We're looking at houses and I'm wondering if the garage makes a better area for a gun safe than the basement. The basement is unfinished and has a floating floor, where the floor edges are routed out and there's a pump to remove any water that might collect. The edged out area has cob webs, so I doubt there's much water getting in. But the garage is much easier to access.

any thoughts?

Neither are good options. Temperature and humidity changes can play havock with your guns. Easy access also means easy access to "Third" parties too. I'm facing the same problem with a new house... I'm thinking bolted to an interior wall in the office/den. Put a cloth over it and a plant on top and it's a piece of furniture.

Best o'luck

I would definately look at a climate controlled room. Condensation is a bad thing.

I have a similar problem, I just ordered a Cannon Safe and trying to find a place for it.

I didn't initially have a safe or an alarm system, but after I was robbed I installed both.

I installed my safe in the closet of my son's room, and bolted it through the actual sub-floor joists of my house. You have to open my son's closet door to even know there's one in there.

Probably the single best I've ever seen though, was an old fellow who had his memorabilia inside a long hallway in his home... His house had a long central hall throughout it with paintings and special lighting for the hall art gallery, and he installed a mahogany floor-to-ceiling bookshelf/curio cabinet at the "end" of the hallway. It looked VERY nice, and he had books and stuff on it with a nice sculpture and a light on the sculpture.

He also had a hidden latch in the bookcase, and the whole thing was on a big piano-hinge recessed into the wall as to be totally invisible from the outside. The other side of the bookshelf had a couple casters flush-mounted behind it, and the floor-molding of the bookshelf was part of the shelf, not nailed to the floor.

The whole thing pivoted back and he had another 8' or so of secret storage in the rest of his hallway.

Scrap the idea of buying a gun vault you can build a room with the same fireproofing and locks. When I bought my gun vault several years ago I thought I would never fill it. I filled it a couple of years after the purchase. Now what do I do, buy 1 or 2 more safes?? No way!

Build a room inside your house which is conditioned space.

There is something about the basement where you can get away and tinker with guns, its your area and can be made very secure, just throw in a Dehumidifier .

Best "gun room" is a room which is both heated and insulated. Neither a basement nor garage features either.

I bought a 3 bedroom house. Granted it's just me and the cat. But the bedroom at the end of the hall is the "gun room" -- also reloading, and a lot of other "outdoor gear." It's heated, insulated, dry, and "stable."

I have one safe -- I need a second safe. That's just the way it works.

I built a home in 2000 with a walk out basement. In the corner of the basement was built a safe room (we live in tornado country). It's 11' x 11' and features a solid metal door with 3 deadbolt locks. I've installed a dehumidifier. My basement has never taken in water and the dehumidifier keeps the room at normal humidity. The room allows me to keep my firearms in a concrete room and are as safe as I can make them behind the deadbolted door.

The fact that you are asking about basement or garage indicates that you have spousal considerations. Most of us can understand.

If you're talking about simply storage (and not a place for reloading, tinkering, etc.) then the garage may be a reasonable place for your gunsafe, depending on the climate where you live.

I live in a climate with relatively low humidity, and my garage is insulated so the temperature variations are minimized. So I have no problems with my second gun safe, which I placed in a closet in the garage.

On the other hand, if you have an uninsulated garage in a humid climate, you may want to find a way to "beg" your safe into the house.

The basement is a good place in regard to temperature since it is relatively constant, but humidity is a problem. If going to the basement (1) pour a raised concrete pad for your safe to sit on in case of flooding, and (2) incorporate an electric dehumidifier into your safe. Getting a high quality (necessarily meaning heavy) safe into a basement can be a real bitch. Consider your access before buying.

And good luck with the wife.

My gun room is in my basement. When I had the concrete poured they used the blue styrofoam insulation instead of concrete forms. The insulation does not get removed. The end result is 10" of concrete with 2" of blue styrofoam insulation on both sides. I put the tubing below the floor, again ontop of the 2" blue styrofoam then the concrete was poured. The ceiling of my gunroom is 6" of insulation with 4" of concrete on top.
I aquired a safe door from a local bank.
The humidity stays below 55% and I have seen it as low as 41%.

My safe is in the basement, as is my reloading room and bed room. It is very well insulated with styrfoam has a dehidifier that runs in the summer only, my wood heating furnace is in the basement too. I have 2 golden rods in the safe and the humidty even in the most humid days of the summer is dry. If you have a walk out getting a safe in is a piece of cake.

Al

My wife and I just built a new house this year. The basement of the old garage apartment we used to live in had a work shop room that I converted. I turned it into a reloading room and gun room. I ran a dehumidifier all the time, never had any problems with moisture. I did have a small flood once but nothing got damaged as everything was elevated (my safe was on a palate).

The old workshop was more like a garage than a basement. I really didn’t like it because it wasn’t very secure. Anybody could come in with a palate jack and truck with a power lift tailgate and my safe would have been gone (though you could bolt it down).

In our new house I had a room built with floor joists 8†on center, solid steel doors, and plenty of ventilation. My safe weighs over two thousand pounds and I’ve had zero problems. It’s also kind of nice to have a room on the main floor; it doesn’t have the dungeon feeling my old shop had.

The problems with basements as I see it is water, the problems with garages are security. Just know it is possible to do something inside the house if size allows.

My gunsafe in in my basement. Like Stonecreek says, temp. is not a problem as it is constant year-round. The humidity concern can be solved by running a humidifier and using a golden rod inside the safe. I've had guns in this safe for 10+ years and no probs. The other great thing about having a safe in a basement is that you can bolt it to the concrete floor. If you do place the safe in the interior of your home, I would recommend placing it in a central location. I know someone who had a safe in a room which had an exterior wall. Someone decided they would break in and steal the entire safe and its contents by fastening a steel chain around the truck frame and the other end around the safe. So not only did he lose his safe and all of its contents, but he suffered major external damages to his home. Just something to think about. Bolting a safe to a couple of studs does not equal bolting it down to concrete.