Those looking to get the best home burglary protection possible at a reasonable price should strongly consider floor safes. A floor safe is a safe that is installed directly into the floor of your home’s basement (or first floor, if you have slab construction). It is surrounded by concrete and, optionally, steel rebar during the installation process, making it almost impossible to remove once in place.
However, these cost effective, high security safes are often overlooked by homeowners out of ignorance.
Floor safes have a lot going for them. They preserve the element of concealment that is usually lost with traditional, free-standing chest safes. A regular safe is hard to hide. You can always bolt it down inside a closet, but it isn’t difficult or unusual for a burglar to open closets when ransacking a residence.
Floor safes, on the other hand, are usually placed in the basement, an area burglars almost never go. Once covered with something like a rug, tool box or storage containers, a floor safe becomes invisible and nearly impossible to find. If installed in the first floor of a house with slab construction, it is possible to craft a false-floor cover that perfectly matches the existing hardwood floor.
The second advantage of floor safes is that they are very low cost for the amount of security they provide. In fact, they are, bar none, the most inexpensive way to get a high security safe. Entry level models start in the $300 to $500 range while highly burglary resistant floor safes sell for $500 to $1,000. In contrast, free-standing chest safes with similar levels of burglary protection start at around $1,000 and quickly rise to over $3,000 for the highest-end models.
Although floor safes are not officially fire-certified, they are functionally very fire resistant. This is because they are usually installed in the lowest point of a house and are surrounded by large amounts of concrete. Consequently, the contents of a floor safe rarely sustain significant damage from a house fire.
A floor safe’s placement also tends to create a tightly climate-controlled space. This makes them the perfect storage space for climate sensitive antiques like vintage wristwatches or rare coins, provided you use silica gel packets or other dehumidifying agents.
However, the greatest benefit floor safes offer over traditional safes is their higher security. When properly installed in solid concrete, a floor safe tends to channel all attacks towards its door. This is a happy coincidence because the door is always the strongest, most over-engineered part of a safe.
In contrast, the weakest point on a freestanding, chest safe is its sides. Floor safes completely eliminate this weak point as their sides are covered by several inches (or more) of concrete. So when comparing a floor safe with the same burglary rating as a chest safe, the floor safe will always have greater effective burglary resistance.
Of course, floor safes do have some cons too. For one, they require either professional installation or a significant amount of effort from a dedicated, DIY homeowner. They also have limited storage space compared to free-standing safes, generally ranging from 0.25 to 2 cubic feet unless you opt for a more expensive, extra-wide model.
Floor safes are also susceptible to flooding and water damage. This disadvantage can be ameliorated by wrapping your floor safe in plastic before installation and making sure it is placed in an area that does not accumulate water.
Perhaps the biggest drawback of floor safes, however, is that they are relatively inconvenient to access. They require you to get on your hands and knees every time to want to open the safe. This makes floor safes a poor choice for storing anything you want to access on a daily basis.
One outstanding choice in floor safes is the AMSEC Super Brute Series. These floor safes have a recessed, 0.75 inch thick solid steel plate door which handily exceeds B-rate construction guidelines.
AMSEC Super Brute safes also have three, 1 inch diameter locking bolts and reinforced door jambs, rendering them highly resistant to pry or sledgehammer attacks. Prices range from $500 to $800, depending on capacity.
Another fine choice is floor safes produced by the Hayman Safe Company. These exceptional floor safes come standard with a 0.5 inch thick solid steel door. However, if greater security is desired, it is possible to upgrade the door to 1 inch or even 1.5 inch thick steel.
They also have a heavy duty frame and collar, coupled with an innovative stainless steel flat bar locking system, for maximum protection. Hayman also sells a polyethylene (plastic) body floor safe for use in damp environments.
Prices start at about $550, rising to around $1,000 for larger models that have been upgraded to the high security 1.5 inch thick steel door.
In my opinion though, the best floor safe is the AMSEC Star Series with its iconic, round lift-out door. The AMSEC Star Series is, without question, the highest security floor safe currently produced for the U.S. market.
The door is forged from a 1.75 inch thick solid ingot of A36 steel that has been precision machined to perfectly fit into a heavy, 0.5 inch thick steel collar. The unique, round design of the door renders it nearly immune to brute force attacks.
These floor safes offer real, commercial-grade protection for the residential market. AMSEC Star floor safes come in two versions: tubular body and square body, with the latter providing more capacity. Prices range from about $600 for the smallest model to $1,100 for the largest. If security is your primary goal, AMSEC Star floor safes are worth every penny of their cost.
In spite of their minor flaws, floor safes are some of the best, most secure residential safes available today. In fact, they used to dominate the U.S. residential safe market until the 1990s, when big box stores started carrying impressive looking, but cheaply-made, low-security Chinese import safes.
Don’t be fooled by a pretty $500 Chinese import Costco safe. A quality floor safe can offer you far superior protection at a price that isn’t much higher.
