Gunsafe Wall Mounting

[Missemall]

Hi guys

i have a problem and hope you could give me some advise as more experienced. I have bought a 5 gun Bratonsound gunsafe with ammo box. I have read the rules that the FET have set about mounting the safe on a brick wall. However, there is no exposed brick wall at the flat i currently live. All walls are covered with drywall. Breaking the drywall is not an option as the flat is not mine. Any ideas on how to proceed so that the FET will approve my gunsafe wall mounting?

 

[schmokinn]

Hi guys

i have a problem and hope you could give me some advise as more experienced. I have bought a 5 gun Bratonsound gunsafe with ammo box. I have read the rules that the FET have set about mounting the safe on a brick wall. However, there is no exposed brick wall at the flat i currently live. All walls are covered with drywall. Breaking the drywall is not an option as the flat is not mine. Any ideas on how to proceed so that the FET will approve my gunsafe wall mounting?

Move?  :wink:

When you say covered in drywall i guess you mean plasterboard..is it just a layer you can drill through into the brick or does it have a cavity?

 

[SIMON-B]

Concrete floor ?

 

[balltrap]

Never in all the years of this requirement has police ever checked it was on a solid wall ! 

 

[Missemall]

@schmokinn yes it is plaster board. Depending on the spot, sometimes i can clearly hear that the brick wall is right behind the plasterboard and sometimes when i hit the plasterboard it sounds like there is some space between them. I want to fit the gunsafe in the closet so that it is out of sight. At that point, it looks like one of the building columns is right behind the plasterboard. Unfortunatelly this is not wide enough for the full width of the safe and at the right side it looks that there is some space between the plasterboard and the wall.

@Simon i want to put it in the closet, so it will be resting on wood.

@balltrap i pray that this will be the case for me too.

 

[Nimbusgb]

If you can get all the way round it then have steel straps/brackets made up that fit around the building pillar and use those to attach the safe to? If not DONT go drilling in to the pillar ( you will allmost certainly lose your security deposit!  

Another alternative is to mount it with structure around it that simply makes it impossible to get out of the closet. So close fitting plywood shelf above it. ( handy for storing stuff on anyway ) thick plywood floor with cutout for base of safe. screwed to exiting floor. Bolt safe to floor. 

A safe has to be attached to 'the structure' of the building, nothing says it has to be a solid wall. Bolting it sufficiently well to one of the studs ( 2x4's ) in the plasterboard wall with the right fixings is ok.

 

[FlyingTrotter]

FAO’s are more alive to the limitations of many modern buildings - use some imagination as last poster suggested - and you should be ok unless your FAO is unreasonable 

 

[wynno]

This sounds very much like “dot and dab”. The solid sound you hear is the dot of plaster on the back of the board.

you should be able to drill through into a solid wall behind  the plasterboard

 

[Les]

Drill 4 exploratory holes - lined up via the gunsafe -  into the drywall to get an idea about what is behind it. I have drywall on studs, with cinder block walls behind them. If you have bricks, that's a bonus - you can use wall anchors of a suitable length. I used long wall anchors and epoxy to fit my cabinets to the 'wall'. So far so good.

 

[Doug Pinnegar]

Yep, it sounds like you've got 'dot and dab' walls. This is breeze block with plasterboard fixed to the front.

http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/dot-and-dab-plasterboard.htm 

The best way to fix a gun cabinet to a wall like this is to use either chemical anchors or expanding bolts. Gunsafes normally come with a fixing kit, or you can buy something like these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-sleeve-anchor-12-x-75mm-m10-10-pack/12838 (double check the sizes and lengths etc.

One extra tip I would recommend is that you add silicone sealant around the edges. Closes any gaps to go some way in preventing it being levered off the wall.

 

[ChrisPackham]

Good advice from Doug, the only thing I would add is to be careful that you don’t crack the blocks if it is a cinder block wall and using expanding bolts.  Screwing to the floor also will help.

 

[Finners]

As has been said, it sounds as though you have dot and dab, same as me. I drilled a hole, about 1.5" dia using a hole cutter, located to suit to pre drilled holes in the cabinet. Then drilled into the blockwork and set the bolts into those holes using an epoxy resin. Placed a few books under the cabinet to hold it in place on the bolts as the resin set. I loosely tightened the nuts to hold it all still. Once the resin had set, I took the cabinet off, trimmed the bolts to length, refitted and tightened it all up. My FEO did inspect the fitting (at my insistence) and it's been there for years  now, Solid as a rock. 

 

[Nimbusgb]

Yep, it sounds like you've got 'dot and dab' walls. This is breeze block with plasterboard fixed to the front.

http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/dot-and-dab-plasterboard.htm 

The best way to fix a gun cabinet to a wall like this is to use either chemical anchors or expanding bolts. Gunsafes normally come with a fixing kit, or you can buy something like these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-sleeve-anchor-12-x-75mm-m10-10-pack/12838 (double check the sizes and lengths etc.

One extra tip I would recommend is that you add silicone sealant around the edges. Closes any gaps to go some way in preventing it being levered off the wall.

Chemical Anchors ...... dogs bollocks! 

I have a pair of driveway gates, about 200 kg per leaf. 200mm square steel pillars are welded to 10mm baseplates that are bolted to concrete plinths with 12mm studs. The studs are fixed with chemical cement, The great advantage of this stuff is that it soaks into the concrete structure itself before setting so the resulting bond is with the structure rather than just a friction fit inside a hole in the structure. Very cool fixing! A tube cost about £12 from screwfix and will do 10 studs or more.