Anchor points for a shed..

anoyceperson

Hi Guys,

I am after some advice about anchor points for my shed. I have recently had my bike stolen and so am trying to bulk up my security a little.

Firstly, this will be going into a shed, that will be alarmed, frosted the plexiglass windows so no one can see into it and has an external lock on it.

I currently trying to work out what kind of anchoring point I should get. I assume for them to be effective they need to go into the concrete under the shed, and not just into the shed construction itself? Its quite a beefy shed, but a shed is a shed, cant imagine it would take much to rip a hole in the side of it to get the anchor out.

After having just had to fork out to buy a new bike I obviously dont want to spend a fortune so am after some advice really. Are these anchor points really just mostly the same, but with different brand names? I really struggle to see how they can be that fundamentally different, they are afterall just a socking great piece of metal that is bolted into somethign solid!

Any suggestions?

broken weeble

I made mine..

Got a 100mm length of 60x60x6 box section, a 200 mm length of 100x5 plate, welded box onto plate, put 6 holes in for the rawl bolts and bolted the big lump to the garage floor and put a spot of weld onto eack bolt to stop them being taken out.
The chain runs through the box and bike frame.

If they can get that bugger out ill be impressed, but its only as good as the chain tbh.

And bar the window up,

Hoopdriver

Kryptonite makes an excellent anchor. And very sturdy, very heavy (massively so, if you want to spend the money on the big Fahgettaboutit chain) locks, too.

Parker international seems to have the best price on them - that's where I bought mine.

anoyceperson

Am I correct in thinking that I will NEED to cut a hole in the floor of the shed to get to the concrete underneath, or can you get ones that are secure that can be screwed to the shed construction itself?

datasone

all ground anchors are not the same. Cheaper ones can just be forced with a crowbar. although it will take time and will be noisey but you will certainly slow them down. Nothing is theft proof but I have just bought the kryponite ground anchors and chain, very heavy and sturdy.

If possible I would move the shed along, fit the anchor and put shed back on top. make 2 holes for the chain to feed through.

anoyceperson

Unfortunatley moving the shed is not an option. This thing is chuffing massive. Probably 10-12 foot wide, by 8 foot deep. Its set on a concrete plinth, could even be fixed in place. It was put in by the previous owner but I very much doubt its moveable.

I suspect that if agoing into concrete is the only option then it will be a case of cutting a hole in the floor and then fixing the hole again.

stubs

This might be your answer. I have a shackle and chain from these people and it is top quality better than virtually anything else on the market and its all hand made in Britain.

http://www.torc-anchors.com/shed-shackle.php

The guy who runs the company is very helpful and will give you tons of advice if you send him an email. Top fella.

anoyceperson

This looks like it could be a good option as you say! Managed to find it for £50 as well which seems like quite a good price as I already have a chain/lock I can use on it. Coupled with an alarm that should be a good enough deterant I reckon.

stubs

Make sure it is the genuine article I have seen a couple of very shoddy rip offs of the shed shackle. The proper Pragmasis one is bombproof and powder coated with proper hardened bolts. I would reccomend emailing the proprietor hes a real enthusiast and wont bullshit you.

rowlers

Try this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0498390647

I bought one; dug a big hole in the grass under my shed and concreted this in.
Big chain through the shed floor.

Works a treat

Northwind

Mine is an old Kryptonite u-lock I'd lost the key for, set into concrete, I stuck a couple of steel bars through it under the surface just to beef things up.

stubs

rowlers wrote:

Try this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0498390647

I bought one; dug a big hole in the grass under my shed and concreted this in.
Big chain through the shed floor.

Works a treat

Thats an impressive piece of kit I might get one of them for my motorbike that sits on the patio. Not much use for the OP though he doesnt want to dig a big hole in his shed floor but certainly a good one for a new build shed.

anoyceperson

Thanks for the advice guys. I have been thinking a bit more practically about how to do this, and I think I have come up with a solution. Behind the shed there is about a 2 foot gap between the shed and the fence. I think the best plan will be to get some kind of trough/massive plant pot/bin and put this behind the shed in the gap. Then run a big fat protected cable (not sure on the details of this bit yet, but hard to cut stuff anyway) or chain through 2 holes in the shed, one at each end and then cement the ends into the trough.

This will then be a permanent feature and very hard to move. I can then secure the bikes in the shed to this cable. This way its more or less the same as putting it into the ground, but without the hassle of actually moving the shed/cutting a hole in the floor.

anoyceperson

hmm... well I thought that would be straight forward.. anyone know where I could find cable like that? No idea what to even start looking to find that, or even what its called. I assume what I am really after is some of that composite cable stuff that is really hard to cut using bolt cutters.

tjwood

Most cable, at leat any that has any kind of flex to it, could be snipped through with bolt cutters in seconds. Similarly for chain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpf35C7wu6Q

Personally if I had a shed I think I'd fit a Sheffield stand through the floor of the shed into concrete. Of course the ones that are buried underground and cemented in place would probably be the best option, but if you already have a concrete floor you can use a bolt-down type. I'd be tempted to cover the bolts in some hard resin so anyone who might try and remove them has no way of gripping the bolt head.

That said if anyone is determined enough they'd bring an angle grinder and destroy any kind of lock or anchor point so you can only hope to defeat the majority of less organised criminals...

Pragma

stubs wrote:

Make sure it is the genuine article I have seen a couple of very shoddy rip offs of the shed shackle. The proper Pragmasis one is bombproof and powder coated with proper hardened bolts. I would reccomend emailing the proprietor hes a real enthusiast and wont bullshit you.

This is Steve, the proprietor mentioned

A minor clarification here:

The Shed Shackle is my design and I do the welding on every one. I wouldn't say it is bombproof, though. It is a compromise intended for situations where a proper ground anchor is impractical or unsuitable. It is not as strong as our Torc anchor, but that would be no good fitted to woodwork. The Shed Shackle tries to compensate for the relative weakness of the wooden wall of the shed by covering such a large area of it, and even though it is made from hardened steel it actually doesn't use hardened bolts and should not be regarded as good in terms of security as a 'proper' ground anchor, properly installed. The bolts are a weak point, but a thief could have to drill out 8 of them and most thieves a) don't come with a drill, and b) don't want to spend even a fraction of the time required to do that. It does help to hold a chain & lock off the floor, and potentially allow a shorter (and therefore cheaper) chain to be used to lock a bike, and that means the combination can be easier to use. If that means it gets used more often, and used more 'correctly', it's done its job.

I would. however, be interested to hear more about the "rip offs"? If someone is producing something shoddy and passing it off as being a 'shed shackle' product, perhaps we should go after them?

Anyway, I hope that clarifies,

Steve.

diy

Go to a chandlers, buy some anchor chain as big as you can afford you will need about a meter.

Dig hole in shed floor. insert half the chain, Fill with concrete. you then have an anchor point for your various locks etc.