The wall decides before the safe does
In the terraced houses of the bourg the cross walls are thick and often rubble-built: recessing is feasible, but the chase needs proper scanning first. Services were added there over the decades, rarely in conduit, and never where the original plan would have put them. A detector run over the full height of the wall avoids the nasty surprise.
In the towers and slab blocks of the plateau the shear wall is load-bearing and heavily reinforced. You do not drill it blind: the position of the steel is located first, and a free-standing model bolted into the slab is frequently more sensible than a recess that would weaken the wall. Weight is checked too, floor and lift included. A chemical anchor into the slab holds better than a plug in the shear wall.
At the recent Puisoz schemes many internal partitions are boards on a metal frame: they hold nothing. You have to find the load-bearing wall or the slab. A fifty-kilo safe left loose is carried by two people; the burglar takes the whole thing away and opens it somewhere else, at leisure.
Where to put it, and what your policy looks at
Avoid the bedroom, the dressing room and the study, which are searched first and searched fast. Look for a discreet spot on a solid substrate that stays convenient day to day: a safe that is awkward to reach ends up unused. Rule out the damp basements of the older bourg houses for documents and digital media. A hallway cupboard against a cross wall is often the best compromise.
For a shop in the centre or a unit near the activity zone the logic changes: out of sight of customers, in a room with controlled access, its location known only to authorised staff. A deposit slot lets the safe be fed without opening it during trading. The stockroom stays locked even while the shop is serving the public.
For a Grand Parilly householder as much as for a Vénissieux shopkeeper, it is the insurance policy that sets the amount covered for valuables kept on the premises, and it often makes that cover conditional on anchoring done to the manufacturer's instructions. Read it before buying: the policy determines the safe, not the other way round. Keep the paperwork and the serial number somewhere other than inside the safe.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our safes page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Vénissieux.