Floor Safes Review.

I get many phone calls from people wanting floor safes.  Most start by looking for the old fashion round ones.  Then realize you really can’t put paperwork or files in a round floor safe without crunching up the paperwork.  So I wanted to review the different types and features to look for in a floor safe.

First lets start with what a floor safe is….its a safe that gets concreted into the foundation of a home or business.  It doesn’t sit on top of the floor but flush with the floor and foundation.  Normally installed before the slab is poured but I have jackhammered many a slab to install after the home has been built.

1. Steel NON B-rated Floor Safe. They are good safes but use only the bolt on the lock to keep the door secured. Just like on your front door of your home. Now think about having several giant steel bolts that go into the door but are controlled similar to your deadbolt. Sounds much safer and stronger doesn’t’t it? That comes in a B-rated floor safe and we will touch on that next. The combo lock used on a floor safe are pretty much all top grade locks except the Sentry Floor Safe model.

2.The B-Rated Floor Safe. Has a Group II dial, either LaGard or Sargent & Greenleaf, this lock controls a steel bolt work system that keeps the door secured. These are very strong against attacks and I have never heard of anyone getting through the door on one of these other than a locksmith.

3. Polyethylene Body Floor Safe. These are under patent by the Hayman Safe company. So you will only find them with the Hayman Safe name on it. The body is made of polyethylene or plastic to prevent rust in what would normally be a steel body. As a side note, to prevent rust in the steel body floor safes it is best to wrap the safe in a plastic tarp before you pour concrete around it. That will help your floor safe last much longer than without. However, the Polyethylene Body Floor Safe has you covered. It also expands and contracts well with the soil. Safe door can be B Rated or just Non B Rated and you will know this if the model number has a letter “B” in it…this is ONLY with floor safes. Personally, once you go to all the trouble of putting one of these in your foundation go ahead and get the B rated. Its not that much more and you get the very best.

4.Floor Safes for wood floors or RV Safes. Have a large flange that gets screwed into the wood floor since there is no concrete to keep it in place.

Many people ask why we don’t sell electronic keypads with any of our floor safes. This is because of moisture issues and it is next to impossible to keep the keypads from getting wet in the installation process. This caused our keypad failure to be around 80 percent. It’s also just a poor idea to keep anything electronic on the ground. Flooding of hot water heaters also ruins keypads.

Floor Safes are not a fireproof safe in the typical sense. But, when buried in concrete, the concrete will give you protection against fire. They all come with cover plates for a smooth surface on the floor. The concrete floor is the last to have fire actually get close to it. And of course concrete will not burn. However, the firemen get water everywhere.

Floor Safes offer the best protection against theft when compared to most models of safe. This is because it goes in the ground and is covered with you carpet or rug. Out of sight, out of mind is great protection. Next you have the whole foundation hugging the safe and unless you take a jack-hammer to the foundation…its there to stay. As I am writing this I am reminded of a pair of new home owners that were re-carpeting their house after they had moved in and found a floor safe. They called me to come read the lock as the safe was unlocked. The point being they had lived there for several months and never new it was there! Too cool.

So if you want to go to the trouble of installing a floor safe, you will not regret it.

A fire is the worst thing that can happen to your home. It is best to have fire insurance so that you won’t be left at a loss when a fire destroys your home. When a blaze destroys all your property and your home you have to start anew—and that can be really difficult.

It is also important to get a fire proof safe. This would keep your documents and other valuables safe and protected. A safe that is fire proof can usually withstand fire for one hour or more.

Gun owners must be responsible when caring for and storing their guns. A gun, when in the wrong hands, can result in disaster. There have even been reports of kids playing with a parent’s gun and accidentally pulling the trigger. This can be very dangerous and even fatal.

Every gun owner must have a gun safe. This way, the gun is kept away from the curious hands of children. Thus, a fatal accident is avoided.

I have been collecting a series of articles on home safes. See below for another. The below article is about the “run on the banks” in Jacksonville.  Notice that not many news sources are touting this!  This is very real and the FDIC is reporting having run out of money. 

JACKSONVILLE, FL — Buyouts, bailouts, and banks going bust. Everyone, it seems, is worried about whether their money is safe.

Federal data shows domestic bank deposits have dropped by 40 billion dollars over the last few months; and that has a lot more folks buying home safes. One manufacturer says it’s sold 50% more in the last month alone.

Knowell’s Safe and Lock on the Westside is having its biggest year ever. Business started picking up in May and it hasn’t stopped yet. “With the scare in the financial industry and the banking industry, banks closing down, being bought out, it’s a good fear having somebody play with your money, or you being able to watch it,” said Brett Webb at Knowell’s.

