Any ideas on how to build in an acessible small storage place that is hidden say the size of a football in a house?
Anyone done that? A place to keep stuff when you go on a trip.
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I have installed floor safes in closets for starters..
the freezer is good
toilet tank
depends on value/fire resistence.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Watch old movies, lots of good ideas. False backs, fake cabinets, the nook under some floor boards, the shortened dresser drawer, secret panel on the side of the mantel, or stair riser, etc. The classic, is a safe behind the framed portrait/painting.
Paneled walls/ceilings are a virtual potpouri of hiding places.
I spent $400 and put a safe in my baseemnt floor -- paid for itself in 4 years because that is what the safe deposit was costing and we have the convinence
I once saw a picture of a hidden compartment in the bottom of a base cabinet. (Like a kitchen cabinet, with a toe kick)
The "floor" of the cabinet was removeable. But you couldn't tell by looking at it.
The was a small hole drilled in the false floor so you could stick a dowel or screwdriver through it.
Under the false floor there was a sort of "teeter-totter" looking thing. You hit one side of the "teeter-totter" thingy and the other side of it pushed the false floor up so you could get your fingers under it.
Sorry I don't have a sketch or anything. I'll try to describe it in more detail if ya want.
Stress is when you wake up screaming and realize you haven't fallen asleep yet.
Hide it in a football.
Really, it depends on what you're worried about. If it's just a random break-in, where the guy is in and out in 10 minutes, you just need to make it unlikely he'll find whatever it is in 10 minutes. (Ie, don't hide it in your sock drawer.) If, on the other hand, you're trying to hide something from your MIL who has a key and has nothing better to do for the next week than to ransack your house, you need to be a little more creative.
Heating ducts are always good. Behind or under furniture. Under drawers. Behind the toekick in the kitchen or bath is a really good place. (Just under the dishwasher would work pretty well.) Then of course there are hollowed-out books, dummy video cassettes, etc. Inside an old (not apparently worth stealing) computer might be an option -- lots of empty space in many of them.
Then, for smaller amounts of stuff, you can install a dummy electric outlet.
You could even hide stuff inside a water softener, if you bagged it well enough.
But, then, we live in a neighborhood where it's not even necessary to lock your doors (though we do), so maybe I'm not thinking like a thief.
on the topic of safes..
they make wall safes that fit within the bay of 16" oc studs
A friend of mine had a very valuable coin collection. He kept it in a large vintage safe in the basement. His house burned one night and the safe was intact but the coins were melted. We both worked on a job for a new real estate office. We used another huge steel safe but this time it was surrounded with 12" of poured concrete, an air space and a heavy firedoor. Hopefully this steel and block building won't burn to the ground before the FD gets there.
Most safes now are "fire safes" (sometimes alone, and sometimes in addition to being a "safe" safe), having a material in the walls that contains lots of water. In a fire the water turns to steam and dissipates the heat, keeping the contents below maybe 250F. Unfortunately, the superheated steam destroys most computer storage media, even though it doesn't cause damage to most paper records and only minor damage to pictures, etc.
You can get media safes also.
They are similr to the fire proof ones, but have an extra interior lining so they only hold about 1/3 as much and cost about 3 times the amount.
Good point. Electronic media, tapes, disks and even CDs. Can be damaged by the temperatures and moisture, released when the gypsum of the fireproofing gets heated, can damage these materials. Paper goods and guns are relatively immune assuming a minimal level of care. You can get media rated safes for a premium. They have thicker walls and, as noted, store considerably less for the volume used.
An alternative is to use a regular fire resistant safe, also a bit cheaper, and get a small media chest that will fit inside. This makes a small portion of your safe computer media ready.
Coolest thing I have seen is a rock mounted on metal pins that opened to reveal a secret hiding space in the fire place surround. Your really have to look hard even if you know it is there somewhere.
8
Paint can.
Large potted plant with hollow bottom pot. Hollowed from the outside, so you just pick up the pot to place or retrieve your stash.
Nah, everyone knows to look for pot in a potted plant.
i once had some treasure ,and i used a paint can with a jar inside, screwed it tight ,put it in the can and filled it with water so if there was a fire it might not burn up. my biggest fear was someone would come along and " clean my old paint shelf out for me!"
