Rubber/plastic tile under safe

[danb35]

I'm looking at buying a fairly large, heavy safe. It's large enough that it won't fit through my home's interior doors, so it's going to be in the garage. The manufacturer suggests some sort of moisture barrier between the bottom of the safe and bare concrete, and some folks have used industrial rubber mats. I'm thinking a resilient tile would do the trick nicely.

The safe's footprint is 43" x 36", and empty weight is 4400 lb. I'm really just looking for enough to put under the safe, not to cover a larger area. Budget is a factor, but with only about 12 ft^2 to cover, I wouldn't expect it to cost too much in any case. What are your suggestions?

 

[jkeyser14]

You can use a small piece of roofing felt or even tyvek building wrap. Most safes don't have a depth larger than a standard door opening, so I am amazed it won't fit through your doors.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I have always said, if you can carry it in, the bad guy can carry it away.
roofing felt works well.

 

[danb35]

Depth is, as noted, 36". It could probably go through the front door, but that only helps if it's going in the living room. SWMBO wouldn't like that. The interior doors on the house are 30"W, so no way it's going through them without major structural modification. So, garage it is. I'm not too concerned about the bad guys carting off a two-ton safe, but if it has anchoring holes in the bottom, I'll bolt it down anyway.

 

[danb35]

Well, I thought depth was 36", but it's actually the slightly smaller model of this safe, with a depth of 32" instead. Still too big to go through the interior doors, though.

Thanks for the suggestions on the moisture barrier; that will give me something to work with.

 

[BD1]

Maybe a horse or cow mat would work . Not sure of dimensions but know some a 1'' thick. They also have rubber mats for livestock trailers that might work. Just cut to size.

 

[Armorpoxy]

We have some overstock of our www.supratile.com. It most definitely can handle this since we park fire engines on them that weigh 80,000 lbs. Contact us via email. Thanks!

 

[RaceDeck1]

I personally have Racedeck under our big safe. What is nice about it is that it creates a nice gap between the damp basement floor and the safe ( no mold or rusting issues over time. )

 

[gungatim]

I just want to know, how do you plan on moving a 4,400 pound safe?

my Liberty Fatboy was around 800lbs, and it was a huge PITA moving it off the trailer and into position.

that thing must be a serious beast!

but to answer your question, I just used the skid it came on. Didn't feel the need to anchor it to the concrete, since it's not going anywhere without a pallet jack and moving a lot of other equipment...

 

[kabinenroller]

I just want to know, how do you plan on moving a 4,400 pound safe?

In my past life I was a construction manager that was also responsible for all equipment and setup for the retail stores I built. When it came time to for the safe we had a problem because our company would bulk purchase safes directly from the manufacturer. That left the install up to us. I tried having the equipment company would installed most of the other fixtures do the safe but for many reasons that did not work. I then decided to just take care of myself and eliminate a headache. I told all my "helpers" to go to lunch so I did not have to be concerned with someone else's fingers being in the wrong place and I went to work. I removed the safe from the pallet using a number of different rollers, once on the rollers I moved it close to its final resting place. (this was normally in a tight location with cabinetry all around the safe)
I then picked up a bag of ice and spread it on the floor where the safe will rest and just pushed the safe off the rollers and onto the ice. With the safe on the ice I jockeyed the safe exactly where I wanted it and let the ice melt. The safe was set.
Yes, there was moisture under the safe but it would be at least 20 years or longer until the safe would move again.

 

[gungatim]

I think I remember an "Encyclopedia Brown" mystery where he solved a similar dilemma installing a large tank for a swimming pool using ice....nice going!!

 

[oldiemotors]

I used a rubber mat sold at Tractor Supply and sold by the foot.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...er-1-4-in-thick-sold-by-the-foot?cm_vc=-10005

 

[jkeyser14]

I just want to know, how do you plan on moving a 4,400 pound safe?

Like the Egyptians. You use crow bars and shims to slowly lift one side of the safe and then the other until you have enough room underneath to slide steel bars underneath. Then you just roll it to where you want to put it and use the shims and crow bar to slowly lower it back down.

Most people who have move heavy machinery do this with top heavy machines all the time.