Home DIY

No safe but we did find a (thankfully empty) shotgun cabinet under the stairs when we moved in.

Borehamwood, so not a million miles from you.

That would be cool. Idk if I'll do it, but it'd be good to have a number.

Very similar to the one we have outside. It's been moved around a few times but usually by a number of sturdy lads. Had planned to see if anyone wanted it but now it's getting well rusted...

Cheers all.

Original plan was to get an antique safe and combine it as a piece of furniture and also a safe that was too heavy to nick. The floors are all a bit bouncy here though and I'm concerned what half a ton of safe sat in the corner would do to them.

Putting it in a wardrobe could do the job I guess. I don't really want to go under floorboards or scattered in voids and stuff as I want it convenient too or else it won't get used.

Nothing is particularly valuable or irreplaceable, just a hassle.

Interested to hear about master keys/codes. Any recommendations for models not subject to that?

Well it looks like a 6a breaker for the lights and 20a breaker on the sockets so... 20a draw.

In reply to all of the recent safe chat. I would think long and hard about putting a safe in your house.

I am about to start working for a family who are recovering from a burglary. The burglars found a safe in the master bedroom similar to the antique one up-thread. The burglars found it, pushed it to the top of the stairs then down the stairs. On its way down it knocked a hole in the wall destroyed several treads of the staircase and landed on the oak herringbone parquet floor in the hall tearing chunks out of it. Once it was downstairs they slid it along the floor into the kitchen, lifted it up onto the worktop and through a window pretty much destroying any surface it touched along the way. Once it was outside they procured a sack trolley and pushed it down the street in broad daylight.

My cousin is a police officer outside of London and I asked her about this, apparently it's not uncommon. Basically if you are broken into and the cunts find safe they will move heaven and earth to take it as they assume that there is "good shit" in there. My cousin once responded to a burglary where a safe was found that was bolted to a load bearing wall. The safe and the chunk of wall it was attached to were taken. They won't waste time trying to get into the safe in your property they will take the safe with them no matter how much damage they cause. Her advice is a safe deposit box is a better idea than a safe, but if you have to have a safe you need to hide it very well.

Fucking hell!

^^ yup.

There was a discussion in the watch thread about safe deposit boxes in banks and the security / insurance problems with them, too. Nothing is really 'safe' - its about picking the least worst option that works for you.

Ultimately though, if you have stuff in your home that is so valuable / irreplaceable that it needs to go in a classic 'safe', then you probably have the money to build something in (or just outside of) your home that acts like a safe but cannot easily be seen (and then forcibly removed) by 'people in hurry'.

if you have stuff in your home that is so valuable / irreplaceable that it needs to go in a classic 'safe'

then you need to take it to a secure storage facility, like a bank lock box.

If it's just stuff you need to protect, a nominally locked firebox will do the trick.

like a bank lock box

Things 'wander off' from those too, apparently. You'd have to study the T&Cs pretty carefully to get a feel for how well you'd be protected in the event there was some kind of problem.

You'd have to study the T&Cs pretty carefully to get a feel for how well you'd be protected in the event there was some kind of problem

My understanding is that the bank will say "we don't want to know what's in there and we don't take responsibility for it". You have to buy insurance for these things.

Yep.

They are probably a good for storing documentation, house deeds, passports, certificates etc. Not so great for diamonds and your investment collection of 15 Rolex Subs.

Great problem to have, mind.

Rolex Subs

Why is a watch company selling sandwiches? How are they so valuable that they need a safe?

storing documentation

A lot of solicitors will do this for you for a flat fee.

My cable broadband (Virgin) coming into the flat (pls ignore the hole temporarily stuffed with newspaper).

My question: is (a) the same as (b)? Ie some kind of ground loop isolator, one of which I can dispense with?

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Which would actually be more like

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If I did go with a hefty safe it would be next to some easily openable from the inside patio doors so hopefully anyone trying to steal it wouldn't damage too much ...

The issue with a fireproof lockbox or whatever seems to be that you're parceling up the stuff you don't want to lose into an easily nickable container that will get nicked even if the stuff in there isn't worth stealing.

parceling up the stuff

Yeah this seems to be a bad idea. Distributing birth certificates / marriage certificate(s) / passports across several fireproof locations feels sensible.

Well stick it in a cut open washing power box above the washing machine then!

Big safes are a danger, if they break in and you say you wont open they will just hurt you. Depends what you want to store in it. I know a few people that have been put off.

Leave it unlocked, but bolted down.

Just keep everything of value in your prison wallet.

Just use Tynan paste on your valuables