Webb’s grandfather started the business 30 years ago. Business has always been good, but now it’s really good. “It started back in May. It might have had something to do with the stimulus checks. It probably did help,” said Webb.

The best sellers are the large walk-in gun safes, even if the buyer doesn’t own a gun. “You get fire protection with a gun safe and a lot of space. Even people who don’t collect guns, you have plenty of shelf space.”

The safes are delivered and installed in homes so no one can come into your home and walk out the door with it, but the key is not to let anyone know you have a safe with valuables including cash in your home.

Home safes can cost between $200 and $3000.

Wow, the number of articles is still increasing in regards to the loss of faith in our banking system.  I was recently quoted in the article below.  Had a great talk with Judy in New Jersey at the Star-Ledger.  Though most are not withdrawing ALL their money from the bank. Many are removing at least some cash to give themselves a hedge against the total shut down of our banking system.  These folks are tired of the whiplash in the stock market.  And tell me. Where is the safe heaven to put your money in?  (Excuse me while I go scream at the wall) Ok, I’m better now.  Thats why safes are seen as the real shelter today. 

With economy in the tank, people are banking on safes

by Judy DeHaven/The Star-Ledger

Thursday October 16, 2008, 9:00 PM

At Cy Drake Locksmiths in Morristown, one of the most popular models of safes these days is the AMSEC combination fire-burglar-gun safe.

It’s not that Morristown residents are buying more guns, said the store’s owner, Henry Printz. They’re finding the larger model necessary, he said, for all the cash, jewelry and other valuables they want to keep, well, safe.

It’s all part of the new economic age, when every day brings another stream of turbulence from Wall Street and everyone is nervous that their bank is going to be the next to fail.

Jim Pathe/The Star-LedgerJeff Baldwin of Cy Drake Locksmiths in Morristown shows off one of the shop’s burglary- and fire-resistant models

“This time of year is usually a little slow,” Printz said. “But everybody’s scared. I’d say sales are up maybe 50 to 75 percent.”

While there are no formal statistics, safe manufacturers, online retailers and licensed locksmiths in New Jersey say sales of home safes have soared in recent weeks as people have grasped for some sense of security in these uncertain times.

“Nobody wants to admit it, but people are afraid the banks are going to crash,” said Dave C. Ribel, owner of Top Security Locksmiths in Point Pleasant, who has sold 15 safes in the last three weeks when his shop would typically sell three. “And they think people are going to turn to crime and break into their house and look for their stuff.”

The spike in retail sales has led to more orders for manufacturers. Sentry Safe, a manufacturer in Rochester, N.Y., said its sales have increased 20 percent to 50 percent over the last three to four weeks. And the Hayman Safe Co., another manufacturer from Ovido, Fla., said its sales are up 35 percent to 50 percent.

Zack Gilmore, an online retailer based in Corpus Christi, Texas, with two websites — valuesafes.com and vaultandsafe.com — said his internet sales are up 100 percent this year, and he is on track to see a 300 percent increase in the last month alone.

In addition, Gilmore said, some 200,000 people have Googled the word “safe,” in the last 30 days. That’s up from 136,000 for the same period last year.

“We’re getting a lot of folks here recently who are saying, ‘I’m pulling between $10,000 and $20,000 out of the bank,’” Gilmore said. “They’re not taking their life savings. But they’re taking an emergency fund.”

Earlier this week, Sovereign Bank, one of the nation’s largest thrifts, said customers pulled $4.2 billion, or almost 9 percent of deposits, in recent weeks, a trend seen by a number of other large banks since the start of the year.

Gilmore’s current best seller is a fireproof and burglary safe on sale for $539. Gilmore said that is a typical starter safe, which is 18 inches high and about 20 inches deep. But as people stop to think about what they can store in a safe, they often move up to the bigger models. Many are willing to spend several thousand dollars for a high-quality safe.

What about bank safety deposit boxes?

“People want the extra protection,” said Dick DiVittorio, vice president of the Hayman Safe Co. “They don’t know if a sticker is going to be on the door the next time they go to the bank.”

It is not unusual for safe sellers to see an increase in demand after catastrophic events or downturns in the economy. When forest fires ravage the west, sales of safes increase. Ditto for hurricanes in the south.

Likewise, safe sellers saw increases at the turn of the millennium with the Y2K scare and also after 9/11, said Sondra McFarlane, director of marketing and communications with Sentry Safe.

“Our products are the types of products people become aware of in times of peril and uncertainty,” McFarlane said.

While locksmiths and manufacturers said they have seen a surge in sales during the last three weeks, Gilmore, the safe retailer, has also seen more subtle trends.

He said his sales first increased back in January, when the price of gold hit historic highs.