I lived in a house once where there was a cold air return high on the wall in the bedroom and I found out it didn't go anywhere (was just a box with a register on the front of it). That worked great. I later just put the front on with magnets intead of screws for easier access. Later I put a belt/tie rack over it with velcro to keep it in place. That house also had a removable lower section of a wall where they had put a new furnace through the floor into the crawl space. I put up removable panelling and kept a rifle in there.
In an old house that has double hung windows you could hide things in the weight pocket. Hide things in plumbing accesses.
Best place in many modern (108" & 120" plate height) for out-of-sight storage is in the closet. You can furr a ceiling down to 8' without making the height change very conspicous. How you get into that space is up to you. If you rip the dw off to bare studs and reline with two layers oof 5/8" X board, why, that's no nevermind of mine either . . . <g>
Many cloests have quirky spots and dead/useless areas (or are already screened by clothe or the like). These make good canidates for "evening out." Armed with some dimension data, that makes it time to visit the local locksmith's selection of safes for some tire kicking.
Now, there tends to be some big price breaks between 1200, 1500, & 1800 degree "fire protection." Ask your local fire fighter, a fully involvedwood structure fire can run 2800-3200 degrees (the real protection come from answering the "how long will your house burn before it is extinguished by the FD?" question).
Oh, and if the budget only allows a small safe (by price) right now, go ahead and size/prep for a larger safe--you'll fill the one you get, and need more.
Oh, and the nice people at truckvault (http://www.truckvault.com) have a bedvault that fits right under the bed, out of sight behind the dust ruffle (fru fru with a use <g>). It's around $400-500 IIRC).
last wed. we got off work at 5pm and drove to "Bass Pro Shoppe" 135 miles one way. and I bought me a 500 lb gun safe. we was bored
Bass Pro is a good cure for bored. The one in Katy is a bit closer, per mapquest, only about 85 miles (but the better part of 2 hour's drive).
500# safe is a good choice, it fits on a standard appliance dolly, and is not too horrible to move by one's self. An 800# (especially a 42" wide one -ugh-) is less so (and there's some twisted rule about having to go up narrow, twisted, stairs, too . . . )
In the old place, there just happened to be a 32" space for the 30" 500# safe. Close the cloest door and no one was the wiser. Had a lamp on top to see the dial--worked until the 24" deep document box went in on a shelf over (no safe is ever big enough <g>). Were I in that situation today, I'd get a 'touch light' and some 2" wide self-adhesive magnet strip.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Safety Deposit box down at the bank.
They do make lock boxes that fit between studs that are 16oc. IN a pinch you could use a Power center. A 200amp service can be placed and inherintly look like a breaker panel. THey can be ordered with locks, and unless the burglar or thieves paid major attention they would just look past it thinking it was a service panel.
Of course you dont want to hook up power to the service panel....
Here comes the benefit of having worked in a prison. I wondered the same thing so I asked all the burglers the same question. They said:
1) Never the freezer, a jar, mattress or anything to do with a drawer. These are the places everyone hides everything and are the first places they look.
2) Safes are good.
3) Best place to hide money is in an envelope placed under the carpet. Just cut a slit in a closet somewhere and slide it in. I was surprised and the guy that told me that said "I ain't got time to take up the carpet man".
4) Those little false recepticle safes are good.
5) Best thing to keep a burglar at bay? A dog. They have no way of knowing if it is nice or not.
6) The thing that make them laugh the most. A door with a deadbolt lock with a half window in it. Bust out the window in a second and boom, there in.
7) They love houses with any type of visual screening, big overgrown bushes, privacy fences etc.
Hope the info helps. DanT
Part of your response made mw think of this joke--"What's black and tan and looks good on a burglar? A rottweiler."
If your basement is unfinished, you could cover part of a joist bay in sheet metal to make it look like a return plenum. Use velcro to hold a 2X10 over the opening. Or place a blind duct on your HVAC plenum and store your treasure inside.
reminds me of an old chinese proverb
"when blind duct flies, he quacks up"
groan
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
That quacks me up. I remember another version of that from grade school, but have decided not to perpetuate it by putting it to print.Les Barrett Quality Construction
I heard it, "What happens when a duck flies upside down? He quacks up."
We actually "inherited" this book as part of a collection left in our Old Stuffed House.
How to Hide Anything by David Krotz
It's no longer in print so you have to buy it used. It details the work that Krotz used to do creating interesting hiding places of various sizes in houses, condos and apartments for his clients. This book is not only informative, it is hilarious and hard to put down. You read it and think, "That's hilarious! I would never think of that and it would probably work!"
