removing old bank safes

[bnasim]

Ive got a bit of a dilema in that the building which I will be working on (a former bank) has 3 safes present which need to be removed. As you can imagine these safes weigh tons and im not sure how to remove these. Any ideas?
the architect said we may have to remove the roof in order for a crane to life them out!! Im hoping thats not the case. does anyone think anybody from scrap metal can do the job or is it for a specialist company?
any ideas would be appreciated
cheers

 

[toptec]

Thermic Lance?, oxyacetylene? Cordite?

 

[CortinaV8]

WHy not ask members of your local travelling community, where there is scrap metal they will find a way.

 

[Alastairreid]

depending on access and weight we have on occasion used a forklift

 

[gregers]

i worked on a conversion from bank to a new fangled pub/wine bar,and they closed the road (sunday)and used a road crane THROUGH the main front door (after making a big bloody hole in the floor)and craned the thing out,amazing how they done it,very good banksman.

 

[Nige F]

Perhaps the banksman had done a lot of banks jobs . Ask a group of bankers...They know how to get £millions out of the public. A couple of ton will be easy What is the collective noun for a group of Bankers? . ....A Wunch.. A wunch of bankers.

 

[JohnD]

I saw an old vault being removed from the basement of a bank building during remodelling. A man just worked round it with a torch cutting it into convenient sized pieces that were lifted out with a small builders crane. It took him some days but didn't look complicated. I don't know if he cut the doors up as they are usually more complicated and possibly valuable.

some old ones may contain asbestos.

If it is just safes, I believe a good trick is to advertise them on ebay as "buyer collects". Anyone who really wants it will find a way. Sometimes you can lift the doors off their hinges which reduces weight.

 

[ColJack]

dig a hole in the floor just in front of them and get a couple dozen beefy guys to pull / push them over into the hole ( undermine the front helps. ) then concrete over them...

 

[kevindgas]

i'd prefer to have a go at a new one

 

[Steve]

I saw an old post office safe being removed once. It was probably small compared to yours, but the bigest I've seen (5ft5 tall, 3ft wide/deep). A safe company moved it. They had a flatbed lorry with crane arm.

First was to unbolt it, then tilted it manually, and inserted a couple of round poles underneath. Once it was level on the round poles, they intserted two small wooden platforms underneath (two platforms with four castor wheels on each). This was ok to move it through the shop to the door. Then at the door was a slope downwards, about 1 in 10 for 8 foot. Quite hazardous. So two of the guys moving it got in front of it and leaned into it, and gently guided it down the slope. Then was the door threshold. Brute force (Carefully) got over this. It really is a dangerous job and they demanded that we all stand well back from them. Then outside was a cobbled area, all downhill, to their lorry at the kerbside. They wrapped lifting straps around it and got it up onto the lorry using the crane. It was then transported 200 yards up the road to the new post office location

Then the post office counter was removed. Never seen anything like it. Under all that melamine chipboard and polished steel hatches etc, is a hardened steel barrier between the front and the back. The bulletproof glass is just the beginning! Very sturdy and very expensive stuff. Again, this was all removed and re-instated 200yds up the road.

Post office shut and re-opened within a week.

 

[noseall]

I built a post office extension once, crims could easily get in through the roof.