Securing Gun Safe

[Will3212]

I'm looking to pick up a Champion MT21 gun safe and need some advice for securing it. The safe is 500lbs.
My house is on a concrete slab, just 1 floor with a detached shed. I dont have a blue print of the house so I dont know if I'll hit any sewer or other pipes drilling into the concrete to bolt it down.
Another option would be to bolt it down in the shed, or somehow secure the safe inside the home without drilling.
Any suggestions?

[Bang]

If you have radiant heat (loops of tubing in the floor) you could probably "map" the loops with a remote temperature tool ($59 at HF).

Otherwise, use the vent jutting from the roof as one point of reference, and the kitchen sink and bathroom installations as the rest. If your planned safe installation is not on top of that run, you should be OK.

In any case, put a stop on the drill and drill only deep enough to accommodate the bolts. Whatever, if anything, lies below should remain untouched.

[Will3212]

The safe will be in my bedroom, which is away from the only restroom and kitchen.
My home doesnt have a heat source, i use electric heaters plugged into outlet. Im just worried about the sewer pipe that goes from toilet to septic tank outside. If the sewer pipes are in the concrete and not under the concrete slab, i might drill right into it.

[Rural Ruger]

If you know where your lines connect from the street, might be able to guess/trace it back. But without knowing the exact layout and risks of your home, tough to say. Can you lag bolt into the wall studs on the back of the safe? Most can mount in back and bottom. Not as good as concrete, but an option if concrete drilling is risky.

Unrelated and not to be nosy, but I thought a heat source was mandatory? My parents place has old and hideous (and unused) electric baseboard heat because the house was originally built without a furnace, and it need baseboard to pass code.

[Snuff]

There shouldn't be any pipes within a few inches underground. So just a 2-3" tapcon or a bolt that hammers in with a nut should be plenty to hold a safe in.

[Manxdriver]

3” concrete wedge anchor , one in each corner, will hold it down. Go as far into the corners of the safe as you can. I use those anchors to hold equipment down on job sites. The wider they are spaced, the less chance someone can ‘rock’ the safe back and forth to free the anchors up and remove the safe.

Think ‘down the road’ when you install it. One day, you might/will want to move to new quarters. The last thing you want to do 9n moving day is have to find a grinder to cut off the anchors protruding from the concrete. A really simple way to get around that is drill the holes deep enough that, after you remove the nuts and washers, remove the safe, you can take a hammer and whack the anchor down into the hole.

[markshere2]

The safe will be in my bedroom, which is away from the only restroom and kitchen.
My home doesnt have a heat source, i use electric heaters plugged into outlet. Im just worried about the sewer pipe that goes from toilet to septic tank outside. If the sewer pipes are in the concrete and not under the concrete slab, i might drill right into it.

Pipes cost money.
When building a house, piping from a toilet to a septic system, its usually a straight-ish run. They don't make decorative side detours because that costs more pipe ($).
Multiple toilets: they plumbed them together and ran it to the septic.

Do you know where the septic system is?

Scribble a map and make educated guesses.

Or pay somebody to figure it out.

[Berncly]

Generally speaking, sewage is laid "under-slab".
It would be unusual to be able to hit the sewage line with a concrete bolt that only sinks a few inches.

[OwnTheRide]

Stupid crazy redneck bubba idea here, but I would think an epoxy of some sort might sufficiently secure the thing. You'd probably have to leave the safe with the house when you sold it, though.

[wis bang]

Stupid crazy redneck bubba idea here, but I would think an epoxy of some sort might sufficiently secure the thing. You'd probably have to leave the safe with the house when you sold it, though.

'Kelly Grout' a two part epoxy used by contractors. expensive but stronger than steel.

Go outside and stand on your septic tank and look at the roof vent sticking up from your wet areas and avoid that place. The rest should be good. When mounting big waste water tanks they drilled in about 4" and set threaded studs in with kelly grout. Next day lock washers and bolts and a big impact. I asked the contractor if they were afraid of pulling the studs out. He replied 'Nah, the bolts will break first'...

Kelly grout is the grey epoxy you see paving crews using to set those reflective lane markers that get plowed over and all that traffic and you rarely see one that came loose...

I would the use double nuts 'jammed' together and they won't be able to rock the safe and you can still move it. The studs would need to be cut off after you remove the safe.