It ends with a plan for a hidden room that he devised and executed. The drawings are really fun to think about even if you never actually do the work.
Ain't gonna tell my easy favorites, but one of the more difficult to get at for long term security and difficult to find is sealed plastic pipe in the bottom of the septic tank (none there now, too hard to access as found out the hard way to find when I needed something once) . Another is a file cabinet size foundation recess we put in when building the house, out under the yard, with a 10" steel/concrete/insulation vault type door on it.
And for you fellow rednecks that got 10 cars in the back on blocks, those are ideal hiding places.
I guess you are proud to have 10.
we only have 3 due to the Bush economy, but hope to get some more if things improve.
According to my late, and wealthy uncle, the *more* cars you have up on blocks, the poorer you are. To have only 3 means you are better off than when you had 10. ;-)
He gave me the greatest piece of advice ever. Look at what poor people do, and then do the opposite.
On the topic of security, best done in layers. Layer 0, don't advertise wealth.* Layer 1, keep them off your yard (video cameras and low level lighting). Layer 2, keep them off you porch (motion lights). Layer 3, keep them out of your house (deadbolts, chains, window locks). Layer 4, make your house inhospitable (freaking loud alarm). Layer 5, hidden safe. I love the ads inmagazines where they show the safe prominently displayed in the family room. F****** Idiots!
When you go away. Lock every door in the house including closets. Drives thieves nutz if they have to work that hard, and time is their enemy.
* I go out of my way to keep people I don't know out of my house. This is one reason I try to do as much work as possible on the house myself. I've only had people from the trades in the house when it was empty prior to moving in. I don't get the paper which means I don't have to stop the paper. On the local news they recently reported that a paper delivery person was tipping off thieves about stopped papers. One of these turned out to be someone stopping the paper for good, and the thieves weren't too happy to find a well armed victim in the *supposedly empty* house. A big locking mailbox is good too. On vacations I have a neighbor take us to the airport, and then I let her use the car while we are gone. She parks it in our drive at night.
It's not poor or rich, it is heritage lifestyle.
Good places to hide but often now cant find anything?
Actually have only ONE on blocks, and that was to pull the tranny last week, the rest sit on tires. Le's see, we must be poor, about 16 near to being on blocks<G> - 3 licensed daily drivers (63, 71, 84), 3 of same models as those in reserve for parts in the back, 4 trucks with various machinery sitting in them, 3 trailers also for portable storage, another trailer that is a 10 kW generator, still another with a Wisconsin engine and the 480A welder.
Junk
You sound like my ex FIL, I always joked about the "garage on wheels", he had so many trailers and cargo vans sitting around, all loaded to the hilt. All the garages were packed tight to.
Doug
I only have four on blocks, that because the truck is so old, the junkyard people come to my house lookung for parts.
Best post to this thread so far.
Problem with hidden rooms is, unless you build it yourself, you have to kill the builder.
And then...hmmm. Where would you hide the body?
Way too complicated.
You could hide it in the room, but might get a little ripe after a while.
I think it was on one of those modern marvel type shows where they showed an elaborate bomb shelter that this guy had built himself. It was several stories deep and must have consumed all his free time for several years. The neighbors were completely unaware of what he was doing.
I have been inside a number of impressive gun vaults. Most of these were built under the guise of a tornado shelter or were the structural basement walls to a house where the poured concrete ceiling was later added. These concrete structures served as a hull which protected a bank of regular gun safes on the inside. Each gunsafe was bolted through the sides to others forming a mass that couldn't be removed.
When doing this kind of work, be sure an use the type of friends who will help you move bodies. ;-)
I may have seen a grow room or two like that here in the hills, but I really don't know fer sure..{G}
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
You may appreciate this story my dad told me: he was working at a chemical plant in Florida and needed a burner to heat something for distillation or something. So he's fooling with ideas and asks one of the men working for him and he say's "I can make just the thing for you." So, the guy puts together this burner that is a coil of pipe with little holes in it and the supply of kerosene comes in above the series of holes, so after the thing is lit, the flames heat and pressurize/vaporize the incoming kerosene. My dad told the guy, "That's a really great idea; where'd you learn to make that." The guy replies, "Well, ****, Cap'n, I used to run a still."
cool. dem big,smokey wood fires to cook the mash did tend to attract the revenuers..
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Hehe. This thread reminds me of other threads where remodeling contractors talk about finding long-lost goodies.
