Fire lining a safe?
I bought a used safe, it's not fire lined. I would like to do this. I talked to a safe maker and he told me for the 1200 degree fire rating all that is used is 5/8 drywall. He also told me that the hard part to get is the fire seal for the door and that he could sell that to me. Anybody have any thought on this I would sure like to hear them. THANKS
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I'm no expert on the subject (so take that into consideration), but yes, all the manufacturers typically use some form of gypsum board to line thier safes. Of course if you add this after the fact then you are going to need to build some type of support system to hold it all and this will greatly cut down on your interior space.
My humble opinion would be to build a tight area around your safe with a double layer of drywall on the inside, single on the outside, and put in a commercial fire-door (also gypsum lined). You then retain full interior capacity of the safe, yet achieve some fire protection. Keep in mind that to be fire-rated I believe the maximum internal temperature is 350 degrees F. They also say that the location in a house or garage greatly affects the effectiveness of the safe so maybe that is of use to you.
Good luck.0 -
Bamihunter got a good hit on the nail head with...location!
Statistics were, about one in ten thousand (1/10,000)home actually burned 'down to the ground'. Many reasons for the low #.
Paper can begin to brown(burn)at 275*F, with old paper items even lower.
One can line effectively the interior with fire retardant gypsum board, or even cement board.
The quality of fit at the seams, corners, and door seal are very important. They can be filled in with furnance cement.
If buying a new safe, evaluate the labor, materials costs, and warranty vs a factory made fire retardant-fire proof safe.
If you already own one, and want to upgrade protection, two choices: >Evaluate selling/trading on a new one,
>Just do the upgrade.
If you can't put it in a basement, or 'less than likely' area to have a fire hot spot, then upgrading in some form is smart.
Have sold some safes, and no one has done any 'upgrades' because they're all a couple miles from Fire companies, and each found away to put them in the basement.
Many THANKS to the Fire Fighters, and EMS crews!!!!!!
I had one electrical fire, my Mother had one , and one nasty 'puff back' that could have killed her. Wound up in the hospital.
Happy Bullet Holes!0 -
Just want to add that 5/8" drywall will have a type X fire rating. I have never seen 1/2" drywall that had a fire rating. Cement board may be fire retardant but it does not have a fire rating.
Upgrade may a lot of work, may be you can find a fire rated safe. I believe that for the protection of you guns, the two things that you are protecting them from is theft and fire. Why only protect them from one?
"If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."0 -
I put a automatic sprinkler above my safe, dont know if that is better than fire proof safe or not. But a lot cheaper 0 -
the safe i built has 1" of sheet rock in it
"Go over,go under,go around,or go through.But never give up."0 -
martzlj, a fire safe is a good idea but lining one with gypsum board or sheet rock will not produce a fire safe. Manufacturers spend considerable time and money developing insulation for their safes. A fire rated safe worth having should be tested by Underwriters Labs or a similar lab. It is not a simple test and involves burning the safe in an oven/furnace at a predetermined temperature and spraying it with cold water then dropping it as if it came through a second flood onto a concrete basement floor. The test papers inside of the safe can't be chared and the safe can't be broken open. Believe me, its a difficult test.
If it's papers you want to protect, buy a small reasomably priced UL labeled fire rated box. If it's guns you want to protect, get a rider on you insurance policy and don't be concerned.
Just in passing, the best residential safes have breakin ratings of TL-15 or TL-30. This means time lag 15 or 30 minutes. The test is done with hand tools. If it is not rated by UL or someone else, it probably would not pass the breakin test. Also, don't be fooled by being told that the safe has a UL listed lock. That means nothing except the actual lock is UL listed. It doesn't address the quality of the fit, bolts, metal gage or whether the safe enclosure will just shatter if hit with a really big hammer.
The real purpose of a safe is to create a time barrier to protect valuables while your monitored central system alarm calls for help!0 -
Much of the above advice is right on. Just because you add 5/8 sheet rock will not make it fire rated. But at the same time, every little bit helps. Adding the sheetrock, putting the safe in a location less prone to fire damage and keeping fire retardants nearby will add to the safety of your collection. Additional insurance is a good thing to have. I personally do not have additional ins. but that is because I have been too lazy to look into getting it, plus I am happy with the safe and set up I have. Hopefully it will not take a fire or break in to get me motivated.
"SOCIETY PREPARES THE CRIME, THE CRIMINAL COMMITS IT"0 -
I don't know where to start. My house burned to the ground with a few walls left standing. My safe was in a closet with 5/8 drywall cage built around it. Now the problem; there was no fire damage but the smoke and steam from the fire hoses did a number on my guns. The burning of plastics in your home produce an acid that immediately eats all it gets in contact with. The worst damage, to my surprise, was to my stainless steel guns. The blue ones cleaned up fairly well but the stainless were etched and still look like...If there had been an air tight seal the damage may have been less. I now have a sealed safe and pray for no more fires.
I hope that helps.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.0
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