Floating Shelves

I Know this isn't about fish but i cant find something that can tell me how to build a floating shelf that will be strong enough to hold books.

I want to put them in my study and also want to build a desk that is attached to the wall almost a floating desk.

So all the DIY people please help me.

Thanks
Steve:bigsmile:

 

First, I would like to know what you mean by floating shelves? I assume you don't want to see any ugly metal brackets? If you were in Cape Town I could have come and built it for you.

 

Well attach some polystyrene to the shelves and desk and fill up the room with water and presto...floating shelf and desk.....just had tn a more serious note use rawl plugs and threaded bar and an epoxy glue.insert plugs into wall(gotta drill the wall first)cut threaded bar to protrude apprx 100mm or so,turn in threaded bar and then 2 nuts(to lock bars and also to remove if necc)drill timber insert glue into holes and slide onto threaded bars.for the desk use longer lengths of bar which also means longer holes to drill into timber

 

for the Shelve:
Large L brackets
Raw bolts to fit the brackets into the wall
a drill & bit to fit the bolts. Smaller screws for the top
wood cut to size by the hardware or if you have the equipment u can do it yourself
You can even buy the shelves ready no cutting
Paint Brush, Varnish , sandpaper if you get pine

 

Hi Steve,

Floating shelves are GENERALLY designed to carry light stuff. They were originally made to put them in your formal loung for ornaments and pictures etc to try and reduce the clutter that gathers on tv stands, etc. It's an "elegant" way of displaying your stuff.

They are slowly entering the market of studies and kitchens... but that been said, they are rather pricy. We recently kitted out an entire pantry with floating shelves at a house we built. Granted the pantry was 1.5m wide, and 4m long... the shelves came in just under R65k (and it was not a lot of shelves either, on 3 from the floor up, all the way around!)

In THEORY a floating shelf can be designed to hold books, (i.e study). But in practise, this is not advisable, or practical.

Fish crazy has the correct idea. Threaded rod needs to be anchored into the wall with the correct epoxy type glue. (Not pratleys krap, but rather an industrial type epoxy... Hilti make the best, but at R599.00 per tube--- and the tube only fills 12-14 holes!! You also need the Hilti applicator gun, running at a special price of about R2k!)

The main problem hear is that if the shelf does not fit 100%, and I mean ONE HUNDRED PERCENT flush with the wall, it can bend the threaded rod, or slowly pull out the wall. (The wall also needs to be 100% flat and level). You see what happens is the weight acts as a downward force on the shelf. The threaded rod stops the "sheer"... but if there is a gap between the wall and the shelf, the rod now acts as the "fulcrum" or a see-saw basically.

The other concern comes in that you need to be sure of the quality of the brickwork you are anchoring into. Unfortunately a lot of houses nowadays (and for about the past 25 years) have been built using 7mPa strength cement stock bricks. If you drill into this, anchor anything into it, and put too much "PULL" weight onto it, the brick simply crumbles around the anchor. To be 100% safe, you should also try get the hole drilled dead centre to the brick, and not the joints. Joints is just building sand, and 50% of the time insufficient cement mixed into the mortar.

(New NHBRC rules and regulations in SA are forcing builders to start using 10mPa bricks, and a Class II mortar... sadle many builder's are stll getting away with sub-standard work, as there is actually no governing body enforcing these laws, and no one checking up on the problems. Put it this way... the only time someone would come and do a test on your brick strength is when your slab collapses, probably killing someone, and NHBRC are contacted for a claim!)

My suggestion.... floating shelves can be done... for books, I would think it would be expensive. And it might serve you better to get a nice loking bookcase instead. As for a floating desk.... well yes... put some polystyrene under it... fill your study with water, and go to work in a snorkel and speedo!

 

Ha Ha. Good one. But a good idea. The threaded rode that is.

I see what you are saying and am very worried about the bricks because the flat i am staying in is built out of hollow block. YA. So i am going to think of some other way of doing a shelf.

concerning the desk i was thinking of having the desk drilled to the wall with wood running at 45deg angle from front of the desk to the wall.

I might just put my whole study in the pool excluding the speedo with the heat we have been having.

 

U could put ur study in the pool, turn the pool into a fish tank, and get to work WITH your fish!!

But then i'd advise keeping the speedo on...lol

 

If you go to a good hardware, they have special rawl bolts that have extensions.
you take you wood and drill it to fit these.

Quite easy to do,just double check your measurements.
each bolt costs about R250

 

SIS man:embarrest:. i didn't mean skinny dip. i meant wearing baggies.

 

Not to hijack thread,but my dream tank will be a pool that i can swim in with my fish,can you imagine what vallis in a pool might like

 

How dare you hijack my thread! LOL only joking boet:bigsmile:. that would be very nice. but would get freaked out by the fish sucking on my toes.

 

so zoom you are "bob the builder" :bigsmile:

 

I am very closely related to Bob the Builder--- I work for a building company.