Gun safes in your house

[ICEMAN]

Quote from: purplecowboy on Yesterday at 09:54:01 AM

    Quote

        Purchase two concrete pier blocks with brackets that adjust to height simply by turning a bolt with a crescent wrench. Buy enough 4inch by 4inch pressure treated fence post material needed to reach from the pier blocks to the flooring above. Tack a six foot long piece of the 4x4 post material across a few floor joist under your safe, this is your "helper beam". Slide your pier blocks under the helper beam, and cut two posts to reach from pier block to beam. Cut and install, then start turning your two bolts to tighen the whole thing in place. Cheap, easy, effective.

    Do not put your pier blocks on the dirt. They will just be forced into the ground. You need to either put a concrete pad or put 4X4's on the ground. The 4X4's will eventually rot but this is better than just putting the pier blocks on the dirt.

Uhhhh, the pier blocks on dirt are more than sufficient to help the extra load on the floor under a safe. Most post and beam homes have this under their beam runs, nothing more.   This is not a load bearing portion of the home and will suffice.

Note; I am talking about a 12" by 12" concrete pierblock with bracket, the same pierblocks most exterior decks sit on... Very substantial.

I don't know where you live but if you live anywhere there is the slightest quake threat DON'T put the pier blocks on the dirt. Our neighbors house was built with pier blocks supporting the porch and second floor overhang and when the quake hit several years ago the soil under the blocks liquified and they almost lost the house. It only costs a few dollars more to be extra safe. And it depends on your location it might also be building code. When I had my deck replaced the builder said that putting pads under the pier blocks that supported the deck was required by county building code. We live in Snohomish County.

I was a general contractor for ten years and worked in the constructin business for 20 years. We raised and leveled existing structures as well as new construction. The reason for the extra block or pour under the pier block is to get the footing down below the point where frost upheaval will not be a factor. Most single story homes set their interior floor supports on nothing more than a 12", 14" or 16" concrete blocks or pads. They are already low enough for frost upheaval concerns since they are already at footer level in the crawl. 

[400out]

  I still don't know why he hasn't answered my question  Does he really have a lumber constructed basement  would be a first for me.

[addicted]

This one looks pretty nifty in addition to a large safe.

[trippledigitss]

Quote from: purplecowboy on Yesterday at 09:54:01 AM

    Quote

        Purchase two concrete pier blocks with brackets that adjust to height simply by turning a bolt with a crescent wrench. Buy enough 4inch by 4inch pressure treated fence post material needed to reach from the pier blocks to the flooring above. Tack a six foot long piece of the 4x4 post material across a few floor joist under your safe, this is your "helper beam". Slide your pier blocks under the helper beam, and cut two posts to reach from pier block to beam. Cut and install, then start turning your two bolts to tighen the whole thing in place. Cheap, easy, effective.

    Do not put your pier blocks on the dirt. They will just be forced into the ground. You need to either put a concrete pad or put 4X4's on the ground. The 4X4's will eventually rot but this is better than just putting the pier blocks on the dirt.

Uhhhh, the pier blocks on dirt are more than sufficient to help the extra load on the floor under a safe. Most post and beam homes have this under their beam runs, nothing more.   This is not a load bearing portion of the home and will suffice.

Note; I am talking about a 12" by 12" concrete pierblock with bracket, the same pierblocks most exterior decks sit on... Very substantial.

I don't know where you live but if you live anywhere there is the slightest quake threat DON'T put the pier blocks on the dirt. Our neighbors house was built with pier blocks supporting the porch and second floor overhang and when the quake hit several years ago the soil under the blocks liquified and they almost lost the house. It only costs a few dollars more to be extra safe. And it depends on your location it might also be building code. When I had my deck replaced the builder said that putting pads under the pier blocks that supported the deck was required by county building code. We live in Snohomish County.

I was a general contractor for ten years and worked in the constructin business for 20 years. We raised and leveled existing structures as well as new construction. The reason for the extra block or pour under the pier block is to get the footing down below the point where frost upheaval will not be a factor. Most single story homes set their interior floor supports on nothing more than a 12", 14" or 16" concrete blocks or pads. They are already low enough for frost upheaval concerns since they are already at footer level in the crawl. 

This is partially true on both sides. The footing does have to be below the local frost depth per the IRC as adopted by Wa St Bldg Code. In reality, a 12x pier pad is sufficient enough to carry a tributary load such as this case, basically additional support to the existing floor construction. However, 12x pier pads are not approved to carry most loads in single family wood frame construction, with the exception of small decks with short spans (refer to mybuildingpermit.com) But again, that being said they would work fine for what you have proposed. Liquefaction would occur and undermine ANY size footing, its affect depends more on the type of soil # 1, and type, depth, duration of the seismic event - vs load applied to the footing- so even soils under a 4'x4'x2' pad could liquefy. Where I would disagree with Iceman is on the size of the header beam, or what he called "helper beam" I would use at least a 4x6 vs 4x4 as a 4x face is simply not deep enough to withstand a substantial load w/o deflecting. But again, for what we are talking here it would work fine.

But all this really doesnt matter until we know the type of floor framing - is it solid sawn 2x joists at 16 centers? TJI joists? 5/4 car decking on beams at 4' centers? I think no matter the type, 700# over a 3' square area in a corner will be safe (no pun intended) from structural standpoint.

[fish vacuum]

I weigh almost 250lbs. If I had a similar sized friend over and we stood next to each other, our total weight would be almost 500lbs and our combined footprint would be smaller than a 500lbs safe.
Hell, I know a guy who used to weigh almost 500lbs. His footprint was much smaller than any safe.

[Snopczynski]

Usually up to a 1500lbs. safe is fine on a ground floor without any shoring up. The weight is spread out on the footprint.

[luv2hunt]

Worst case scenario is it falls through and you have a new end table . Sorry couldn't resist. On a serious note, I was in the same boat as the OP and didn't reinforce the floor with a 800lb safe empty. I have 2x10 joists and it's against a wall, It's been 5 years and no sag in the floor at all.