Safes and Staircases: What Is Actually Possible

Nearly every difficult safe move comes down to a staircase. Flat ground with a decent route is manageable at almost any weight. Add stairs and the calculation changes completely.

Just-In-Time Moving moves safes across West Valley City and Salt Lake County. Here is how we assess a staircase honestly.

What we look at

Weight against the number of stairs. A four hundred pound safe on six steps is routine. Twelve hundred pounds on a full basement flight is a different proposition entirely.

Whether there is a turn or landing. A straight run is far better than a turn. A safe on a landing has to be repositioned while it is still under control, and a winder staircase with pie-shaped treads is the worst case in a house.

The staircase itself. Open risers, an unsupported outer stringer, or an old flight that flexes underfoot all matter. So does the handrail, since it is frequently what a crew needs to remove for width and sometimes what they need for control.

Headroom. A tall safe on a staircase needs clearance above it through the whole run, and basement stairs under a floor above frequently do not have it.

Doorway and turn at both ends. Getting onto the stairs and off them is often tighter than the flight.

The direction matters

Down is easier to control than up, because gravity is doing the work and the crew is managing the rate. Up is harder and slower.

Which means a safe that came down into a basement does not automatically go back up as easily. People assume symmetry and it is not there.

When we say no

We will decline a stair job when the weight and the staircase are not compatible, when a flight is structurally questionable, or when there is no way to keep the safe under control through a turn.

That is not caution for its own sake. A safe that gets away on a staircase destroys the stairs, the wall, whatever is at the bottom and potentially somebody's leg, and it cannot be stopped once it starts.

Where we decline, we will say what would make it possible, which is sometimes a rigging specialist and occasionally the removal of a section of handrail or a door.

What to send us

Make and model, or the dimensions and weight. Photographs of the staircase from top and bottom, the turn if there is one, and the doorway at each end.

We would much rather assess it properly beforehand than send a crew who has to decline on the day. The estimate is free and in writing.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.