Field Report : Can you fire proof valuables in drywall mud?

[Archbishop]

Mods I took my best guess for which group to put this in.

Ok, the question was posed the other day basically asking if you could put valuables down in a bucket of drywall mud for fire resistant storage. I didn’t know, but it seemed like it might work and there was only one way to find out. (Short of google searching it, and what fun is that?) So out to the garage I went to find some mud for my experiment.
I found a small box of 5 minute ready mix and decided it would do.



Not quite the 5 gallon bucket the original question mentioned, but it’s what I had available and I’m nothing if not cheap. Besides I reasoned a smaller brick of drywall mud would be more portable and concealable.
I found a plastic tea bottle and cut the top funnel off so it would better fit in the box.



I wanted to make sure there would be a fairly thick wall of mud around the inner container. Next I made some fake money with printer paper.



I figure if the experiment didn’t go well I didn’t want actually burn real money. Did I mention that I’m cheap? After putting the “money” in the plastic bottle I covered opening with two plastic baggies and sealed it with a rubber band. After placing the bottle into the empty box I was ready for the next step.







Twenty five minutes and a big mess later, I had my drywall mud mixed and poured in around the plastic bottle.



I gave it about 4 days dry solid and get ready for the fire. So tonight I build a reasonable size fire in my outdoor fire box and tossed the brick in on top and sat back and waited.



About 25 to 30 minutes later the fire had died down enough that I could extract the Drywall brick and break it open. Other than the plastic bottle starting to shrivel I couldn’t tell it had been in a fire. You can see from the picture the money made it through just fine.














I would like to add a few thoughts to this quick review, First off this would probably only be good for long time storage. You certainly wouldn’t be in and out of this stash on any regular basis, but then again, it would be a fairly cheap way to protect some cash or other valuables. After busting the brick open the inside was moist. I’m guessing that I didn’t give it enough dry out. I wonder if a fully dried out brick would fair differently. I wouldn’t think so, but I don’t know for sure. If there is another experiment I think I would like to make a box out of ½ drywall. This would allow a box to constructed that could be opened and closed fairly easily and might be a better fit.