Is a 435 lbs safe to heavy to bring up stairs and place in room on the Second Floor?

[falconman515]

So I have a Bighron 19ECB Safe I bought from Costco (linked below) that is in my 1 story rental office right now ... weight is 435 lbs. according to manufacturer spec.

I just bought a 1993 2 story home and all rooms are upstairs and I want to put this safe upstairs as well.

I know concern with weight on a second story is whether its holding on 2 or more joists etc. and how much weight that can hold.

I normally put my ammo in there but for this it will just have a couple guns and magazines in the safe to keep it light as possible (shotgun, AR, 4 pistols, 4 Pmags, and about 16 pistol mags)

Final weight maybe up to 550-600lbs. maybe?

I will be using a stair climber dolly (from work we use this to haul copiers upstairs ... it has arms that grab the next stair then pull the dolly up) rated at 1.2k lbs. to get it upstairs.

SO ,,,, questions is based on the weight is this okay for a second story room placed in a corner somewhat on a wall?

Also ... any issue with this weight going up stairs? I think maybe I'll cut a few 3/4" plywood pieces the size of the stair to help distribute the weight maybe when coming up???
It has a landing int he middle ... it goes up half way then wraps around the landing then up the second half of stairs.

ALSO ... I think this model safe has the option to remove the door on the safe which I know is a Ton of the weight of the safe so maybe when going up the stairs removing the door will help to reduce the weight on the stairs going up along with moving it across the hallway upstairs to it's final resting spot.

But the door then will go back on and I worry about weight of about 600 odd pounds being on the second story.

Thoughts???

Suggestions???

Anyone done this at about this weight???

Thanks so much for any help you can provide. :)

-Chris

BIGHORN Safe | 19.1 CuFt | 30 min Fire Protection | 59"H x 28"W x 20"D | Electronic Lock (http://www.costco.com/BIGHORN-Safe-%7c-19.1-CuFt-%7c-30-min-Fire-Protection-%7c-59%22H-x-28%22W-x-20%22D-%7c-Electronic-Lock.product.11642080.html)

[Caeser25]

Why not buy a smaller safe for upstairs for the firearms you want immediate access too?

[HKGuns]

My suggestion is to talk to a structural engineer or a safe company.

No offense to anyone, but I wouldn't trust any information on this topic from a gun forum unless, of course, we have someone who's day job qualifies them to answer the question.

[.46caliber]

Why not buy a smaller safe for upstairs for the firearms you want immediate access too?

This. You'd be wasting all that space in a big safe to keep it lighter. Big safe in the basement to store a bunch of guns and ammo. Small safe in the bedroom to keep your locked and loaded nearby.

[tb-av]

http://www.african-cichlid.com/Structure.htm

your upper floors may be only 30lb/sf. It will depend on how your floors are built, how big the room is, what else is present in room. That weight gets distributed across the structure.

your stairs are probably rated for 300lb per 4" point weight.

Having moved a 600lb small safe from a first floor area, I wouldn't do it just because it's a PITA.

[Linebacker]

I would highly, highly recommend renting a small crane truck and operator to move the safe upstairs, provided there is an exterior opening to swing through. I am estimating the cost at $200. I did the same with my heavy bedroom armoir, last year. The posibility of damage to walls, stairs and flesh is very high with such an undertaking.

[Ned Christiansen]

I don't think it's an issue. Think about whether or not each step will support you and another person, each carrying a bucket of water-- I think it would. And your method of getting up the steps will no doubt distribute the weight much better. Your final site for the safe will no doubt be next to a wall, right? Like not out in the middle of a large room?

Put down a piece of plywood the size of the safe's footprint and stand on it with your safe-moving helpers. That's gonna be 600 or so prob'ly.....

To me it doesn't seem like that much. I'm sure no expert on this but from the common sense point of view I think you're OK.

[26 Inf]

I'm not advocating recklessness, but rather thinking it through.

Built in 1932, I would assume nice SOLID wood for joists and studs. Place the safe against a wall - choice of wall should be based on which way the joists run and the location of load bearing walls on the first floor. Joists should run perpendicular to the safe against the wall.

You don't mention the footprint of the safe, my smaller one is 30 x 22, if I was concerned about the weight I would try to locate some pallets with hardwood stringers, butt two stringers together to make essentially a 4x4, do that twice and center the safe on them. 4x4's won't roll or tip if your joists are 16 on center, and you can center the safe on a joist 36 inches would rest the safe on three joists. You can easily figure which way the joists run and their spacing if you have ac/heating outlets on the floor.

