I have a very similar armoire and a marble top coffee table that was my grandmother’s.
I have two matching marble top end tables that match the coffee table. The tables, couch and wingback chairs were all my Grandmother’s. When my Grandmother passed away my Aunt got all of the furniture. When my Uncle passed away my Aunt sold her large house and bought a smaller house so she no longer had room for all of the furniture. My Aunt gave me all of the furniture because she knew how much I treasure family heirlooms.
As soon as the safe was in place and I paid them I had to run to a doctors appointment with my Pulminologist. After having to move a bunch of stuff in my gun room last night and having to move furniture out of the way before they got here today I am completely exhausted. Granted it doesn’t take that much to wear me out anymore. I am too tired to mess with the safe, put anything in it today or even mess with pictures today. I have a couple of busy days ahead though.
It’s in now, that’s the important part!
Awesome! And, as a side note, glad to hear your floors could take the weight.
You are absolutely right. The whole time they were moving the safe through my living room all I could think about was that 4000 lb safe breaking through my oak floor and sitting on broken floor joists. Them laying down cardboard and then steel plates it spread the load out so my floor is intact.
You must have been reading my mind… I was a little concerned. My house was built in 1950 and most of the floor joists and attic trusses are treated rough cut lumber. Most of the joists and trusses are oversized compared to todays dimensional lumber. I was pretty sure that the floor would hold but there is always that nagging thought, What If… and that is a big what if.
Does it really weigh 4000 lbs? Or is that just slang for super heavy.
In talking to him, concrete walled, so I imagine he’s being literal.
The entire safe body is two 1/2" hardened steel plates sandwiched together for a total of 1" thick steel body. The door has three 1/2" hardened steel plates sandwiched together for a total of
1 1/2" of hardened steel.
From the manufacturer Diebold has published the wieght at 4048 lbs. I don’t really need fire protection because of where the safe is located. Even if my house burnt to the ground where my safe is it wouldn’t burn hot enough for long enough to heat the entire safe to the point where the contents would flash over and burn. The door does have high heat weatherstripping. At 200° the weatherstripping expands to completely seal the door off from any fire or hot gas intrusion into the safe.
Apologies for speaking for you sir. I thought it had concrete board.
I totally understand. We discussed several different types of safes so it is completely understandable to mix it up. You can speak for me anytime brother. 
I knew it was literal.
Thanks for the clarification. I grew up having a locksmith uncle so I’ve seen lots of safes and vaults. Nothing like that though. Glad they got it all set up for you.
I think i’d worry about your house being damaged more than the safe at this point.. but im excited for you.. Alex said you’ve been in heaven waiting for it… so i surely know you’re excited as all get out.. i know i would be.
well thats good, it gives you time to sit back and admire it and take pictures of it empty and what not.. i partly wish i could have been there just to see you excited about it.
you’re lucky that you had oversized lumber too i think.. .its good they used cardboard/steel plates to distribute the weight while moving the safe in. that is a real good thing.
@Rufus dont feel bad i thought there was concrete in the safe walls too. .
thats a lot of steel… a whole lot of steel.
Well guys I am not holding out on you guys but I ran non stop all day Friday getting all the stuff to further customize my safe. I did way too much and I wiped myself out on Friday so Saturday I was in bed most of the day.
Saturday evening I did manage to get a few things done with my safe. I don’t know quite why but the tops of all of my shelves were left as plywood and not carpeted. I don’t know if it is my being a perfectionist or OCD kicks in but there are just too many things that cosmetology and functionality wise could really be improved on insde and outside of the safe.
The exterior of the safe was scratched some getting the safe into the house and installed. This was completely unavoidable due to how hard the install was. The safe being so heavy they had to use pry bars and crowbars to maneuver the safe into the house. Of course I had fix that and touch everything back up. I have more shelves to install inside and outside of the safe. I have more carpeting, electrical and led lights to install all before I start loading the safe up. I am trying to do it right the first time and not have to go back and change things later on. I will try to remember to take some pictures as I go. I can already tell that putting in carpet in some places and cutting the carpet to fit the guns in is going to be a pain and it won’t be professional. I have never done any type of carpeting so it is learn as you go. `
as quiet as y ou have been i figured that was the situation. If i’d of bet someone i’d of won some money…lol.
I would have had to have my shelves all carpeted. id also be asking the dude why they werent, cause if i paid for them to be, i’d be receiving either carpeted shelves or a discount. that sucks that the cosmetology and functionality were not up to snuff… as much as he charges i must admit im a bit disappointed.. i had figured it would have been done up like a class a jewelry box, with every single detail not overlooked. inside or outside. again, i’d be having a few conversations with the builder.
it’s understandable about it getting scratched when moving in, and then understandable about having to have been touched up, but at the same time, im surprised he didnt have a powder coat system setup to where he could powder coat the whole safe before it leaves his shop, either before he does anything to it internally, or after he’s done building.. i’d of preferred the first myself. Hell i’ve got a powder setup… all id need is a heater/oven hot enough and large enough to fit that booger in lol being that its his primary company im sure he cold have had something built for doing just that by now… makes me wonder if he’s one o f those geniuses whom only think about one thing and let the others slide away cause hey, hes just that smart.
im very interested to see how you setup the inside and outside of the safe with shelves and lighting and the like… i will enjoy any photos you can share, and i wish you the best in the creation of making it the way you want it to be. it wont be that bad. you can get the thin automotive carpet at places that sell fabric usually.. I used to get it from joannes fabric i think it was… and you just use some of that 3m spray adhesive you can get in arasol cans from Lowes/ Home despot, and maybe even the fabric/hobby shop would have them too. As for making it look professional, just try to hide all seams, and dont use overly long carpet.. remember thin molehair carpet is best.. you dont want something thick that will be easily to cause fitment issues with shelves and other items in the safe. I’d treat it just like an automotive stereo installation with big subwoofers and a big sub box that i’d have to make.. and the side panels to flush it all in and the like. but ya know iwhatever you do im sure will turn out perfect for your usage. if you need tips / suggestions dont hesitate.
