Three Signs That The Bolts Connecting Your Safe To Your Wooden Floor Need Attention

Any safe attached to your wooden floor is only as good as the condition of the bolts keeping it in one place. If you don't quickly correct a problem that develops with your safe's bolts through either repair or replacement, the security of everything in the safe will be severely compromised. So watch out for these three signs that the bolts connecting your safe to your wooden floor need attention.

You Can Hear The Bolts Clanking When You Walk Past The Safe

You shouldn't hear a sound coming from either the safe itself or the bolts between the safe and the floor when you directly walk past it. If you hear a metal clanking sound, it's probably the bolts shaking around in holes they're no longer securely attached to.

Fortunately, fixing this specific problem is usually as simple as opening the safe and tightening up the bolts with a wrench. Other problems that involve the bolts digging into and directly damaging the floor are often much more difficult to deal with.

Safe Leans Forward Slightly When You Open The Door

Though not as conspicuous as damage that causes metal clanking, damage that causes the safe to lean forward a tiny bit when you open the door is still important to address. Rather than the bolts being completely loose, this could indicate that the bolts were attached so tightly that they're digging into the wood underneath them and creating excessive space for leaning from side to side.

In this situation, you're forced to either replace floorboards or put something between your safe and your floor that your bolts can cling to instead of the wood. Ignoring the problem will just lead to wood cracks spreading even further away from your safe than they already have.

Floorboards Under The Safe Are Starting To Bend

No safe should be so heavy that the floorboards directly under it start to bend and warp just to accommodate it. If your safe is very large and the bolts have thoroughly dug into the bonds holding different floorboards together, you might see some boards descend below their counterparts and rise up on the sides farthest from the safe.

Don't ignore this problem if you don't want to deal with a collapsing wooden floor in the immediate future. Before a professional can arrive to look at the bolts, you can stabilize the situation by putting weights on the crooked floorboards to straighten them out.


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