Has anyone ever found a "hidey hole" in a house they were working on? One that seemed purposeful, not accidental or just "stuck behind something". With a latch or a clever hinge or something of that nature.
not in a house, but once I had a HUGE secretary (the furniture type wise guys) from a house in Phila. REALLY old, I brought to my shop for some minor repair work..it was 8' tall and 4' wide solid walnut from early 1800's..the front of the crown moulding pulled forward to access a hidden drawer up there..pretty slick, the miter LOOKED so tite I thought it was glued.
No, nothin inside cept a lot of dust.
an at first, I thought I broke it, whew!
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
We were doing an addition on a house and some things in the attic fell out through the soffit--old marble, a very old but not valuable book, a student newspaper from a local junior high school from 1940's and a letter to a service man from 1941. Sometimes people insulated with old newspapers and I've found those--but are usually yellowed and damaged.
I had to open up a wall on the backside of a bathroom. The bathroom had one of those sheet metal medicine cabinets. In order to dip them in paint, the manufacturer cuts a couple of slots in the back for the clamps. A previous owner decided this slot was a great place to put used double edged razor blades. As I pried off the lath, it just showered razor blades off a horizontal blocker. There were enough to fill up one of those large campbells soup cans.
Jet
Some of the medicine cabinets did have a slot for disposal of razor blades! Have seen it numerous times.
The blades just went into the wall cavity.
Doug
Well, I looked at the medicine chest and I guess that slot could be there intentionally for blades. There are two of them, so I thought it was for clamping during the manufacuring process, but I guess the other one could be used in case the cabinet was flipped over so the door would open the other way.
I guess the person who thought it up has never been on the receiving end of those blades after a few decades of use.
Some medicine cabinets had a slot especially made to drop your used razor blades through into the stud cavity. Take a long, long time to fill it. Those sometimes even label the slots "used razor blades".
Those slots were actually inteneded for razor blade disposal. i've seen several with a decal on the inside stating something like, "Dispose blades here"
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
smokey wood fires
Got's to be careful, there, smoke could color the mix. An' they's ain't much market fur not-clear 'shine . . . Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
You could try to convince the customer that it's the peat that made it smokey, right from the olde sod or whatever. ;-)
i know a guy that has a 6" sewer cleanout by his shop, if you were to take the cap off you'd find a 18" long pvc pipe safe. i always joked with him that was where he kept his mad money hidden from wife!
I like putting in a few "empty" outlet boxes for small items such as cash and jewlery (not like my dopey jewlery is worth anything).
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
What's with the hiding ...
I thot all U democrat types were all about sharing the wealth?
maybe that poor burglar has a family to feed!
Jeff
Buck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
most demos dont have no money
just the elite or wanna be elite publicans have the money!!!!!
I don't hide anything.
Just leave it in plain site.
The mess in my place is so bad, a thief would never find it.
I'm still looking for the TV remote from last year.
Oh, minor point, I have 4 German Shepherd dogs, all quite large.
Jeff
A couple of closets in homes I have built have the ceiling slightly lower than those in the rest of the house. And if you looked closely, you might notice that I took the time to trim those out with nice crowns.
Then you might begin to ask yourself, if you had a truly enquiring mind, why would he waste the time to trim those cieling joints out with crown in a closet?????? Who would ever see that there?
One thing might lead to another and youmight find where somebody is keeping the special goodies
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
I didn't read all the responses, so this may be a repeat.
Install a false forced air return grill complete with filter. Behind that is a box, your safe, or whatever. Matt
A long time ago I saw a gee whiz coffee table. The center section, when pressed down firmly, would rise up slowly on hydraulic lifts exposing a wet bar.
A couple of years ago I saw where a guy installed a similar mechanism in the roof of a closet. Press up firmly and the ceiling would slowly come down to below the top of the closet door frame by about a foot. This exposed a box for valuables.
I saw this and thought how very cool the setup was. He had molding around the ceiling perimeter that cleared the walls by less than an eighth of an inch so it didn't ride on the paint.
Related to this he had wainscoting in the living room with a pivoting section by the front door. He kept a shotgun in there ready to go. The guy was a bit paranoid, he made his own exterior and bedroom doors out of 3/4" ply, sheet steel and Kevlar with three deadbolts, but it was a neat idea. It all looked nice without a clue as to what was hidden.
You gonna give us a clue how you set this thing up? I don't think a hinged panel would work with crown molding on it.
.
