Home safe

[Palfrem]

Looking to get a smallish safe to hold my wife's bling and assorted papers, etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

Maybe a secondhand one? Where do you usually put these things?

Our insurers want us to dig up the floor and install an underfloor one. Yeah right.

 

[Rashman]

Actually, getting one cemented into the ground floor is a good way to do it.
Understairs cupboard, garage, utility room etc.
Can be a temporarily messy job though.

Another type fixes between joints in upstairs floors.

 

[Giantvanman]

Corners are good because it limits access to would be thieves and it gives three points of fixing; floor and two walls.
But, anywhere where it can be fixed well- resin stud fixings into block or brick are good and allow you fix it hidden in, for example, a wardrobe or under the stairs or by removing the back, a kitchen base cupboard...just some ideas.
If you can't find a suitable size for where you want to place it, have a look at gun safes, ammunitions safes, document safes etc etc.

 

[andyjay123]

in my previous flat I used a stanley knife to cut a flap in my carpet then dropped a safe in between the joists. You would never know its there unless I showed you. Simple!
Some insurance companies want safes fixed to wall or floor due to the amount of bling you have. In that instance it needs to be fire rated

 

[andyjay123]

Ps. If you don't follow insurers guideline and you are robbed then they won't pay out. Period.

 

[zipdip]

Well a safe is a good idea,you will not need a very big one,Yale do a electronic one quiet cheap,the best thing is to find a place to site it,my last house had a walk in larder,and so it was sited in the back corner covered with the unused soap powder boxes and extra shopping bags,I also installed a beer/wine fridge in front of it,none of these safes will hold out from a determined thief,the secret is to hide it well,a friend has his in his garage,he has it sited in the back corner,bolted to the wall and floor and inside a old ww2 munition steal box with a internal shelf with old worn our spanners and sockets on the top.the fact is most people do not need to get to their safe very often and so hiding it where you have to move a fridge or the like is fine.

 

[st13phil]

Some insurance companies want safes fixed to wall or floor due to the amount of bling you have. In that instance it needs to be fire rated

Looking to get a smallish safe to hold my wife's bling and assorted papers, etc.

In that case, it definitely needs to be a fire rated safe - unless you consider ash valuable The trouble with that is that they have to be (relatively) large for any given internal volume, which probably exacerbates the "where to put it" question.

As GVM says, corners are good because you can anchor it to the building on three sides which makes it a demolition job to remove it. Actually, there's much to commend your insurance co.'s suggestion (or is it a condition of cover?) to cement it into the floor.

 

[John]

I did meet a guy when I was last at my inde who was in the safe game - strangely.

Seemed like a nice chap.

Drop me a PM if you want me to proceed in finding out details...

 

[Palfrem]

Thanks for the comments chaps.

My wife's bling collection has (thankfully) not increased over the year so am chasing like-for-like cover, so.....

Last year we were insured with Allianz, but this year they have left the home insurance market apparently and passed us to a "partner" who, without any contact other than the renewal quote are willing to cover us cover us but hike the premium by almost £250.

Been shopping around of course and today's hour on the phone culminated in the request we get a safe and have our alarm "maintained" and monitored.

Not sure how you maintain kit with mo moving parts other than test it works but....

Our neighbour does a pretty good job of monitoring the alarm too!

When I said no to the safe and maintaining & monitoring they declined to offer cover.

Checked out the Meerkats last week and Admiral offered a "platinum" policy at a reasonable price with no safe or alarm faffing.

I am always at a loss with insurance companies!

 

[John]

Not sure how you maintain kit with mo moving parts other than test it works but....

I've fallen for this BS in the past.

They charge you a £ton to rock up and say "yup, it works".

Then, every 3 years, they give you a battery worth a couple of quid to make you think you are getting value for money.

Money for old rope.

"Oh, but they come out if you have a problem!".

The only problem you have is if the battery dies...

 

[Palfrem]

Quite. Complete rip-off.

The battery in ours cost about £30 I think and took 5 minutes to fit

 

[b1g1an]

No point locking the 'cheap' electronic ones as a quick thump will open them, fire proof box well hidden is a better idea.

 

[MCFastybloke]

If it can be locked it can be unlocked,secured it can be loosened,hidden can be found,

Its about buying time, good concealment, good physical security(locks and fixings or mass)construction.
All these will buy time, Buy from a specialist, i went for combination over key in the hope intruders would not ransack the house looking for keys and my safe is 3500kg so no running off with it for later.
Security is graded in euro standard higher the no the better it is, Euro 5 is 100k cash and jewelry is usually 10x