A house other people walk through every week
In a house in the town, where to put the safe matters before which model to buy. Many households regularly have people through: a home carer, a gardener, a tradesman in to repair a roof, a bulky delivery left in the garage. None of these visits is any cause for concern, but each one shows how the place is organised. A safe installed in a room people walk through therefore loses most of what makes it worthwhile: not being spotted at all.
The other particularity has to do with the history of these houses. Lived in for a long time by the same family, they hold documents that often exist in a single copy: notarial deeds, probate papers, contracts, family records. Start by reading your home insurance policy, which sets out what is covered for valuables kept at home and what it expects in return. That document guides the choice of safe, not the other way round.
From the pavement to the chosen spot, the route counts
A heavy safe first has to reach its place. On a double échoppe or a grand town house, the route goes through a sometimes narrow gate, a gravel path, a few steps up to the door, then a corridor. Survey that route before ordering, at the same time as the location: it is what determines the workable size and how the safe will be handled. A safe chosen from a catalogue without that survey sometimes turns out to be impossible to put in place.
Then comes the fixing. A ground-floor position is preferred, against a wall that genuinely bears load, rather than a timber floor upstairs. The semi-basement cellars common in these houses suit papers and digital media poorly because of the damp, even where the masonry offers a good hold. A detached garage at the bottom of the garden poses the opposite problem: a good fixing, but out of sight of the house. The detailed quote follows that survey.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our safes page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Le Bouscat.