“We started getting what I’d call the fringe of society,” Gilmore said. “I talked to this one guy who said, ‘I live on this island. And I want to keep all my gold bouillon on my island with me.’ We started getting those kinds of odd ones.”

Then, when Bear Stearns collapsed in the spring, Gilmore’s businesses experienced another increase from the “folks that remembered the Depression,” he said.

“Now,” he said, “it’s everybody.”

The last three weeks in particular have been a boon for safes, as huge swings in the stock market have become the norm and the government has struggled to implement a bailout plan and restore a sense of calm in the markets.

“Many people are frightened because of the economic situation at hand,” said McFarlane of Sentry Safe. “Unfortunately, it’s causing decisions to pull money out of financial institutions and put it in our safes.

“We are not condoning the practice of taking money out of financial institutions and putting them in our product,” she added. “But if people are going to take out their money, and they’re going to end up putting it in a mattress or the icebox or a drawer or someplace that’s not secure, then certainly our product is better.”

Take a peak at the article below.  Many just like this are pouring in from all over the world.  Carefull note on the stock market.  Stocks are up, which is good, but banks are NOT lending!  At least not yet.  So much for the Billions in Bailout Boys in Washington.  Banks are being taken over and I believe our cash will be there.  However, your safety deposit box may not. There is no FDIC for safety deposit boxes.  To view a great selection of Safes check out Value Safes, they have over 500 different models.

After last week’s record losses, the Dow today bounced back with the biggest one-day point gain since the Great Depression.

While stocks might be up today, some consumers are deciding their money is better off at home. Around the country, and here in Salt Lake, home safe sales are booming.

At Bob’s Lock, Safe and Key in West Valley, general manager John Pester told us he’s seen nearly a 40 percent sales increase in big gun safes and smaller fire safes. He says he’s noticed the sales spike particularly in the last month or so.

“We have had to replace a lot of inventory because of it. We’ve gotten a big shipment. We got about 15, 20 safes in from the factory just recently, so we have a lot of safes in stock to keep up with the demand,” Pester said.

He says they usually only carry a handful of safes in their store. They’ve bumped that number up to about 20 total, which is more than they’ve ever stocked before.

It doesn’t take a genius to see why sales are up. Pester thinks people are losing faith in the system and, instead, keeping their money where they can see it.

“I had one customer tell me that they needed a safe big enough to put $100,000 into. And I’m like, ‘OK, we have, we probably have a safe big enough for that.’ And I was a little surprised that they would tell me that, but that was just within the last month,” Pester said.

Pester says large gun safes generally sell for about $800 up to $3,500. The smaller ones range in price from $300 on up.

Federal data shows that in the last few months domestic bank deposits have dropped $40 billion.

A clip of an article showing up in Eurozone banks. Thought you may want to read it.  Check out a great source for safes at www.ValueSafes.com.

The turmoil battering banks across Europe is unlocking new opportunities for firms like the Solon security shop outside Paris, where manager Nicolas Rebaudengo said sales surged 30 percent over the past two weeks.

“Customers tell us they don’t have too much faith in the banks and they expect problems,” said Rebaudengo.

Young well-heeled executives, pensioners, middle class couples and lower income workers have all browsed his shop recently, looking at models that range in price between 500 and 2,000 euros ($680 to $2,700).

New faces have also flocked to Djamila Menna’s BS Protection shop in Paris, where business has shot up 20 per cent over the past 10 days.

“Nowadays even the man on the street is coming in to learn about safes because it’s not something that he has ever considered,” said Menna.

“He is looking for a way to protect himself.”

At Paris’ BHV department store, sales personnel say small safes are a hot item, with many customers picking up low-cost simple metal boxes with keys or padlocks.

“Many customers say they have gotten rid of their safety boxes at the bank because they don’t know what’s going to happen and they would rather protect their valuables themselves,” said Philippe, a BHV salesman.

French insurers however only provide coverage for higher grade models that start off at 500 euros.

Small safes are also popular at the AR Securite shop in Paris.

“Customers, mostly men in the 40s, 50s and 60s, buy smaller safes that can hold a maximum of 8,000 euros,” said manager Claude Simonnet, adding that the new purchases are probably to store jewellery and watches.

The story is the same across the Channel in Britain, where two banks have been nationalised this year and where the government Wednesday announced a multi-billion pound rescue package to protect others from going under.

“We’ve seen a 25 percent increase in sales over the last four to six weeks and in our opinion this is directly linked to the financial turmoil,” said Russ Reader, manager of Leigh Safes in the southeastern English county of Essex.

Some of these new clients had “expressed their concerns” about the crisis, he told AFP, saying: “Frankly, what account, what bank is safe now?”