In a frame house you have to keep them well hidden or do a lot of work to tie them into the structure to prevent taking the entire safe.

Large gun safes get stolen since they are hard to conceal and obviously contain valuable items.
There are reports of thieves wrapping chains around the safe and using a truck to rip it loose from the floor it is bolted to.

ATM machines get stolen the same way.
Break them lose, load into a truck, finish opening at leisure.

I have two great wall safes in my master closet. I got them from Sam's free shipping. They are not fireproof but it is where I put my jewelry. Very easy to operate and easy to get in and out when your are getting dressed. Highly recommend them. I think they were 130.00 a piece or so and go between the studs. They are very narrow so I got two - one holds documents (birth certificates, social security cards, car titles, wills, etc.), and the other jewelry. I got sick of hiding it when we went out of town or when we had workmen, and all is in the same spot so I know what I have.

If you haven't installed your floors yet, your builder should still be able to put it in the floor without too much trouble.

Why not just cut a fake cold air return into a wall?

Most inexpensive wall safes are not fireproof, nor would they be especially difficult to remove once found.

Get a wall grill, cut an opening in your chosen spot, place valuables in the cavity and place the grill over. Hidden in plain sight.

You could even get fancy with fake screws, just the heads show on the grill, behind is magnets.

If I had stuff that needed a safe, I'd use a deposit box in a bank vault. The type of person who does smash and grabs in residential homes isn't all that high up on the burglary scale, not like most folks are going to get cat burgled with tunnels, lasers, stakeout teams, etc.

athensmomof3 - When I go out of town or have had someone working at my house I ALWAYS hid my jewlery. Problem was I could NEVER remember where I hid it (I used different spots all the time). I "lost" a lot of my very good jewlery for over 6 months! I was sick over it, then I just started chanting the St. Anthony prayers, low and behold I found ALL my jewlery!!
I always worry about the cleaning lady too, you just never know and can never be too careful.

ramor - I guess I should have thought abuot this before the slab was poured..So I don't have the option of putting one in the floor anymore...

metaxa - Great Idea but I think the cleaning lady could accidently find it..
I do have a safety deposit box at the bank, but then I don't wear my jewlery, coz it's too much of a pain to get to the bank.
Think I will check into the ones at Sam's.

I am going to have a security system, but just want to make it harder for someone to find my "jewels".

You sound like me! I figure if someone really wants it bad enough to move all the clothes in my closet and rip it out of the wall, they can have it. It is insured after all. It just gives me a little security that someone won't get it easily.

Not to mention, my sister found her diamond necklace hanging on her doorknob to her bathroom . . . thank you three year old who thought it looked sparkly there. The safe prevents that sort of thing!

This is the one I have and it is very high quality - 107.00 including free shipping (and it weighs a TON so that is important). If you have 2 x 4 studs it will be very narrow (I think you can expand it if your studs are deeper). It is also not very big. I bought some little drawstring pouches to label to put a few things in where the jewelry store boxes wouldn't fit.

My mom has two in her closet and my grandmother has one in her assisted living place in her closet. All are pleased!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sam's wall safe

Sorry, I guess my post wasn't clear. Anyway I thought about a floor safe at the last minute just before my slab was poured. My builder told me not to worry about it and that it would be simple to install after the slab was poured(before the floor is installed).

After looking at what is available, the floor safes just didn't appeal to me. The opening into the safe is too small. Have you investigated installing a hidden safe or just a hidden drawer? Here's a link.

http://www.hiddensafes.com/

THanks Ramor - I will check the site out. My problem would also be cutting into the slab, since I had radiant heat installed, they could accidently cut one of the tubes.

how about insulatoing a 'grocery item' can and store in your freezer!

We had a larger safe installed in the foundation floor that is water resistant and fire proof to use as a replacement for our safe deposit box at the bank....I got so sick of paying those ever rising bills and not having access to my stuff when I wanted it.

We also put a wall safe which is hidden but more accessible. I used to hide jewelry around the old house but always found it inconvenient and not the best for the jewelry. Mother stashed some jewelry in her old house behind the clock that was mounted on the soffit over the kitchen cabinet. She completely forgot about it when she moved...fortunately the new owners recognized it's importance and returned it to her.

The wall safe always makes me wonder if it makes my jewelry safer or not....is it just an arrow that tells potential thieves, "look here!"

I like the idea of the fake air vent...I believe you can also buy fake wall outlets too that are actually small tilt out storage boxes....

Anne - where did you find your water and fire resistant safe? I may be having an area of concrete removed and repoured so if that happens I could use that style - have the councrete poured around it and just put something on top to hide it.
It just gets cumbersome to hide things then have to bring them out again. PITA