I rent a house and the floors are not level at all. I have several 6' high sets of shelves, they are made of plastic, wood and metal. If I push the sh elves back against the wall, there is a 3" gap between the floor and the fr ont of the shelves. I rent this house so I have to find some way to anchor the top of the shelves to the wall with as little damage as possible.
I had the same problem with a rental. I pushed little pieces of cardboard underneath using a level on the shelf until the level indicated that it was level. You could use little pieces of wood as well. I just didn't have any wood.
Level the shelves with shims. You can buy them at any of the big lumber store. It's a good idea to anchor any free-standing set of shelves to the wall. I've used a variety of methods. They all require either finding a stud for screws, or a plug for plaster.
Corner bracket.
The holes can be patched with spackle after removing. But the landlord might get you for painting. None of mine did.
Then I wire the shelve set to them.
But I use a different variety. Just about anything works. You can decide how to prettify or hide the hardware.
Wall-to-wall carpet in the room involved? If so, are you sure that you aren't placing the rear legs of the shelves on top of the tackless strip which secures the carpet in place. Otherwise, shim under the legs as required to level the shelves in both directions and secure the highest point on the shelves to the wall with a single high-strength wall anchor to prevent tipping (if you are going to really load the shelves to the max and/or live in earthquake country and/or have rug rats of climbing age then use more than a single anchor).
Go ahead and shim the fronts of the shelves to level them, and then a little more so that they lean back against the wall. That will stabilize them without having to punch holes in the wall.
Bill
I assume the shelves are only 12-24" deep. If that's true, a 3" gap at the bottom over that distance seems really excessive. That's a 3/12 pitch, about the same as my porch roof! :)
I am guessing you probably have baseboard trim around the floor. The bottom of the bookshelf is touching that, then you're pushing the top to touch the wall. Without the trim, the top is another 3/4" or great distance back, giving you the big gap at the front.
Unless the floor is REALLY out of level, or you're putting things on the shelf that won't stay put, it's probably not critical that the shelves be perfectly level. However, you could always use wood shims under the bottom of the shelves to level it out if needed. You can usually find these in the door and window area of most home centers. They even have plastic composite shims if you don't want wood.
Then you probably need to anchor the top of the shelf to the wall to prevent tipping. You'll need a spacer to match the thickness of the baseboard trim. A small board works well. Most shelves have a back, so you can simply hold the board behind the shelf then drive a long screw through the back of the shelf, through the spacer board, and into a STUD in the wall. I recently used this exact process at my in-laws to secure a six foot tall bookshelf. Even with a 1/4" plywood back and a single screw, it really stiffened up the shelf and makes it much safer.
When you move, take the screw out, and dab a little spackling paste into the hole. If needed, have some matching paint mixed up and touch up the filled screw holes.
Anthony Watson
In CA it's stupid to NOT anchor to the wall. Don't know where you are.
From memory, the landloard can be culpable for damage to a lessee's property under certain conditions. Therefore, especially if you have a good relationship with the landlord, tell him the problem, ask him for HIS recommended anchor techniques [he might supply them free], and in liu of a response, offer a description of what you're planning on using [you'll be paying for them]
Notice that at no time the discussion follows *if* the anchors will be used, but rather WHICH kind will be used.
I have several sets of shelves with this problem. Even if perfectly level empty, they will sag when most of the weight is on the front (common with books). I don't attach them to a wall. I put something under the front (enough to make the top rear touch the wall).
arrrggg! always think of something AFTER posting.
the shelves are 6 feet high. High enough to be a hazard if they fall over.
We actually had adjacent office to us on a Saturday the lady working by herself opened two dwawers simultaneously on the filing cabinet,[you can see immediately that error] and it fell over on her. We didn't hear her calls for help, and didn't even know what happened until emergency crews showed up to extricate her out from under the weight! She was not badly hurt, more embarrassed.
This ain't rocket science folks. After he levels them with shims, he wants a way to secure them to the wall with as little damage to the walls as pos sible. No one seems to have read that part of his posting.
First, he has to find a stud in the wsall to anchor to, anchoring to the sh eet rock is not very secure. The OP needs to locate the studs using a stud finder or by tapping on the walls and hearing a different sound as he goes over the studs. THen a small drill into the wall will tell him if he has found a stud or not. THen a small screw into the stud through a piece of a ngle bracket shoudl be enough to secure the shelving unless he has a very l arge person who is not too smart and tries to climb up the shelving
I have a habit of doing that with my 3 drawer bench top tool box. The tool box has a latch so you can't open the drawers when the lid is down, but nothing to prevent more than one drawer from being open at the same time.
I forget to close the bottom drawer, then open the top drawer, causing the whole thing to tip forward. It's never crashed to the ground off the workbench, but I've had to catch it a few times before it did.
All of the file cabinets and credenzas at work are set up so that only one drawer can be opened at a time.
all. I have several 6' high sets of shelves, they are made of plastic, wood and metal. If I push the shelves back against the wall, there is a 3" gap between the floor and the front of the shelves. I rent this house so I have to find some way to anchor the top of the shelves to the wall with as little damage as possible.
Or make three inch shims for under the front?
You did note that he needs three inches of shim?
Use 2 2X6 planks for a shim.
h sets of shelves, they are made of plastic, wood and metal. If I push the shelves back against the wall, there is a 3" gap between the floor and the front of the shelves. I rent this house so I have to find some way to ancho r the top of the shelves to the wall with as little damage as possible.
Any livable house would not have floors that sloped 3 inches from the wall to a point maybe 24 inches from the wall. Something is not right here!!!
I'm late to this but I would cut 3 inches off the rear legs. When moved to somewhere level again, cut 3 off the front. :)
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