Hiding-places
The main question
that you should direct to your own person before you will go buying
a safe sounds like this: "What exactly do I want to hide
from strange eyes and hands?" For example, your list of things
needed to be hidden looks like this: a pistol, a gun license,
real estate documentation, cash in the amount of some thousands
US dollars, grandfather's order and grandmother's emerald brooch.
In this case it comes to a small safe. Especially you must bear
in mind that its cost is in direct relation to its size. There
is an unspoken rule according to which the cost of things stored
must be at least ten times more than that one of a safe. If a
safe costs 1.000 USD it means that you can keep 10.000 - 20.000
USD in it. A safe that costs 100 - 150USD isn't meant for storage
of big amount of cash. Usually such safe is a built-in one. You
can store private documents, low cost jewelry and little amounts
of cash in it.
Besides, you must define what you fear more: a fire or criminals,
because there two main types of safe design matching potential
threats. They are fire-resistant and anti-break-in accordingly.
Safes that are built into walls are anti-break-in. As for fire-resistant
safes usually they are not embedded that is not very convenient
in home conditions.
Built-in safe's installation requires a wall
not less than 30 cm thick. The more is the niche in it the more
firmly a safe will be fastened after concrete gap filling. The
cost of safe's installation depends on its size and wall material:
the more solid it is the more expensive it will be. For example,
the installation of the safe of 20x28x14 dimensions into a brick
wall will cost you not less than 50 USD, while the safe of 37x50x14
dimensions will be installed for the price of 100 USD. Of course,
you can save some money and combine renewal with a safe's installation
- the final cost will be the cost that will satisfy both you and
those experts that run your renewal. If you have decided to choose
this way make sure that a model has removable door. This should
be done in order to deprive workers of a temptation to study your
lock's design. Sometimes it happens so that a person who was engaged
in installation turned out to be the person who cracked it later
on. Except a safe's volume, one of its main cost components is
the type of lock.
Key lock is the cheapest alternative, mechanical
code lock is more expensive, while code electronic lock adds not
less than 100 USD to the cost of the safe. Each of them has own
advantages and disadvantages. Keys can be easily lost, they are
also easy to copy. Mechanical code lock is stiffly accurate. If
you are an impulsive person or your hands tremble you'd not better
choose this type: it's enough to miss half a millimeter and a
door won't open. There's a girth rail diameter that needs to be
paid attention to. A girth rail is a metallic pin of a lock. The
more is the diameter, the better. Moreover there is a three-sided
locking system. When locking girth rails of such system go up,
down and left. There is also a four-sided locking system, where
four directions are met: up, down, left and right. All these models
are built in a wall. If you didn't find a proper wall, you can
buy a floor safe. Indeed, it needs more fantasy when choosing
a hiding-place. While a safe that is built into a wall can be
hidden under wallpaper or concealed by bookcase, a floor safe
leaves fewer alternatives. Some clever ones arrange even two safes:
the first one is fake, i.e. empty; the second one is in real use.
Some skilled craftsmen face a safe with foam-rubber and upholstery
fabric masking it as a padded stool. Someone underpours a safe's
basis in order to unable its lifting. There are models that can
be fastened to the floor with the use of big barb bolts. It happens
that customers ask to pack a bought safe into a TV-set box or
if the model is small into a cake box. It is done to keep the
purchase in secret from neighbours and even friends. Experts of
some companies advice even not to tell your wife about it.
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Hiding-places