As I was reading this thread this morning, I remembered an old house we rented about 15 years ago. In the hallway there was a built-in cabinet of sorts. At eye level there was a set of doors. Below that were 3 large drawers.
I pulled the bottom drawer all the way out once, and there was a large empty space under it. Would have been a great hiding place, and would have held lotsa stuff. Unfortunately there was nothing interesting in it.
.
Seems to me that the way "lazy susans" are built into corner cabinets in kitchens would leave a fair amount of room that could be taken advantage of.
Don't really know how you'd use the space - The thought just occurred to me.You are proof that God has a sense of humor.
we are currently working on a rehab an older house for an estate sale. built in 50's, brick veneer, full basement, appx 4k feet w/basement.
knotty pine paneling in the den, we have found 4 hidden compartments in there, well family already new about them and cleaned them out :( one was a gun rack, with 12 rifle/shotgun slots inside.
"a clue how you set this thing up"
One has T&G panels so the tongue is gone from a couple. They all lay in on the crown without any nails or glue.
one is accessable from an adjacent closet wall up high - you know how bedrooms side by side can have two closets share a flanking space?
and one has a finished fastened ceiling but is accesable from the laundry room adjacent on the back via a cabinet wall
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Drawers -
I know someone with a coin collection - probably three grand in silver who keeps it in a hutch in the kitchen.
The hutch has a glass faced upper, then three drawers, then three doors low. The drawers don't go all the way back in, and being an older style with no Blum or accuride slides, you have to use an offset screwdriver to remove a keeper to take them all the way out. behind each drawer is a space about five inches deep and that's where the bags are taped in place with duct tape.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Don't use 1 spot, split up your loot so that it's not an all-or-nothing proposition. Some interesting hiding spots:
- software boxes (one in the middle of many), make sure it's not
a box that held a game that would attract a young thief.
- jumbo box for bran cereal in your pantry
- an old parka in a closet (we keep one just for valuables); open
a way to get into the lining.
- put large items into a laundry hamper and throw a t-shirt over them
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Once had a book called "Principles of Economics". It was hollow in the center...
Should just use a copy of the NEC. We know no one ever looks at that.
And if you get the CD-ROM version of the NEC, it already has a hole in the middle of it.
~Peter
"And if you get the CD-ROM version of the NEC, it already has a hole in the middle of it."
Would that be a LOOP hole???Men would like monogamy better if it sounded less like monotony.
I have a better idea ...
Just become a working carpenter ...
then ya won't have any valuables!
But you'll probably have plenty of holes all thru the house to hide your loot in ... just ask my wife .. she'll explain the holes in the half finished house thing .....
Jeff
Buck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Get married, buy a house, raise a family, put them through college, support them for months while they job hunt in the "improving economy". That'll take care of the problem too.
I've built a couple of small ones - one behind a removable stair riser, the other inside the boxed in ceiling air duct in the basement where it narrowed from 2 feet down to 1 foot. I simply extended the rectangle shape overhead instead of following the taper. Of course I'm not about to hide my tools in these things (can't find 1/2 of them quickly enough anyway) and two kids in school are eating up all the current and future cash for the next few decades.
D&L
When we go in vacation, we put valuables in a box and I then hide it under the 12" (2 layers) of insulation in the attic.
Obviously that's more a deterrent than for safety. I'm considering getting large immovable safe that I can bolt down to a concrete slab in my basement. I'm looking for something that is tough to break in and also fireproof. I've found a number of safes that would suit my needs. The problem is that I can't figure out how to get them home.
There was a movie about a FBI agent that's a native American (was it "Braveheart"?) anyway, a guy kept his house key under the porch where a badger lived. Badger would tear up anyone else who reached for the key. Kind of a high maintenance item to have in the house with your valuables though. "Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers...." ;-)
I put a large old safe in the garage and bolted it down there is nothing in it. It is there to give the burglars some thing to waist their time on while the alarm calls me so I can call the cops.
Rent a U-haul. Has several advantages. The best place to get a safe is at the end of a gunshow. Dealers would prefer that they didn't have to take the display samples home. A U-haul makes you more anonymous in the parking lot when you pick it up.
Also call around to dealers and see if they have safes with cosmetic damage. You don't want anyone to see it, so who cares if the paint is scratched.
Most gun safes can be opened in 15-30 minutes. You want to make sure a burglar only has a minute or two at most in your house to even look for it. That is what the alarm is for.
bass pro shoppe had some real good deals. I got mine $600 cheaper than I could local for the same safe.