A gun safe in the garage?

[greenron15]

I live in the great state of South Carolina. I just bought a 600 pound gun safe and was thinking of keeping it in the garage.
I wonder with it getting hot and hummid here in the South are my guns going to rust? Would a electronic dehumidifier be good enough or do I need to find a place in the house?
My house is about 10 years old and I was told it might wrap the wood floors is that true?

 

[wharfrat1940]

I live in the great state of South Carolina. I just bought a 600 pound gun safe and was thinking of keeping it in the garage.
I wonder with it getting hot and hummid here in the South are my guns going to rust? Would a electronic dehumidifier be good enough or do I need to find a place in the house?
My house is about 10 years old and I was told it might wrap the wood floors is that true?

Hi Green, I live in Houston, Texas and I really need a dehumidifier or something in the closet where my gun safe is located. I wouldn't even think of putting it in the garage. The humidity in the closet may even be highter than the rest of the house and it typically runs over 60 here this time of year. It needs to be in the 30-35 range. Definitely put something in the gun safe to keep it dry. I had a dehumidifier in the closet until I learned a couple of days ago that it had simply QUIT. I had heard of the electric rods, so I rushed out to the LGS and they didn't have a rod. I found a flat flexable plastic Dehumidifier strip (electric) made by Moistue King in Ocala Florida. It plugs into a wall socket, meaning that you drill a 1/4 inch hole in your gun safe and run the wire through it. I am in the process of doing this right now as soon as I decide where to put the hole! :-\ They cost about $37.

Your guns will rust if you don't do something! I would definitely not put it in the garage as I am sure that it really gets hot and humid in SC in the summer. It will not hurt your wood floors is you are just careful in the installation. They floors will note buckle or warp. So, even if you keep the safe in the house, by all means look for this product or something like it.

Cheers and Good Luck, RAT in Houston, Texas

 

[dickn52]

I live in Ocala, and just talked to the tech at Moisture King about their product. Simply said, my small 12 gun safe is in the garage, in Florida. I was running three types of silica gel and a golden rod and my humidity was still running at 65%. His first statement was to get rid of the gel's now. Their testing showed that it attracts moisture from outside the safe and that heating the safe would push dry air from the safe creating a positive pressure environment within the safe. He told me to remove my silica gel packs immeadiately, wait 24 hours and see if my humidity didn't drop with the golden rod alone. He bet it would. He would NOT sell me his product line until I was certain that the golden rod didn't work right. He finished by wishing me a good day and said that he bet the rod would work fine if it was heating at all, but again stressed that he would be glad to sell me his unit if I desired to change later. Great customer service for a non-customer. But who can tell right?

 

[DaveWhite]

I have had my safe in the garage for 15 years with no ill effect. I have a Golden Rod heater running 24x7, and have no issue with rust, including 8 years in coastal California. I believe that that heat source creates a low moisture environment which in that time has not shown any indication of rust.

I also make a habit of always wiping down any firearm I touch as I put it away with a Rig-Rag, and at least annually take them all out and give them an inspection and thorough wipedown with a Rig-Rag.

Seems to work.

 

[ryanjay11]

A gun safe in the garage is a burgular's dream. They break open your garage door, pull in their truck or van, close the garage door and load it up while no one sees a thing. Rust isn't the only reason to put them in your house.

 

[Nodak7mm]

If you do the math (weight displaced per sq foot, sq inch), you'll find that your girlfriend/wife running around in high heels will cause more damage to the floor than that safe.

It wont hurt the floor unless you drop it...

Rod

 

[fredhorace77]

not if u leave a car in the garage when u leave

 

[Lizzy49]

I have my safe in the basement. The safe has a heating element in it and I run a dehumidifier in the basement. It stays at about 32o/o humidy. They would have one hell of time trying to get it out of the basement. My safe came with a small hole in the back for the cord of the heating rod. The dealer I bought it from has three safes in his house and uses the heating rods. It works for me.

 

[Joe C]

A gun safe in the garage is a burgular's dream. They break open your garage door, pull in their truck or van, close the garage door and load it up while no one sees a thing. Rust isn't the only reason to put them in your house.

This right here...

Never have and never will keep a safe in the garage because of this reason. Had this exact thing happen to a friend years ago. Learned my lesson...so did he.

 

[Lapua40X]

My house is about 10 years old and I was told it might wrap the wood floors is that true?

The typical 600 pound gun safe occupies about 5+ square feet of floor space.
The dead load/live load engineering standards for homes in various parts of the country vary. I'd suggest you check with your local building official to determine what the code requirements are for your area and be sure your home was properly inspected during construction. Your home is quite likely to have been built to support 40 - 150 pounds per square foot. At 40 pounds per square foot tolerance your floor probably isn't going to handle the load very well. But at the 150 ppsf level you shouldn't have any real problems. If your home has a raised floor (having floor joists above a crawl space) and you're concerned, it's quite easy to reinforce the floor by either "sistering" floor joists and/or placing a pier and post under the area where you intend to put the safe. If in doubt, call a professional.
As far as keeping a gun safe in the garage; unless it's bolted to the floor AND the wall I probably wouldn't put it there. Regardless of where I put it, I think I'd include some form of alarm system in the installation. My son has his gun safe in his garage (inside a closet and bolted down like fort knox) and any effort to assault the safe would require literally tearing down part of the house. There's no room inside the closet to do the work that would be required to attack the safe. But our part of the country isn't high in humidity, as I remember experiencing in the southern/south eastern parts of our country. Regardless of where you put your safe, remember to provide as much humidity protection as you possibly can.

