Strength and weight are very important concepts in our daily lives. We want the strongest paper towels, the strongest paper plates, the strongest shopping bags. We place heavy Christmas ornaments carefully on the tree so nothing falls and breaks, and we hope drivers of semi-trucks and other large vehicles pay close attention to the signs about weight limits on local bridges and roads. And if we have a gun safe, we should be thinking carefully about how much weight our floors can hold.

The floors in our homes experience a lot of stress, of course. There's all the structural elements of the building, such as walls, pipes, duct work, and floor coverings (in construction, this is called “dead weight”). Then there's all of our furniture, plus electronics such as large TVs and stereo systems, as well as the combined weight of the people and animals who live there (this is known as “live weight”). Gun safes are usually among the heaviest items in a home, especially if they're designed to store long guns or multiple guns. What happens when a heavy gun safe is placed on a floor that can't support its weight? You can probably guess.

Every floor built in modern times was constructed with a certain “load limit” in mind, based on how the joists were installed and what materials were used for construction and support. If you can access the architectural plans for your home, you can actually calculate your floors' load limits. There are also a few basic principles that can maximize load limits, such as placing very heavy objects against exterior walls or interior load-bearing walls. Knowing load limits and carefully placing a gun safe will decrease your chances of disaster, but what if you could purchase a safe that was specifically constructed to maximize weight distribution and minimize wear and tear on your floor over time?

Well, you can do exactly that! Because Forgesafe's gun safes are disguised as handsome benches, they're constructed to store guns and other items horizontally, rather than vertically. Because of this design feature, a Forgesafe bench-safe distributes its weight across an area four times larger than a traditional safe of the same volume. Naturally, this causes less stress for your floors, allowing you greater flexibility as to where in your home you can display your beautiful leather bench (that has a secret gun safe inside it)!

Forgesafe's excellent products let your body and your mind both rest easily, so call us today to make a purchase you won't regret!