Does anyone know whether a second story wood framed house can support a 300 lb rifle safe? I want the safe in my closet where it will be close to me and far enough from the kiddies.

Find someone who weights over 300lbs and have them stand there for a few months. It should be fine.

I’m sure you will be fine, there are people that weigh much more than that and never move from one spot in their house.

We have no idea of the quality of construction of your home, so that's a difficult question to answer. If an old home it may be dicey, but code-compliant newer construction should be fine.

If your closet is adjacent a load bearing wall that will help.

Cudo's for planning a safe installation.

Chameleon, I have to ask this. How do you plan on getting a 300lb rifle safe up the stairs? And then eventually down? ;) I have a two story, so I'm curious.

I'm sure heavier, bigger and bulkier things have been carried up to a second story before... so there's probably a way.

how much does your bed+you+wife weigh? how long have you been sleeping there?

it'll be fine.

how much does your bed+you+wife weigh? how long have you been sleeping there?

it'll be fine.

Well, that is a tad more distributed but either way it should be fine.

rddragoness: That's why when I was shopping around, I made sure that they will deliver PLUS move into the room that I designate...haha. I don't plan on moving anytime soon and even then, I'm sure I can find several beefy guys that will be able to take care of it for me.

I know I have other things in my second story that are heavier than 300 lbs...but they are items that have a large footprint so the weight distribution is spread out. I am no math wizard so I don't know how much weight is spread out per square foot, but I do know that the footprint of the safe is much smaller than, say my bed as kersh4w had pointed out.

the weight could be distributed further by creating a surface that will sit on the bottom of your closet that would disperse the weight more evenly across the entire closet. just something you could consider if concerned.

rddragoness: That's why when I was shopping around, I made sure that they will deliver PLUS move into the room that I designate...haha. I don't plan on moving anytime soon and even then, I'm sure I can find several beefy guys that will be able to take care of it for me.

I know I have other things in my second story that are heavier than 300 lbs...but they are items that have a large footprint so the weight distribution is spread out. I am no math wizard so I don't know how much weight is spread out per square foot, but I do know that the footprint of the safe is much smaller than, say my bed as kersh4w had pointed out.


Well, your bed probably sits on 4 small casters, or posts. The surface area of these small points of contact is much smaller than that of a safe, which at 300lbs is at least 18" x 18", which is 2.25 sqft. This is important if you're worries about whether your hard wood floor, or plywood floor will support the load without crushing, and leaving a nasty mark.
That's your problem if you're worried about your floors.

BUT, that has little to do with your problem if you're worried about whether the beams will support that much weight. I read above someone wrote to put it closer to a load bearing wall. This is a good idea, since the beams below will be fastened at the ends and will put less bending stress on the beam.

The bed is a pretty decent example of what your floor can support, since all four of the points that come in contact with the floor can be approximated as one point mass placed at the center of your room. You should be good to go.

If you're still not sure, get your biggest friend and have him stand in the middle of your room...then have him jump up and down. If he's still there, you're good to go. An impact load, like someone jumping up and down, puts a force of about 2x the weight dropped. So if your buddy is 300lbs and jumps up and down, he's putting about 600lbs of force on the floor. That should convince you.

yeah sounds like you'll be fine. lets see pics of what we got in the safe...

Note: A metal safe probably sits on metal feet or has a bare metal base. I would definitely put something under it to avoid scratching the floor or crushing the carpet.

Jumping up and down in the middle of the room is an instantaneous 'load test.' Gravity over time is the concern.

Not trying to be worrisome, but just that there are some really old homes in the San Fran area and further due to lack of snow loading considerations they may not be built adequately for this relatively heavy weight in a fairly small footprint.

Again, site near a load bearing wall and lay down some 5/8" or better 3/4" plywood to better spread the load across a number of floor joists.

Even with steel I-beam main beam supports and 2x12 joists in a new home my main safe is in the basement; lagbolted to the concrete floor (I also have a small handgun safe in the bedroom).

This reminds me of the time when I was living in an apartment and was outside talking a walk when I see a garden hose running up the side of the building and into a window of a 2nd story apartment. Idiot was filling a water bed and you guessed it.............about 15 minutes later it came through the floor and into the apartment below. Luckily nobody was home downstairs, but it made a colossal mess!

I asked my husband this for you. He asks.......What are the dimensions of the base? Trust me, when it comes to putting heavy or odd sized things in places one would think that they wouldnt go or last, he's the one to ask. ;)

^+1 LMAO

I have a better question not asked yet... Is that 300lb weight for the Rifle Safe alone?

Or does that include Rifles, Ammo etc?

Reason I ask is cause you dont want to determine the 300 lbs safe works, only to stock it with 150lb of munitions and have it drop through the floor.

If 150lbs is enough to shift it I would be worried and not do it anyways. Thats you walking by it to get something out of it. What is directly bellow the closet? Possible to put a pillar there? You may laugh, but we did that in a farm house and just made the pillar look good.

I donno honestly if you have to ask....