Moving a Gun Safe

[Czechvar]

That's about the same weight mine is. I bought my Liberty Timber Ridge 24 Gun Safe From Gander Mountain, and paid their associated Safe Mover Company $200 to deliver and place it...and glad I did. They used some strap thing to balance it between them...just two guys.

I bought 18 orange practice hockey pucks, really tough ones. Then I made 6 stacks of 3 pucks glued together. Stuck the 6 stacks on the bottom of the Safe just before they placed it...hasn't moved since.

The Safe came with Electrical hooked up, so I just plugged in a Goldenrod. I also have a dehumidifier because it's in the basement.

Not mine, but interesting:
[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EM42n47GDzc[/ame]

 

[TX-Dennis]

It's probably worth it to pay a pro. I watched a guy in his mid sixties deliver a 600 lb. safe to a friend's house by himself. He had a specialized dolly with four wheels that leaned back on its own. The guy tilted it out of his pickup, extended the wheels, leaned it back, rolled it up a step into the house, and placed it into a bedroom in about ten minutes.

With the right equipment you could probably do that yourself without injury. Trouble is nobody but a pro has the right equipment.

That's part of the reason mine wound up in the garage. The freight truck delivered it into the garage with a lift gate and pallet jack, and I couldn't figure out how to move it up a step into the house without hurting myself.

 

[Broke Hoss]

My Browning weighs about 750lbs. Delivered just outside my yard gate.

I was ready & had planed the install. It came on a pallet and in a box. Using an appliance dolly & 3 strong 20 year olds, I moved it up into the yard and down the 40 foot sidewalk. We opened it there and quickly removed the door. The 4 steps into the house and then the threshold were easy thanks to to the dolly and muscles. Having the door off not only made it lighter; but it fit through doors w/o hassle that way too.

I had already put a varnished 1in pedestal in the corner and we put it on there with no problem. We used the dolly to bring the door in and it slipped right back on with no problem.

A few days later, I drilled holes and bolted it down (pier & beam) so that was a bit of a challenge.

 

[ladder13]

I used these guys since I was not willing to risk life nor limb, or trash my brand new house.
Excellent service, not a scratch or ding anywhere.

In The Nick Of Time Moving – Safe Moving

 

[BigBoy99]

It is a choice to me:

Paying someone to move the gun safe to final location - Several hundred dollars.

Being laid up in hospital for a month or so for back surgery - Several thousands of dollars.

 

[JH1951]

If you have any doubt or have to question the best way to git-r-done, Call a professional. They will make the job look easy and spare you from a lot of potential disasters. In my opinion, it has been money well spent.

 

[df06]

Just moved across the country. Had my 700 and 900 pound safes moved from my walk out basement up a hill into the back of a rental truck. At destination, I had them moved from my rental truck into my walkout basement and placed where I wanted them. On both ends it took three guys and a very heavy duty dolly. Cost me $350 on each end and it was money well spent. There was not a scratch on the safes or house walls. And I have no hernias or pulled back.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

The people who sell the safe probably have contractors who do it for a living with all the equipment and experience. Have them put their backs on the line, not yours. It is not rocket science, but how long can you afford to be on the mend from a mishap? The folks who delivered and moved my safe were great and well worth $100.

 

[Izzydog]

I'll have to move mine again soon. I'll get a couple friends, and family members, and a furniture dolly, not terribly difficult, or dangerous. I've scooted my loaded Browning Grand Marshal around the room by myself. It's on a slick rug, over polished hardwood floors.

 

[crstrode]

Most of the "safes" discussed above are merely locking cabinets, and as such are not much more of a burden than a refrigerator, and much less than a piano. Those that describe their "large safe" as being 800-1000 pounds have an even lighter weight cabinet. Think about it - if a small safe is 500 pounds and a big one with more than twice the capacity is less than twice the weight then something is amiss.

Any "safe" that needs to be bolted down is not really a safe.

I've got a small safe. It is 60 x 28 x 23 (outside dimensions), and weighs around 1500 lbs empty. Professionals have moved this one five times. The last crew included four collegiate power-lifters that were trying to impress each other with their prowess - (under close scrutiny from two 60-year old skinny guys with decades of experience).