 

[Shynloco]

Greenron,
I live in the crummy state of California (yeah I know - why?) High Desert with extreme weather conditions, both cold and hot. Wife bought me a Cannon 33ft cu safe for Xmas about 15 yrs ago and it's been in the garage, sitting on a wodden pallet since. I have hanging humidifers and they work great - no issues. Ain't no way a couple of burglars are gonna move this baby as it took a lowboy to position the safe in the first place.

 

[jonbearman]

I use a goldenrod but the carpet on the bottom can hold moisture so I put a piece of plastic over the carpet and sprayed with silicone spray and have never had a problem since with rust that is for the 40 rifles in it.

 

[dickn52]

The quest began and ended in one day in Ocala Florida. I have a small Liberty safe, and they supply a heating rod dehumidifier. Well, my relative Humidity was sitting at 65* and nothing I did would lower it. The rod was never hot to the touch, so I started thinking; how hot are they supposed to be? I finally got in touch with the owner of the Moisture King company here in Ocala, and he told me a couple of things. First, get rid of the gel packs as they act like a moisture magnet and draw water vapor into the safe from outside. Second, the rod should be hot enough to heat air, but not hot enough to burn. In other words they should feel hot to the touch. Mine wasn't. I made arrangements to slide by his facility and look at solutions. No problem. Just got back, picked up an 18" and a 12" rod for a pretty good price. He plugged in the 12 inch model, and within 5 minutes it was not comfortable to touch. Didn't burn, but something you would not want to carry around in your hands for more than 3-5 seconds. Going to give the 12 inch model a try as he claimed it would process up to 100 Cft of air and the largest safe for sale right now is only 84 Cft or so. I will keep the 18" model as a backup plan JIC. Humidity gauge is reset and calibrated, so will try again.

 

[Uthink Uknow]

A couple of things:

" If you do the math (weight displaced per sq foot, sq inch), you'll find that your girlfriend/wife running around in high heels will cause more damage to the floor than that safe."

Have you been spying on us when my wife is wearing high heels?

Regardless of where you place your safe short of Phoenix, a dehumidifier is a good idea.
Also regardless of where you place your safe, it's a good idea to anchor it just to keep the honest guys from stealing it. The professionals will get your safe no matter what measures you take. What you need to do is slow the honest guys down when they come to take it. Anchoring it to a concrete floor, wood floor, the wall(s) and building it in so they have no place to grab onto will help. Of course, out of sight is a better idea.
I did a job once for a guy and I swear he was safer than Fort Knox when all was said and done.

 

[Duster_360]

I have two Security Products safes sitting in a bedroom next to each other on an interior wall that I have converted into a gun/reloading room. I've never used anything for humidity control and have never had any issues with anything rusting or corroding. Course, here in TX, AC is pretty much always on. I would not even consider the garage - heat has actually damaged one of my motorcycles sitting in the garage.


My first safe was on order when I got burglarized and had 5 guns stolen. Safe showed up two weeks later......

 

[DaveWhite]

Good luck to them if they can get into a National Security Magnum Plus, and the garage is alarmed anyway.

My biggest fear is of walking in the door and finding a gun to my wife's head and some punk telling me to open the safe... If they are going to kill you anyway, should you test their threat?

tough call.

 

[Joe Maisto]

my safe is in the garage with a wooden box built completely around it.
A padlock on the door with the words.......NO SMOKING ! PAINT AND GAS INSIDE.
I don't advertise about the safe being inside the wood container. So far, so good.
Never had a moisture problem yet. No rust and it's relatively warm inside. I also use the gel pack which I re-heat when it needs it.
To each his own...

 

[lpreddick]

wherever you put it...bolt to floor from the inside. i know of more than one case where thieves hauled off safes while family on vacation..parked a truck in driveway...joe's plumbing, etc. bolting to a concrete floor from the inside is next to impossible to haul away. a wooden floor/wall can be defeated. a security system can probably be designed to activate if your safe is moved ever so slightly. a large sing on the safe stating such might deter some. trying to out think the criminal mind is not easy.

 

[BigBlueandGoldie]

Size and weight will keep a safe in place. I just had mine moved (1,400lbs empty) and I asked the guy about anchoring the safe. He looked at me like I was retarded and pointed out what it took for him to move it, and he's been doing it for 20yrs. FWIW, this guy is the larges Fort Knox dealer in the world. Granted, my safe is inside the house about 80 feet from a door. I'm more worried about the tools in my garage.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Ive had 2 in my garage for 10yrs in arkansas humidity with golden rods- no problem