How to install an underfloor safe

We don’t install underfloor safes ourselves but we thought we would provide this handy guide on how it’s done.

(you should consult a qualified builder or surveyor to confirm the advice in this guide)

An underfloor safe should be installed into an opening significantly larger than the safe itself and we recommend at least a cubic metre of concrete.

If you have a concrete floor this will involve breaking up the floor and forming an opening with a electro pneumatic breaker like a Kango.

If you have a suspended wooden floor a plywood shuttering box will need to be fashioned in which to pour the concreter to install the safe.

The size of the underfloor safe you can install is limited by how deep you can safely excavate and the room itself.

 

Here we see a steel reinforcing bar 'grid' that has been used to reinforce and strengthen the concrete around the underfloor safe.

Some safe suppliers may still supply a specific grid for their safes but most installers will use loose rebar rods and lay them around the safe prior to pouring the concrete.

The idea here is to make it as strong as possible around the body of the safe as the main strength and burglary resistance in underfloor safes is the top-mounted door.

 

 

After the safe and reinforcing bar have been lowered on to the level concrete base of the hole, further layers of concrete, well mixed with fine aggregate, are stamped down into position.

When the installation is complete no portion of the neck or deposit tube should protrude above floor level.