed as I won't do it. I didn't figure it'd ever be a problem as planned on staying here but now that I'm getting divorced and can't afford the house alone I'm forced to leave it behind with the house at great loss.
Just make sure wherever you put it you might just be able to move it again.
 
Depending on the age of your home and the building code in effect, you may experience some sagging but it isn't likely to splinter the joists and fall through. Also, depending on exact location, the safe may straddle but one joist or may be supported by two joists.

My home, built in 1950, uses 2X8 floor joists. Without an 800 lb. safe sitting on it, the floor is a giant soup bowl as the joists have all taken a set.

Supporting your safe under the crawl space seems the way to go. Too much of a good thing is never enough.
 
Something I read, years back. Don't know if it's true, but it made sense at the time.

Standard safe is 30 x 20. 600 square inches, 4 1/2(?) square feet. All the weight of the safe and the guns on 4 1/2 square feet of floor. The guy writing the article said that before putting his safe in, he first laid down a full sheet of 3/4 plywood. That spread the weight of the safe out over 32 square feet of floor, instead of 4 1/2.
 
You say its 800 lbs and the width is 28 inches; if you assume its essentially square that means its 5.3 square feet holding 800 pounds, or about 150 pounds per square foot. If you are a medium sized person and you stand in a spot with your feet together you are putting as much load on this floor as the safe does.

So I think you can put this safe in your house without any problems. Bill S
 
Someone mentioned reinforcing stairs. There are pics around where the homeowner did not do this. The safe ends up in th basement about as you can imagine.
 
I did the same for my piano...

m1gunner said:
A neighbor put a bigger one than that in his crawl space home. He built a pier under the safe, and reinforced the jousts where they contacted the pier.

Took him 30 minutes to make it very well supported, no matter how much weight the safe would end up holding.
Click to expand...

I did the same for my piano. Not that it was going to go through the floor, but the floor bounced so it was stabilized.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

old bear
house guest.
Replies
5
Views
384
old bear
old bear
cherrypointmarine
New Aussie In The House
Replies
16
Views
580
Roofuss
R
cracker57
bought a new house.
Replies
12
Views
446
gwpercle
gwpercle
NYlakesider
house stolen, true or false!
2
Replies
30
Views
870
soFlaNative
soFlaNative
old bear
Auction for the Forum IS NOW CLOSED!!
2
Replies
23
Views
1K
lihpster
lihpster

Latest posts

Back
Top