Steve, you are absolutely correct in your assessment. I am a little disappointed overall but I would still not hesitate to go back to Mike for a safe. It is not as turn key as I was hoping but this is an older more secure safe than the new ones that he actually builds from scratch for people.
If I went back for another safe I would be a little more specific in exactly what I wanted the interior to look like. I guess that since all of the pictures on his website had the interiors carpeted differently I thought mine would be the same. I all fairness he actually charged me less than the originally quoted as an estimate. Really the main upgrades that Mike did that I couldn’t do was upgrading and harding the locking bars, relockers and the electronic lock with a timer that relocks the safe.
Unfortunately for me I have had a few of my bad days so I am not progressing that fast but I will get there. I didn’t get the really thin speaker style fabric. The fabric that I got has a rubber backer to it and it is 1/8" thick. I wanted the extra padding from the thicker fabric to protect my firearms. The seams will be visible from the front of the safe because I didn’t completely wrap the shelves only the top and the sides were already done. What I am doing my not be as pretty as fully wrapped shelves but they are more functional and protect better. Because of the thicker padded rubber liner it will also isolate firearms from any moisture that may be absorbed in the wood. I will have two golden rods, a extra dehumidifier inside the safe and a temperature and humidity gague to monitor those levels.
I added additional electrical wiring coated with a fireproof interior core and a heat resistant silicone outer layer going into the safe providing electricity and lighting for the interior. I really am trying to plan out the best functionality with the best protection.
The lighting will come from LED strips that will be motion activated. I have the main power set up. I have the leds strips and motion sensor temporarily set up. So far so good.
For extra storage I am also installing 4 exterior shelves trying to maximize the space in my gun room. Without the four new exterior shelves then it would just be wasted space. Space is at a premium right now in my gun room. I want it full but be organized at the same time. I will get to where I want to be but it will take a little time to fully get there.
Of course Miss Lilly has to inspect everything and give her seal of approval on everything that I do.
wow that i slooking really good. I see what you mean about the led and the rubber carpet once you had that all in there it looked much better. what really matters though is that Lilly thinks it is all good and worth it. that dehydrator really seems to take up a lot of space in there. where did you find all the leds and the rubberiszed power stuff… I’m turning green over here with envy. 
It is Gorilla Carpet off of Amazon. It isn’t cheap but it is very well made and you can get it in different sizes, 1/8" or 1/4" thick. I went with the 1/8" as it has plenty of padding.
What you see at the middle bottom of the safe is a fireproof document safe. It will hold all of my really important paperwork. I had the lid up on it in the picture to measure the height for a shelf over the top of the document safe. Behind the document safe I have room for 2 or 3 of my really high end rifles and optics. They will isolated from everything else to keep them really protected. I have also bought gun socks to fit ove all of my rifles. Most of my handguns have holsters and the ones that don’t I have pistol cases for them to protect them from any corrosive gas that might seep in if there was a fire.
I bought some stainless steel dog tags and a dog tag stamper so that everything will be labeled on the outside of the holsters or protective sock so that things will be easier to find. I don’t feel like going through aging a dozen or more socks or cases just to find one item that I was looking for. An added bouns is that the dog tags will also have my name and cell number on it.
never heard of the carpet before… but it looks awesome.
Oh that makes sense about the bottom of the stack being the fireproof document safe… i had assumed it to be the dehumidifier. that is awesome that you can hide higher end stuff behind the document safe for 2 or 3 guns. sounds like you’re really gonna have that thing loaded up neatly.good plan on the gun socks too and the pistol cases.
i like the idea of the steel dog tags to label each weapon as they wont melt easily. pretty awesome ideas there bud!
When you have fought a packed safe and you are trying to find that one item it gets to be a royal pain. As I put things in this safe I am going to have a safe diagram drawn and I will list everything where I put it in the safe and then with the external dog tags it won’t take that long just checking the tags to get the item that you want. I really am trying to make this safe more user friendly and organized better than I have done before. I have learned and thought of a few tricks over the years to make things easier on me. Also when I start my long dirt nap my son will have a easier time with everything and knowing where everything is at.
My dad was meticulous with all of his investments, stocks, insurance policies, deeds, titles, accounts and other monetary things. He had a will, a medical power of attorney and a financial power of attorney in place. The problem was that he did everything himself and left good notes but the notes were 4 or 5 years outdated because he had Parkinson’s Disease and mentally he couldn’t keep up with everything the last few years. It took me two weeks of 10 hour days with my mom and financial advisor at times to get everything done, transferred and put in my mom’s name. I am trying to spare my son from having to do all of that.