Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How do you move a gun safe to the basement?

I hired a moving company to move my safe from the garage (where it was delivered to) into the house.
Fast and easy.

JD338

I have moved safes a number of times. I would highly recommend hiring a pro. Especially if you are in a profession that an injury might keep you out of your regular job and result in no pay for you for a while.

That said, if you move it yourself, remove the door. That is the majority of most safes' weight. Heavy duty appliance/safe dolly is good. What works real well is a pallet jack. Open up the safe and use the door to tip the safe forward so you can get a block under it so the forks will slip under later. Then use the pallet forks to lift the door up and off the safe.

I moved a safe one time with my wife who had just had a baby 5 days previous. I had to lower the safe down off a trailer 3 feet high. I used a block and tackle attached to a dolly and my wife belayed the safe down with it as I held onto and controlled the dolly as we came down the ramp. Would work for lowering down stairs as well, IF you have a good anchor point at the top of the stairs.

I moved my 710 pound safe into the basement of our previous house by myself. The house had a landing off the back door with a few steps up to the kitchen and several steps down to the basement. I dollied the safe to the landing and parked it. I placed a two inch section of steel pipe across the doorway to the kitchen and using a coffin hoist (a chain come along capable of very heavy lifting) connected to the pipe, let the safe down with the coffin hoist. I used some heavy nylon straps around the safe and padded the stair side of the safe with carpet. It really was simple and safe. Once in the basement I used the dolly again to position the safe where I wanted it. It sure beat grunting and groaning and fighting with all that weight.

Mart

Hire a professional safe mover . I bought one of the safes when a local sporting goods store closed. I was wrong when I thought my son and a couple of his friends could move the safe. $200 to have the safe put where I wanted it and bolted to the floor.

They slid Dad's safe down the steps on a piece of cardboard. They laid the safe on it's back on cardboard and then slid it down slowly.

Rent one of these:

http://www.powermate.info/

Easy: Hire professional safe movers!

I'm all for doing things myself, but some things I will not touch. Electricity is one. I'll do plumbing, carpentry, even sheetrock. I'm hiring an electrician!

Waaaaaayy too many things that can go wrong not to hire a bonded, insured, professional safe mover!

This is wise advice. I built two frames from 2 x 8 and positioned them underneath the stairs. One about a third the way up and the other two thirds the way up. My safe empty weighs near 2,000 lbs. I cut some 2 by 8's to act as runners down the stairs then layed heavy cardboard on them. I had an eye bolt screwed into the top of the safe and my buddy hooked his winch line to it. We we able to push the safe through the door on some pipes for rollers and he powered it down the stairs. When it got to the bottom we took the 2 x 8's and used them as levers to stand the safe back up on a pallet. Then used the pallet jack to move it to where I wanted it. It was truly a 4 man job. To do it again, if that ever happens, I'll hire it done. My new neighbors own a safe shop so I'm thinking he'll become my new best friend!

Take a sawsall and cut around the perimeter of the safe.

get a professional moving company. shouldn't be more than $200 in a normal situation. be sure they have insurance just in case.

-ken

if it is a big safe (> 1k lbs) and you are going down steps, i'd advise getting a moving company to do it. if you put 1k safe on even the heaviest fridge dolly and try to take it down steps, somebodies going to get crushed. i move mine with a 3k pallet jack from work but its all on one level. if you have a walkin basement, get a few sheets of plywood and a pallet jack and some 2" black iron pipe to get you over the door thresholds. then lay the plywood on the grass and roll the safe on the jack over it and leapfrog the plywood as you go. thats the way we got mine into my house. it weighs 1100 lbs and it wasn't easy.

First safe I bought I had them deliver it too.. Guy used an electric 4-wheeled hand cart with pivoting axles that will 'walk' itself up/down stairs.. This one guy and this cart easily moved this 1100# safe inside and in place within a few minutes... It was a thing of beauty..

keep the floor really wet under it for bout a week.

Not criticizing at all, but Tarkio has it. I was a mover on the side for a decade (HS/college), and cliche though it may be, if you have to ask...

I've been hired to clean up some disastrous failed attempts at moving heavy pieces, including see porches, sub-floors and stairs collapse. Memorable items offhand I recall that were *beasts*: a 350 Chevy V8, to the 5th floor, with the last two floors not large enough to have more than two men on it... A 12 X 4 X 3 fish tank, with about 40 gallons of water and the rocks still in it... A few large safes weighing perhaps 1200 lbs. It ain't that big of a deal if your brother loses his grip on a fridge that comes down a steep set of stairs at the guy below (though it certainly can be good for an ER visit). Try that with a half ton of steel safe and people can DIE. Not to mention do some *very* expensive damage to the item, as well as the home.

We always used leverage, mechanical assists, straps and the most important thing: your head. Pay some outfit to do it. Make sure they're insured and know WTF they're doing.

Kamo,

From what you have posted in the past, anything involving your and your brother can be good for an ER visit! An MD friend of mine refers to this phenomenon as "testosterone poisoning".

I have helped moved some big heavy stuff up or down stairs, and I agree with your advice: if it is really heavy people can die (or have permanent damage), so hire somebody!

I hope all is well with you and your family this holiday season.

John

To all you guys who suggest using professional movers....that's well and good if there are any available. Those of us who live deep in the boonies do not have that option. The nearest "professional" to my location would be over 150 miles away. It's likely that the cost of such a mover would exceed the cost of the safe in many locations. Hence.....all the improvised do-it-yourself techniques noted here.

Did you watch the movie "The Italian Job"? They did exactly that to steal a safe filled with gold bars. They used explosives to cut a concrete floor but otherwise it was the same.