Fixing clothes rail into sloping attic wall / ceiling

[Doki]

My new house has an attic room with a fairly steeply sloping ceiling down one side of the room. It's far enough into the room for the floor area underneath it to not be much use as is. My thinking is that the best bet would be to put in a rail and use the area as a wardrobe. The problem is that a) the wall / ceiling will most likely be some sort of plasterboard.

My thinking is that it'll be relatively simple to put a bracket on the end where I've got a proper wall, but what about the end where I want to be bolting onto the "ceiling"? Most fasteners are designed to take a force perpendicular to them, but if I bolt something like this:

hold up the other end, the screws will be pulled by the weight of the clothes on the rail at a 45 degree or so angle.

Anyone got any bright ideas? I don't really want a rail running the length of the room as it must be 16 foot, and I've not got many clothes, and I don't really want to end up making a wooden framework to support the rail either...

[dcbwhaley]

Make triangular blocks of wood and fasten to the ceiling with cavity plugs - or, even better, find rafters to screw to. The block will require a hole at right angles to the sloping face to take the fixing screw. Then faten your rail brackets to the horizontal or vertical faces of the blocks.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Is this type any better? you can drive one of these into the rafters at an angle and feed the pole through the eye.

You'll be able to get these cheaper at an iron mongers/chandlers, as this type are commonly found in the garden/backyard for clothes line or hoisting summat.

[Doki]

Aha. Rafters. How would I go about finding them?

[OG]

Rather than a fxed rail, have you thought of getting a couple of 'shop type' clothes rails on casters. This can be pushed close up to the wall when not in use, but pulled towards the centre of the room (where there's more headroom) when you are using it.

examples

[Doki]

there.

[OG]

OK, you may not be able to get it right up to the wall; but I'd have thought that you need a certain amount of headroom to comfortably use a fixed rail, whereas a moveable rail will give you all the headroom you need when you need it without taking up too much space when you don't.

[meow2222]

A filled clothes rail is very heavy, fixing to the timbers is a must, and having found that inadequate myself I did and always would look to include intermediate supports too, unless the rail is only 2-3 feet long.

If you use a wood block for end fixing, I would consider either a piece of hardwood or plenty of other support.

NT

[Doki]

This sounds like it could be a royal pain in the arse. I think I might just go for a wardrobe and cope with the reduced floor space...

[Ian White]

An attic room typically has very few places to put a free-standing wardrobe without completely messing up the rest of the room layout.

You were right to be thinking about using the space where it's too low to walk, so don't give up yet. How about using normal rail hangers underneath a good strong shelf? It works well enough here. Within the limitations of the wedge-shaped space under a roof, none of that space is wasted.

Admittedly, hanging the clothes rail from a shelf is only shuffling the DIY problem around - you still have to support the shelf somehow. YMMV, but whatever you do, you'll need to learn how to find rafters, and actually be prepared to build something (unless you wimp out and buy a wardrobe).

meow222 is right on the money as regards support every 2-3ft. Here the shelf runs the whole width of a built in double-door cupboard, so it is well supported at both ends. The mid-point of the shelf is also supported at the front by a strut coming down from a rafter, so it doesn't break up the hanging space underneath.

[meow2222]

in what way would it be a pita?

NT