How to Move a Safe (1000 lbs.)

[mmh]

I am getting a safe on Wednesday. It is 72.5" tall x 42" wide x 32" deep and weighs 1015 lbs. I was thinking about rolling in on some 2" black pipe (have three or four pieces of pipe underneath it and when the bottom of the safe rolls of the last roll move it back up to the front). It will be rolling over a hard floor. Including me there will be three guys.

Is there an easier way? Is there a dolly or something I can rent made specifically for moving things like a safe?

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

I am getting a safe on Wednesday. It is 72.5" tall x 42" wide x 32" deep and weighs 1015 lbs. I was thinking about rolling in on some 2" black pipe (have three or four pieces of pipe underneath it and when the bottom of the safe rolls of the last roll move it back up to the front). It will be rolling over a hard floor. Including me there will be three guys.

Is there an easier way? Is there a dolly or something I can rent made specifically for moving things like a safe?

Thats a good idea you might want a few more, I have slid mine on towels and cardboard, also skates. I always do it my self

 

[Gary Kaney]

That's how in moved mine, but I put plywood down on the floor to roll it over. 3 pieces of pipe, and just take your time.

 

[Tikkamike]

the little plastic furniture puck/skate things work pretty well for that kind of thing.

 

[Sully2]

I am getting a safe on Wednesday. It is 72.5" tall x 42" wide x 32" deep and weighs 1015 lbs. I was thinking about rolling in on some 2" black pipe (have three or four pieces of pipe underneath it and when the bottom of the safe rolls of the last roll move it back up to the front). It will be rolling over a hard floor. Including me there will be three guys.

Is there an easier way? Is there a dolly or something I can rent made specifically for moving things like a safe?

Id do it your way only with a few more (2) pieces of pipe

 

[J E Custom]

First lift the door off. It should come up off the hinges with it open. This will cut the weight in half.

Then a plywood runway and a good furniture dolly will make it easy with the help you have.

A floor jack will help to hang the door back on. I also recommend building a platform to get it up off the floor about
6" and if you can rent a Pallet jack it will make it easer to set on the platform.

The platform does two things, It makes it easer to load and unload and keeps it off the floor to help prevent water damage if you have a flood or a fire.

J E CUSTOM

 

[wyowinchester]

When I bought mine, the store had a pallet jack. It goes up stairs also. For the turns there is a Teflon sheet to rotate around a 90 degree corner.
Add a couple more pieces of pipe if you don't have the jack.

 

[varmintH8R]

First lift the door off. It should come up off the hinges with it open. This will cut the weight in half.


The platform does two things, It makes it easer to load and unload and keeps it off the floor to help prevent water damage if you have a flood or a fire.

J E CUSTOM

I don't necessarily disagree, but....

If you're not dealing with stairs, or horsing it all around, I suggest leaving the door on. With pipes underneath the extra weight will be less noticeable than dealing with an unsupported 450lb door. Even with a floor jack, you have to lower it/stabilize it, move it to the safe, and put it back on. If you have to lift the safe at all, door removal is VERY worth it!

+1 on keeping it off the ground. With 3 guys you can easily lever it up to get some blocks under it, even with the door on. I've got a safe about the same size, and two of us were able to lever / block it up.

Mine had to go down a staircase with two turns in it (also a tall safe like yours). I ended up going to Uhaul.com where they let you rent movers by the hour. The contractor called me after I booked, I told him the deal, and he showed up with 6 guys and they somehow got it down. It's never, ever, ever coming up!

 

[SidecarFlip]

I've moved and set all the machinery in my shop including CNC mills, surface grinders and hydraulic broaches as well as floor lathes using the pipe/rod method of moving.

I would suggest instead of iron pipe (which might impart a texture from the pipe's surface in to your floor), to use drill rod or semi finished hot rolled rounds, 1.5" in diameter to 1.00" in diameter. The larger diameter, the easier it rolls and the surface finish on the rounds won't leave an impression on your floor.

Using the pipe/rod method and 2 men, we've moved machines weighing upwards of 9,000 pounds, way more than your safe and I agree, I'd move it with the door attached and latched.

We put a friend's huge Cannon safe down his basement stairs by laying down carpet, removing the basement door, cinching a stourt rope around the safe and with 4 guys on the rope, we lowered it down the stairs, sliding on the carpet. Not at all bad.

A few more beers and we would have 'let her rip' and that would have been ugly......

Newton's Law (a body in motion, tends to stay in motion until impeded by an immovable object) would have applied as it hit the basement wall. Luckily, we restrained ourselves............

 

[RobStar]

I have two that weigh over 1000 lbs; one upstairs and one down.

Three very large men moved the upstairs safe basically with protective slider type board on the carpet and stairs which included a 180 turn in the stairs. They meticulously padded corners, walls and door frames. They'd obviously done this many times and made it look super easy. Absolutely worth the $200 since if they damaged something it was on their dime not mine.

One guy delivered my downstairs safe. I was very skeptical. He used a pallet jack, worked it into position, built a series of 2" blocking up on each side and then one side at a time he used a big steel lever to raise it, remove a block and lower it until he got down to the last 2". At that point he shifted to 1" blocking and the final setting (on cement) was to put a 4" x 4" 3/8" thick piece at each corner with leveling wedges to keep the safe off the cement floor in case of water so it could dry out if the garage ever flooded. He finished by bolting it down. He was done in 20-25 minutes and never broke a sweat. Absolutely worth the $125 to save my *** and a good lesson on how to do it myself.

For me somethings are better left to professionals because either one of these would have been a multi-hour goat rodeo no matter how many of my buddies who came to help and if we'd have tipped it into a wall or hurt someone it would have been me on the hook for that.

RobStar

 

[SAPPER26]

Not sure of the type of floor you will be moving it across, but I've had excellent success moving my safe (approx. 600 lbs) with about 2 dozen golf balls. As you move, just place them in the front as they pass out the back. Works on concrete, carpet, linoleum. Not too good for stairs though. Pretty cheap.

 

[mmh]

I moved the safe last night. Rolled it on golf balls. Was a little trickier than I thought that it was going to be. The hardest part was definitely getting the safe out of the truck, upright & thru the sliding door. It took me & my son 3 hours, but we went slow & were very careful.

 

[Garyshome]

Hire some movers that have insurance.lightbulb

 

[Trickymissfit]

you can move the safe with black pipe or even wood closet rods. That's how we moved machinery years ago, but now we do it with air slides and roller slides. I would use something at least an inch and a half in diameter, and made sure the floor has zero bumps and things that will cause a hang up. On the otherhand I've seen pieces of equipment moved with a come along on a floor covered with a light coat of sand of steel shot (as used in a shot blaster).
gary