Safe moving is not a DIY affair.

 

[federali]

I used a safe moving company to get my 600 pound safe out of the basement and into a PODS container. Upon arriving at my new house, I first used some muscle and a hand truck to get it into approximate position. I built a level platform for it as the garage floor is declined (1/4" per foot) toward the garage door. To raise the safe we used 2X4" cribbing, raising the safe one side and one board at a time until we gained the required five inches of elevation, then slid the safe into final position.

 

[loknload]

The safe company I purchased from placed mine down in my basement, my son and I help lower it down the steps.
When they set it I ask them if anything should be placed under it and they said not to, it is setting on carpet since this is a finished basement.
Since the weight on this was so great the stairs had to be reinforced so it isn't ever coming back out again. Whoever buys this house gets a free safe to go with it!

 

[Farmer17]

There's a lot to be said for buying 250lb safes and bolting them together.

 

[WardenRoss]

...It cost me $150 and the two men used a power-assisted stair climbing hand truck to negotiate...

Roger that! Same here and I only had to pay a local safe mover $100. WELL WORTH MY BACK!

I'm sure my Dad is rolling over in his grave. We used to change and mount our own car tires to save the $2 per tire that the gas station would charge.

Or maybe it was $2 for all four, circa 1960.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

If we think this post through, we get "I as a homeowner, reasonable person, and non drug addicted criminal am incapable of moving an empty safe. I am afraid of a fly by night moron who may spirit into my home and magically steal the same safe I couldn't move in without a construction company, which is now loaded with guns . . .

Before you set it in place run a bead of 5200 around the bottom perimeter. BIG surprise for the next guy who tries to move it

 

[Bugkiller99]

The people who sell the safe probably have contractors who do it for a living with all the equipment and experience. Have them put their backs on the line, not yours. It is not rocket science, but how long can you afford to be on the mend from a mishap? The folks who delivered and moved my safe were great and well worth $100.

Someone in another thread said, "Sometimes the best tool in your tool box in your check book."

Can't remember who it was, but it was a very wise statement.

 

[Whitwabit]

Before you set it in place run a bead of 5200 around the bottom perimeter. BIG surprise for the next guy who tries to move it

You would have to cut the sealant if you could get a knife under it and then be able to cut it ..

 

[OMCHamlin]

More than a few years ago, wife and I loaded a 780# Cannon Safe into the back of my 4 cylinder Ranger in Asheville, NC, and proceeded to head home to Goose Creek, SC, stopping along the way to pick up a few feet of heavy schedule PVC pipe. Safe on tailgate, at tipping point, lift upright on sidewalk, place pipes and roll into house (only one small step, or this would be a longer tale), positioned in spare bedroom in short order, done and done.
We moved that (really? *** too "rough" for S&W?) many more times during the course of my Navy career, including a perhaps ill-advised trip up a narrow set of stairs in a split level in Hopkinton, RI, but lo, it sits three feet to my left as I type this... Maybe one more move, but that's another tale to come (I hope!)

 

[345sire]

I recently moved my safes, scooting and using an on-hand $10 Harbor Freight dolly rated for 1/2 ton. It was a challenge, but do-able by one person on a level concrete floor. Still, I wish I had thought of PVC rollers. As for moisture in the bottom, I placed a piece of scrap particle board cut to size in the bottom on top of 1" scrap lumber supports--I don't plan on the water getting very high. As for getting it up two steps, there's this guy named Sysyphus...see if he has a website.

Sysyphus, what are you, a sissy?

Ask Genie to do it(Barbara Eden) or Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) ! If you're old enough to need help, you're old enough to remember these gals!

 

[the hangman]

Like others here, I paid a professional to move my safe: hardwood floors and stairs. About a month later a friend brought his safe home with the help of his nephew. It got away from them on his stairs. He crushed his foot, busted a wall, and the safe landed face down at the bottom of the stairs . It doesn't open now and he keeps his guns in a closet.
But he did save $150.00 by doing it himself.
I think if you are have a couple physically fit guys, you have a good dolly, and it is a straight shot on the ground floor - move it yourself. But if you have a difficult situation - just hire someone.