The wall first, the model second
The houses of the central grid and the faubourg buildings often offer what is missing elsewhere: stone or rubble walls thick enough to consider a discreet recessed installation. You still have to identify a load-bearing cross wall rather than a simple partition added when a flat was divided up, a common situation above shops. The survey is done on site; on its own it determines whether we go for a recessed safe or a free-standing one bolted to the floor and the wall.
In the estate houses of Garderose or Épinette, the question is reversed: hollow blockwork, plasterboard on studs, a decent slab on the ground floor. We then favour bolting to the floor, with fixings suited to the actual material and not to the one assumed. An unfixed safe can be carried off by two people, whatever weight the product sheet states: that is what insurers look at, and what the invoice issued after fitting documents.
Do not go down to the cellar, and other local rules
The instinct to hide a safe in the basement often works against its owner in a town at a confluence. The cellars and ground floors near the quays of the Isle and the Dordogne live with permanent damp, and the low-lying parts of the town are exposed to flood risk. Family papers, notarial deeds, hard drives and insurance policies age badly there, when they do not simply become unreachable at the worst possible moment. A location upstairs, on a load-bearing wall, is better.
For a shop in the centre, the logic is different. The safe goes out of sight of customers, in a room with controlled access, and its location is known only to authorised people. Market mornings and weekends concentrate cash takings: a deposit slot allows the safe to be fed without opening it. Before buying, read your insurance policy again — it is the policy that sets the expected grade and the fixing conditions, not the seller.
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 Libourne.