How to Move a Safe

Safes offer the ultimate protection for your valuable items, but they can be extremely heavy and way too difficult to move alone. Decide whether it’s possible to carry out the task with a few helpers, or your safe requires professional movers. If you’re confident about the DIY option, you’ll need at least three helpers and a few tips from professional movers NYC. Keep on reading to learn how to move a safe.

Prepare the safe

Start by emptying the safe – take out all the jewelry pieces, firearms, documents, money, and everything else that you keep inside. This is an important step because it may make the safe a bit less heavy, but it will also keep your belongings from damage while you transfer the safe.  Close the safe and lock it, otherwise, doors can open and cause damage or even injury. Use a moving blanket to wrap the safe entirely, and follow by sealing it in place with packing tape.

Necessary equipment

You’re probably reading this text because you have a large safe that needs special handling. You’ll need to load and unload it, and the best thing to use is a moving dolly. Take a tip from professional movers and use a dolly; skip other improvising methods for moving a heavy thing like safe. There’s a reason why professionals are using dollies, and you want to keep safety your top priority while moving a vault. You don’t have to buy a dolly, you can just rent it from your nearest moving company and save money. Before you visit them, have details prepared, such as the brand of the safe and a specific model, because those will tell you what kind of dolly you need.

Plan a route

Before moving a safe, create a safe route from your home to the moving truck. You should pay attention to any tricky corners, stairs, elevators, etc. You should measure doorways and other exists to make sure that it’s possible to exit without damaging anything. Your exit route should have no obstructions, so clear the way before making any attempts to move the vault. Even with a detailed plan, it is still advisable to have one person going in front of other helpers to navigate the way.

Protect your floors and walls

Even if you have enough manpower and you’re absolutely sure that you can handle a heavy safe, you should take measures of precaution because an accident can happen anytime. That’s why you wrapped the safe in a moving blanket before moving it, but it may not be enough to protect your floor in case of extremely heavy safe drops. Prevent damage by covering your floors, simply use old blankets, broken cardboard boxes, old rugs, or any other thick materials that you have. Also, cover other spots that may be damaged along the way like doors, narrow corners, walls, etc.

Load the safe

This is a critical step in moving a safe and a dolly is absolutely necessary for loading your vault safely. Proper moving equipment will make all the difference when you want to DIY move, and following these steps will help you secure the safe on the dolly: align the dolly with a safe from one side, get all the helpers on the opposite side to lean it back slightly, slide the dolly underneath, and lean the safe back to safely rest on the dolly. It’s also smart to use other professional equipment such as supporting straps to keep the dolly secured in place and avoid any movement while it’s on it.

Be careful when moving towards the truck

There may be some tricky corners or even stairs that will make carrying a heavy safe even more difficult. That’s why you should navigate the way with the utmost care and take one step at a time. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so progress slowly and don’t rush.

Load into the truck

The last step when moving the safe out of your old home is to load it into the moving truck. Since the vault is extremely heavy, there’s no use in trying to lift it and injure yourself. The best way to load it is to use a loading ramp that’s motor-operated, and your moving truck should be equipped with one. If that’s not the case, you can use a regular loading ramp. It’s going to be a heavy task, but certainly, the one that you can accomplish. One person should be pulling the dolly up and everyone else helping on the other side pushing the heavy safe.

To synchronize, it’s best if you do it on the count of three, and not rush through this process, go as slowly as needed to get it into the moving truck. That doesn’t mean you should stop in the middle of loading, it rather means that the pace should be determined according to a specific situation and not necessarily rushed. After the loading is done, it’s necessary to secure the safe in place by using ropes or straps.

Keep it safe

Last, but not least, safety should be your top priority at all times. Don’t compromise on this, and if you don’t feel like getting all the necessary equipment and help, skip DIY and let professional Brooklyn movers do the work for you. Get at least three people to help you, wear suitable clothing and anti-slippery shoes, and don’t forget to wear work gloves to also protect your hands. Discuss the move in advance with your helpers, and if it seems risky, rather leave it to professional movers.

If you want everything to go as smoothly as possible, contact Rabbit Movers and get a free moving quote.