Wall safes

Chubby

What wisdom does anybody have on the subject of wall safes?

Richard Phillips

Typically, they are fitted into, or attached to, a wall, and generally have a door with a lock.
Is there something more particular that interests you about them?

Paul Prescott

The most common thing I encountered with wall safes is how much their insurance ratings were ignored by their owners. I have opened wall safes so stuffed full of high value contents the insurer would have had a fit ……

Chubby

I was looking at some wall safes on the internet and was surprised how high the suggested cash coverage figures are.

The main problem I had with them is not with the safe perse as with the fact that lots of modern walls are not really up to the job.

Richard Phillips

Wallsafes and floorsafes are generally more expensive to afterfit than they’re worth. And yes, so few modern walls are suitable. Many modern houses are now timberframe, whilst most post-WW2 houses have have inner leaves of blocks tather than bricks. A good choice is the original outer skin of an outside wall which has become an inside wall as the result of a house extension.

Tom Gordon

chubbbramah wrote
Wallsafes and floorsafes are generally more expensive to afterfit than they’re worth. And yes, so few modern walls are suitable. Many modern houses are now timberframe, whilst most post-WW2 houses have have inner leaves of blocks tather than bricks. A good choice is the original outer skin of an outside wall which has become an inside wall as the result of a house extension.

We have our own unusual 3 brick which is designed to be gripfilled in with coffer plates that drop down at the back too.
a wall safe can’t be secure like an underfloor safe but it is much more convenient so if they put valuables in a wall safe that is better than leaving them on a table!

[unknown]

Chubby

I have seen a wall safe embedded in a concrete floor. It came out very easily as it lacked the necessary depth.

I suppose it would be good to install a wall safe as the wall is being built. That way the owner could get some serious fixing on the back.

Tom Gordon

Chubby wrote
I have seen a wall safe embedded in a concrete floor. It came out very easily as it lacked the necessary depth.

I suppose it would be good to install a wall safe as the wall is being built. That way the owner could get some serious fixing on the back.

In the past I have seen European safes which could only be installed during construction because they had a 2 inch rim at the front and back to slot around the concrete blocks….Mondial perhaps?

[unknown]

Chubby

That would be a good job of fixing! Are they designed around the dimensions of a standard concrete block? I suppose a wall safe the size of a whole block would be too big for most users. Half a block would work.

I know nothing about bonding bricks and blocks but I suppose it might be easier to do half a block in a corner which is the best spot to mount a wall safe anyway.

Tom Gordon

Chubby wrote
That would be a good job of fixing! Are they designed around the dimensions of a standard concrete block? I suppose a wall safe the size of a whole block would be too big for most users. Half a block would work.

I know nothing about bonding bricks and blocks but I suppose it might be easier to do half a block in a corner which is the best spot to mount a wall safe anyway.

As I remember it, they weren’t suited to the British market because they were too deep to fit in our walls but were about 9 inch by 9 inch.

[unknown]

Paul Prescott

I’ve seen one conventional wall safe that was installed when the wall was being built. It was locked ‘open’ and a good thing too, the wall settlement squashed the body so much I had to grind the top door edge to get it to work again.

Chubby

Can’t have had much guts to it! Worth remembering, though.

I know wall safes have no fire resistance ratings but I would imagine they are better than an equivalent freestanding plate safe.

Chubby

I suppose the moral of the story of the bent wall safe is, if doing this, span it with a lintel.

Tom Gordon

Tom Gordon wrote
As I remember it, they weren’t suited to the British market because they were too deep to fit in our walls but were about 9 inch by 9 inch.

So, on the basis that a wallsafe isn’t just any bricked in safe, when were the first wallsafes made which were purpose designed for fitting in walls? They would have a rim at the back and/or drop down coffin plates at the rear.

[unknown]

Chubby

I saw one in the guard rom of a mediaeval castle. Does that count?

Chubb made a series of 1, 2 or 3 brick sized wallsafes for many years. I don’t know when they started but it was long before my time. There was a company making the unimaginatively called “1 Brick Wall Safe”. The ones I have seen were very low quality.

The Chubb ones weren’t bad but the fixings were poor. They were also very expensive for what they were. They also produced a better model with a bolt throwing knob.

Optional extras were a second lock on the larger sizes. That was for dual control although it would also increase the security. Also they did one with a slot in it designed for an alms box in a church or similar applications. One of their leaflets used to claim that one of these had survived an attack. The church found the end of a cold chisel or someting similar inside the box. It had snapped off during the attack. So whoever had installed that one had done the job right!