awkward shelving job

[Stuart Noble]

Spent yesterday fitting shelves to a cupboard that had contained an old HW cylinder. Walls were crumbling lath and plaster with nothing much to fix to, pipes running everywhere at different angles (the adjacent bathroom), and who knows what else lurking beneath the surface.

The solution I came up with was to make a series of boxes with 18mm ply tops, 15mm mdf sides and 6mm mdf bases and backs, the ply taking the load, and the 6mm base just keeping things square. I could then do the pipe cut-outs individually, and just stack the boxes on top of each other.

Worked out really well, and demountable if anyone decides to do the plumbing and electrics properly at some point. Probably expensive in terms of materials, and having the bits cut to size, but a small price to pay for predictability. I'm getting too old for those Hamlet cigar moments. "I'm sure I can hear a drip" etc

[fred]

In article , Stuart Noble writes

Along the same lines:

1. Lightly batten out the sides and back of the cupboard (they wont carry any weight, just keep the shelves & supports in place laterally.
2. Take a full width back piece, cut to the desired shelf height, and tack in place on the battens.

3 Do the same for 2 side pieces, cut for a tight fit front to back.

1. Drop a shelf on top and tack in.
2. Rinse & repeat all the way to the top.

Cut the shelves for pipes as you go and drop them in.

I used 18mm ply for the shelves and 12mm MDF for the sides and back, all sheets cut in the shed for free, both cut on the long side, ply cut for cupboard depth and MDF for shelf spacing.

A bit of caulk on the edges of the boards as you assemble will stop any fine plaster dust creeping through later.

[Stuart Noble]

Yes, as you say, a similar arrangement. My shelves were the width of the door opening rather than the internal width, so I sacrificed 4" for the convenience of having the boxes slide in and out easily. Battens means fixings, and there was just nothing I fancied fixing to, so a free standing structure seemed like the answer.

I suppose I got ripped off in the cutting charges (are they justified in charging you per cut when they do 4 at a time?) but these days I get no satisfaction from cutting sheet materials, so they're welcome to their

50p a cut.

[fred]

In article , Stuart Noble writes

I hear what you say, the battens are really just packers though, I packed them out from the sides at a few places to get a vertical and square frame. The frame then becomes rigid and self supporting once you add the other parts of the box, particularly if you make the shelves a tight fit, pushing the battens back against the packing.

When I did this it was 4 or 5 for free then 50p, I got them to cut the longs and did the short cuts myself so I could tune lengths.

[Stuart Noble]

I might approach it differently in my own house, but this was a commando style operation at my son's residence. Prepare meticulously, get the job done, and get out before the grandchildren get home :-).

I used to get stacks of hardboard cut at Homebase where the extra cut calculations were too difficult for anybody to work out, so they didn't bother. Timber merchants are not quite so sloppy.