In reality, against a supported wall, with the joists oriented perpendicular to the safe, the sub flooring and the flooring will distribute the load you are talking about just fine.

Waterbed, second floor, two frisky young newlyweds - just made sure we started from a support wall and put the bed as close to the corner of another support wall as the wife would accept, worked fine for a dozen years until we relocated bedrooms and ditched the waterbed.

You'll be okay, primarily because you are thinking it through, don't get too cautious (I hope that conveys my meaning).

[.46caliber]

26inf, it was built in '93

[Arik]

Don't know but I had one upstairs. Bought it in my early 20s (2002???) didn't think anything of the weight (450lbs). Had 2 buddies help me drag it up stare to the 2nd floor where I hid it in my closet. House was built in the 80s, to give you an idea of the quality. Basically 2x4 and plywood covered in nice siding. There it stood till 2006 when I moved. Now it's sits in the basement

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[26 Inf]

26inf, it was built in '93

I see that, where the hell did I get 1932?:confused:

[Renegade]

28 X 20 = 560 / 144 = 3.88 / 435 = 111 lbs sq/ft

[tb-av]

More like 150psf once he fills it up.

If there's any real concern, just put it over the room your MIL sleeps in when she comes to visit. :jester:

[trinydex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J21JuD1nhcw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO6FJQoi0H8

things like this can be rented.

[Alex V]

Just my $0.02 as a Registered Architect:

In accordance with the IRC, your second story bedroom is more than likely designed for 40PSF. Seems like your are increasing that by almost four fold, but its not really that simple.

Its not a matter of getting it up there, its a matter if making sure it doesn't end up on your first floor.... and then the basement...

There are more problems than just uniformly distributed floor loads. Your joists are 16" o.c. most likely. That means that there is a potential that you will be placing this save on just one joist since there is a 32" area where there may be 3 joists, or just one. You never know. If its only one joist, you just placed a concentrated load on a single structural member. The diaphragm action of the subfloor and adjacent joists is not enough, depending on how close the load is to the midspan it may fail immediately, it may start to deflect and fail in a month.

We also have to take into account the size of the floor joist and their span. Sometimes you may have a large span which causes you to have to use 12's but the other spans only need 8's. You can't just use the smaller member because you will have an odd step so you use the larger member even though it is overkill. Happens in small rooms all the time, so it may be over-designed depending on where you place the safe. Impossible for us to tell.

Don't forget that a fat dude walking around the upstairs may be exerting the same pressure on the floor if you think about it. 500lb dude, standing up, all that weight only on the area of his feet. The difference is that its a live load, it will move eventually. The safe, wont.

There are some things you can to limit the problem:
1. Don't place the safe at midspan of the floor joists.
2. Try and place it as close as you can to a bearing wall. Wood is a lot stronger in shear than it is in deflection.

[falconman515]

Thanks so much for all the replies. :D

So here is what I think I'm gonna do .....

I am moving in the new house and just gonna keep it in the garage for the time being

I will be getting a stair climber dolly from work (it has feet on the back that are electronic and grab the next step and pull up the item on the dolly and is rated for up to 1.2K lbs.) to bring this upstairs .... I will be placing some 3/4" hardwood planks on each step going up to be safe and with the door removed I would imagine the weight is not much more then about 300 odd pounds. This should be safe in getting it up the stairs I would think.

And in the room this will be going into there is a walk-in closet ... I think I will be turning that closet into my gun closet and place this safe in there.

And to combat the floor joist issue and weight etc. I am going to custom cut a 3/4" (maybe 1" do you think?) solid sheet of plywood to perfectly match the whole square floor of that closet which in turn should distribute that weight over longer areas of the joist and span across multiple joints by doing this inside that whole closet floor.

I will carpet the custom cut sheet of wood to look nice and lay it in the closet floor to cover the entire inner floor area of that closet and then place this safe on top of that for maximum support!!!

THOUGHTS?

I think this should work and be just fine to be safe on the stairs going up and have super maximum support over a large floor area in the closet with the one huge shit covering the entire closet area floor.

Whatcha guys think???

Thanks so much for the info and help :)

[Swstock]

30-40lbs per sqft?

I think I need to keep more of my ammo in the basement and I suggest I do it tomorrow.