BullionVault

Storing your gold at home: How to install an in-floor safe in concrete.

In floor safe for gold

If you own gold and store it at home, the safest place to keep it is in an in-floor safe.

Don’t depend on a free-standing safe, as these can simply be removed from your home by a pair of professional thieves.

The other advantage of an in-floor safe is that it can be hidden. Simply install the safe, lock up your gold coins or bars, and then drag something over the safe so that it’s invisible to anyone looking around.

How can you install an in-floor safe? It does require some special tools and elbow-grease. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, you can have someone install it for you. But choose someone you trust.

All this, of course, is assuming you have a concrete floor in your basement.

Here we go.

1. First, buy your in-floor safe. If you can’t find one locally, there are plenty to choose from online.

2. Choose a spot in your basement, avoiding where pipes may be buried under the concrete. And pick a spot where it would make sense for the area to be piled with boxed, crates or furniture. Remember, once your gold is locked away, you want to disguise the location of the floor safe by covering it up.

In most situations, this will mean choosing a spot close to a wall, and not close to the center of the space, or where people need to walk.

3. Invert your safe over the spot you have chosen and draw a line around it, with an four inches or so extra.

4. Now use an electrical jackhammer to break the concrete. The concrete will likely be only a few inches thick, after which you can use a shovel to remove the material that remains. Also, be sure to dig the hole a good four or five inches deeper than is required for the vertical dimension of the safe.

5. Once the hole is done and cleaned out, line it with thick plastic sheeting to keep too much moisture from building up around the safe. You can trim the edges that poke out of the top of the hole later.

6. Pour enough concrete into the base of the hole to make up that extra four or five inches. This is to create a flat and solid base on which your safe will be placed.

7. Once the safe is put in position, with the top exactly flush with the level of the concrete floor, then pour more concrete in, around the edges, where you gave yourself the extra four inches of space. Don’t pour it in all in one go. Pour it in a little at a time and stir it up a bit with a stick, to make sure it fills all the space around the safe.

8. Wait 24 hours for the concrete to set, and then trim the waterproof liner at floor level.

Now you are ready to place your gold and other valuables in the safe, cover the top with boxes…and sleep soundly, knowing that your gold is as safe as can be.

Once again, if you can’t find a good in-floor safe locally, you can always buy one online.