Be Excellent To Each Other

So, as you may have heard, we've got a new house and have been having much fun trying to work out what we might do to make it vaguely nice. There's a gap between two of the bedrooms which has been used to house the boiler and is also where the chimney goes. The rest of the space has been divided in two to make a wardrobe for each bedroom.

This is where the fun (finally) starts, as one of these wardrobes contains a wall mounted safe (hopefully pictured). There's no obvious mountings, presumably because you need to have it open to get it off the wall, except we can't get it open. In case it's not clear from the picture, it requires a key and a combination (which looks like it's 8 digits long) and we have neither.

Be all that you can be, beex, and tell us how to remove this safe. That's an external wall, so bonus points will be awarded for solutions that don't leave a gaping hole in the side of my new house.

Ring the solicitors and ask them to relay a message, to whit "What's the code for the safe, numbnuts?"

The question has been asked. The safe belonged to the parents of the children that sold the house, they don't have it.

Look for a manufacturers name and try getting in contact hoping for some kind of master key/combination resetter?

Hopefully the combination bit will be battery powered so that when the battery dies it will only need the key to open.

Amazingly that looks identical to the safe I've just acquired from my parents's friends. It's at my folks at the moment but I'm sure I saw some instructions yesterday. I'm going round for a BBQ this afternoon and to pick it up so I'll let you know what I find!

If there is one thing I have learned from television and books, it is that safes are actually pretty easy to open, as long as you don't mind breaking the safe.

Treasure!

In all seriousness, just have at it with a sledge hammer and/or a crowbar, and then plaster up the gap. I'd be amazed if it's secured with particularly long wall screws or masonry bolts, so it won't make much of the wall come away with it.

We don't have the key either.

I wouldn't be - My grandparents had a safe put in for insurance reasons, and it was very well secured by requirement of said insurance company.

That was our first thought, but there's nothing on it at all.

Most people are lazy so and sos, of course.

Ooh, that would be awesome- thanks!

Well we can't use it as it is anyway, so it's no real loss.

The age of everything in this house I would be surprised if masonry bolts had been invented.

It depends on what the safe was for. If it was for the process of knocking hundreds off insurance premiums, it's probably enough to cause people to not to be lazy. Particularly as if it isn't secured, the insurance company wouldn't pay out making paying them in the first place a bit pointless.

This is looking like the most likely option at the moment.

The safe looks fairly digital to me...

I'm actually amazed there is a safe in the house at all,the state of the house lends itself to the assumption that they didn't have much in the way if cash at all. Some modernisation work that was done 5 years ago was done with a grant.

Heh, true. Thinking about it it's probably the most modern thing in the house!

Poor Joans.

I assume you have tried any obvious codes.

What's the most obvious 8 digit code?

55378008!

Still need the key,of course.

I'd be surprised if anyone going to the lengths of installing a home safe would half-ass the job of fixing it to the wall, which means its probably in there with chunky rawl bolts. I'd say the chances of getting it off with brute force were slim.

There are two of you so that's a start. Next you need 9 others and an EMP generator.

I found this:
http://sell.lulusoso.com/selling-leads/ ... -lock.html

Which gives a brand name of shuaima, maybe.

Of course a locksmith could also help, but when I used one to crack into a safe before (work related, no illegals) all he did was drill through the barrel of the lock to remove it.

I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to get into it without damaging it beyond repair.

If it's on an external wall, could you go from the outside to get it off? Remove a couple of bricks maybe and have a look in the cavity to see how it's secured? Failing that, keep on hitting it with a hammer and chisel until you get it off. That's what I'd do.

Can you not just hang a picture over it and forget about it?

I think you'd have to be nuts to try and bruce-force it off, there's potential to cause proper damage to the wall in the process.

This isn't like one of those comedy safes you buy from B&Q for £29.99, and it seems unlikely they've gone to all that bother of getting the thing installed to just super glue it to the wall.

I'd be inclined to take some professional advice from a (1) builder for physical removal options and/or a (2) locksmith to see if it can be opened to see what goodies it contains and then once inside hopefully removal options will be made available - or for the zero-cost option, just leave it where it is.

Probably this. However if you have any hammers or crow bars I'd try Chris's idea although with the idea of just seeing if you can loosen it. If it starts to move a little you might be able to work it off. However if it doesn't come off with a few hammer blows you'd probably need to work on unlocking it. I'd guess you'd need some special equipment to drill through it and the knowledge on where to drill.

The only problem is the double lock. Drilling the key lock will mean the bolts for that lock can be slid across, but there will be more from the combination lock.

I'm now thinking blowtorch to get the front off to be able to undo the bolts once inside.

It doesn't look to be the most durable of safes, do you have a hammer and chisel?

Is this your safe?

It certainly looks very similar!

It looks very much like it, except the right part of the sticker has been removed on ours (you can tell there was a sticker there) and there's a keyhole where the other sticker is.
Does it happen to come with any fool proof instructions?

There's good and bad news. Good news is that it's got the manufacturers details. Bad news you need an override key and there's no other details about smashing it open. It help you look online though or contact the manufacturer?

Here's some pics.

...

Manufacturer not providing instructions on how to smash it open shocker.

Thanks, that's really useful. I don't suppose we'll be lucky enough that either of those codes still work, but knowing that the keys are an override, rather than something to be used in conjunction with the combination gives us a bit of hope that we might find them stashed away somewhere.
Worst case scenario, we know how many bolts there are and where they are.
Would you mind measuring up how thick/long they are and how much of that would go into the wall.

The holes are about 10mm but there aren't any screws. I've just shoved in a pen and it went in about 3 inches without hitting anything inside.

Why don't you try the phone number on the instructions and explain the situation? They might be able to advise.

123456? Remember folks: always change the default codes!

Hammer, chisel, job done.

Ask the previous owners the following questions:

- date of birth of each parent
- their wedding date
- favoured sports team or other major interest with well-known key events (FA cup win, election victory, Trafalgar etc etc)

Those should narrrow the list of possible digits, if not order.

Or, study the keypad and see which areas are more marked or faded than the others. It's surprising how few people ever wipe their burglar alarm panels.

I did think about suggesting getting a handful of flour and gently wiping it over/blowing it at the keys. then I realised this isn't CSI and 4/6! Combinations will take while. Still, not like it'll explode or ring the police. Put on some music, close the curtains, grab a few bottles of wine and settle in for the evening.

Fun party game at the house warming! Crack the code, win the contents!

Or take the money.

Your mum gave some fairly direct instructions about how to *snip - Ed*.