Home and gun safes, chosen well and bolted down right
Help choosing a safe that fits what you own and where you live, then delivery, placement and anchoring so it stays put.
Choosing a safe
Three questions decide it. What are you protecting from? Fire ratings, which measure how long the inside stays under a set temperature, and burglary ratings, which measure how long a tested attack takes, are different tests. A cheap "fireproof" box may have almost no burglary resistance.
How big? Bigger than you think. Everyone fills a safe within a year.
Dial or electronic? A dial needs no batteries and lasts decades. An electronic lock is faster and easier for the family, and a good one is reliable, but on the coast pick one built for humidity. We sell safes, but we'd rather sell you the right one, so we'll walk through this in plain terms.
What we stock and what we order: composite fire-and-burglary safes for the closet, gun safes in the common heights, and small wall and floor safes. We don't stock the thin sheet-steel boxes sold as "fire safes" at the big stores. They're fine for paperwork and not much else, and if paperwork is all you need, we'll say so.
Gun safes
Capacity is the usual mistake: a "24-gun" safe holds about twelve with optics. Coastal humidity is the other. A closed steel box a mile from the ocean sweats, and rust on a barrel happens quickly, so we fit a dehumidifier rod or a desiccant system in every gun safe we install near the water.
California has firearm safe-storage laws, and the state Department of Justice keeps a standard for approved gun safes. We'll point you to the current text and stock safes that meet it. We're locksmiths, not lawyers.
Where it goes
The closet floor is the usual answer: out of sight, near the bedroom, on a slab. The garage works for big gun safes if you accept it's visible when the door's up. In-floor safes suit cash and documents and disappear under carpet.
What's underneath matters. Most Encinitas homes east of the 5 sit on a slab, which is ideal for anchoring. The older cottages west of 101 often have a raised foundation, so we bolt through into the joists with a plate, and we check the floor can carry the weight before we bring the safe. Discreet is good. A safe nobody knows about is a safe nobody tries.
Bolting it down
An unanchored safe under about 700 pounds is a dolly ride away; two people with a furniture dolly can take one in minutes. Anchoring is also the earthquake question here: a tall safe in a closet next to a bed wants to be bolted before the next shake, not after. We use the safe's factory anchor holes, expansion anchors into slab or through-bolts on a raised floor, and we level it so the door swings true.
On a raised foundation we'll want a look under the house first, or a photo of the crawlspace access. On a slab we drill through carpet and pad into concrete, and we cut the carpet clean rather than crushing it under the safe, so a future owner can lift the safe out without a patch.
Delivery and moving
We deliver and place safes, and we move the ones you already have. What we plan for around here: hillside driveways in Cardiff and Olivenhain, exterior stairs on view homes, and the narrow doors and tight turns of Leucadia cottages. Tell us the route from the curb to the room and we'll tell you if the safe you want will make it, before you buy it. Moving house? We'll unbolt it and take it to the new one.
What to have ready when you call: the room, the floor type if you know it (slab or raised), the width of the narrowest door on the route, whether there are stairs, and a rough idea of what's going inside. With that, we can quote the safe and the install in one call.
Wall and floor safes
For jewelry, passports and a modest amount of cash, a wall safe between the studs or an in-floor safe is enough and easier to hide. Owners of vacation rentals use a small bolted safe in the owner's closet for the same reason; that's covered on the rentals page.
Olivenhain estates and the larger custom homes sometimes want more than one safe, or a vault door on a closet. We do those too, and we plan them around how you actually use the room.
A safe is one layer. The doors are the other. Hardware for the doors is here, and safes are half the name on the van.
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Book a safe consultation.
Call, or text the room and the size you're thinking of. We'll bring the right one.
- Hours
- Mon–Sat 8am–8pm
After-hours lockouts by phone - Credentials
- Licensed and insured
- Area
- Encinitas & Cardiff-by-the-Sea
92024 · 92007