Safes & Vaults

Fire ratings are expressed in time + temperature — for example, a 1-hour 1700°F rating means the interior stays under 350°F (the point at which paper chars) for one hour in a 1700°F fire. UL Class 350 ratings are the gold standard for paper; media-rated safes hold a lower internal temperature suitable for hard drives and film.

Burglary ratings (RSC, B-rate, C-rate, TL-15, TL-30, TL-30x6) describe how long the safe resists a determined attack with common tools. Residential RSC safes resist 5 minutes of attack with hand tools — fine for opportunistic burglars, not for targeted theft. TL-rated commercial safes resist 15–30 minutes with power tools and are what banks, jewelers, and pharmacies install.

Composite safes carry both ratings and are the right choice for protecting jewelry, cash, and irreplaceable documents in the same enclosure. We will tell you exactly which rating matches what you are protecting and what your insurance requires.

Manipulation — for mechanical dial safes, we read the dial feedback to recover the combination. This is the slowest and least invasive method and leaves the safe completely intact.

Decoding — for many electronic and mechanical locks, we use diagnostic tools to read the combination directly without forced entry.

Bypass — for safes with a known mechanical weakness, we open via the bypass path the manufacturer designed for technicians, then repair or upgrade the lock.

Drilling — when other methods will not work, we drill a precise hole in a non-critical location, open the safe, then weld and refinish so the safe returns to full service. This is always a last resort.

We document the method and the original locking mechanism's condition, and we leave you with a written record so the safe can be insured and resold if needed.