KeySecure VICTOR Eurograde II (Size 1E) Digital Safe, Insurance Certified Installation in Ilford, London IG2 (or Ilford Essex, but let’s not get into that debate!)

A Wardrobe Position That Needed More Than a Simple Bolt-Down

At first glance, the bottom of this fitted bedroom wardrobe in Ilford looked like a straightforward place for a safe. The customer had chosen a certified Eurograde 2 KeySecure VICTOR Grade 2 (Size 1E) Digital Safe, providing recommended insurance ratings of £17,500 for cash and £175,000 for valuables.

The complication was the raised base/plinth in the wardrobe. Its visible base was not a solid floor at all, but a hollow raised section sitting above the carpet with a sizeable void beneath it.

Why the Wardrobe Base Needed Reinforcing

This presented two problems that our team at London Safes had to solve, the wardrobe base would not stand the weight of the safe and no floor anchoring would be possible.

Anchoring the safe to the brick wall behind was indeed possible, but our client wanted double-anchoring to both floor and wall for extra robustness.

Therefore, before the 109kg safe could be installed, our installer first had to create a solid base inside the wardrobe void while still keeping the finished installation neat and contained within the wardrobe.

Below is how we went about solving the problem.

Cutting Away the Hollow Wardrobe Base

The first job was to establish exactly where the safe would sit. Our installer measured the safe carefully and marked its footprint onto the wardrobe base in pencil, checking the position before making any cuts.

Using a jigsaw, he then cut around the marked section of timber. This had to be done carefully so that only the area beneath the safe was removed and the surrounding wardrobe remained tidy and intact.

Once the square had been completely cut, it could be lifted out as one piece. With that section removed, the reason for the extra preparation became obvious: the carpeted floor sat well below the original wardrobe base.

Removing the Carpet to Reach the Concrete Below

With the hollow wardrobe section removed, the carpet underneath was now accessible. Our installer cut the carpet to the same footprint and removed that section, exposing the concrete floor below.

This stage was important because the new support could now start from the actual floor rather than from a lightweight piece of wardrobe furniture suspended above it.

The opening also gave our installer a clear view of the depth that is needed to be made up before the safe could sit back at the original wardrobe-base height.

Our safe installer then vacuumed the concrete sub floor clean for better adhesive performance.

Building a Solid base to bolt the safe to:

To bridge the void, our installer used 25mm thick layers of MDF to build up to the required height (MDF works very well but we now also use hardwood plywood depending on the application).

The first 25mm MDF layer was bonded firmly to the exposed concrete sub floor using construction grade adhesive (we sometimes screw this to the sub floor also, decided on the day).

Further 25mm MDF layers were then added one at a time, with each new layer glued and screwed securely to the packer below it.

Building the Platform Up to the Wardrobe Base

The process continued until the built-up platform reached the correct height of just below the original wardrobe base top. The original wardrobe base top is then refitted and glued and screwed to the uppermost MDF layer.

What had started life as a hollow void section, was now replaced by a solid laminated reinforced block capable of supporting the safe and accepting its base fixing.

The final result is an extremely strong method of installing a safe. Our in-house testing of trying to remove a safe fixed in this way frankly exhausting!

Using Both the Rear and Base Fixing Points:

Once the new solid platform was complete, the safe could finally be moved into its permanent position. KeySecure VICTOR safes have two pre-drilled fixing holes, one in the rear and one in the base, and both were used on this installation.

The rear of the safe was bolted into the wall behind the wardrobe, providing one structural wall fixing with an expanding anchor bolt. The base of the safe was then fixed into the reinforced MDF platform that had been built up from the concrete floor using a very large coach screw providing a second structural fixing.

Why Two Fixing Points Were Used

This double method of fixing safe is not an actual insurance requirement. The insurance requirement is typically that ‘the safe is anchored to the fabric of the building’ this can be by a single floor fixing or a single wall fixing.

This gave the 109kg Eurograde II safe two secure fixing points while allowing it to sit neatly at the bottom of the wardrobe as originally planned.

Finished, Cleaned and Ready to Use

The finished KeySecure VICTOR Grade 2 (Size 1E) provides 36 litres of internal storage with one adjustable shelf. Its external dimensions are 450mm high, 450mm wide and 465mm deep, making it relatively compact for a safe offering Eurograde 2 protection.

After all cutting, drilling and fixing work was complete, our installer cleaned the work area thoroughly and removed the timber offcuts, carpet section, dust and other installation debris.

He then showed the customer how to programme and operate the Wittkopp Primor digital keypad, checked that they were comfortable using the safe and gave them their certificate of installation before leaving.