Normally I secure IKEA-type book shelves, e.g. IVAR or Billy, to the wall with a steadying bracket at the top to stop the book shelf from toppling forward. This particular wall, however, appears to have metal pipes or cables running everywhere where I want to drill.
An alternative could be to rub the paint off to bare plaster, then attach a suitable bracket by means of No Nails or similar. Any thoughts on this?
MM
NoNails is good, but not that good. ;-) Someone complained to advertising TV standards about the chair (NoNailed), to the wall advertisment about how the plaster would come away from the wall if a weight was put on the chair, so it got dropped(the Ad that is).
Lo & behold they started adhereing it to the brickwork. lol
-- Sir Benjamin middlethwaite
I have no idea what IVAR or Billy are. Have you been reading Thomas the Tank Engine?
Oh, no, it's Mickey Mouse (sorry!). It can't have pipes or wires everywhere. Why not chip off some plaster, carefully, and when you can see what's what, put your 'ook in, then muck up around it with some polly filler or whatnot? I would not trust a safety feature that depended on something stuck to plaster.
Freestanding book cases.
No - silly! He hasn't put the bookcases up yet.
[Snip]
Some 30-35 years ago, there used to be a glue advert on one of the large hoardings on the A4 around Cromwell/Talgarth Road in London. It was a full sized car supposedly glued up there. I have a vague recollection it might have been Aruldite, but I don't recall for sure.
heh, I agree, a proper fixing would be better. But if the OP does decide to bodgit, I'd suggest a full length wood strip, its less obtrusive than a bracket, and glued all along gives far more strength than one point of glue.
NT
Now that is exactly what I was pondering only an hour ago! Spread the load along a wider bracket, which one won't see because of the books (in this case, lever arch files). After all, this is only intended to be a *steadying* bracket.
MM
It does, though. I ran my pipe/cable detector over the surface and was surprised to see how many "hits" I got over quite a wide area, just where the top of the book case will be. Surprising because there is no electrical outlet or TV/phone point on that wall. It's a brand-new house, so presumably building regs would have been followed. The cable or pipe runs stop about half-way down the wall, but that is too low for a bracket to serve any useful purpose, although I suppose even there it would be better than no bracket at all.
MM
What's the wall construction? Could it be PB over steel? Might there be expanded metal in there?
On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:30:30 +0100, MM scrawled:
Ah, well. I very much doubt that there is actually *any* pipes or wires in the wall it's just that unless you spend £150+ on a pipe and stud detector then they are really just another pointless piece of useless crap to clutter up the place.
Er, yeah, unless you're lashing pipes in in which case it would appear that you can run them wherever you feel like on the day and no-one need ever know until the drill hits them.
Trust me, it doesnt.
Either youre picking up on the wall's steel framing, or the detector is completely useless, or its set wrong.
ha
not at all. It will however need to be fixed twice as strongly for the same effect.
NT
Put a long screw down through the bottom shelf into the floor, at the back of the bookcase.
Owain
Consider the forces involved, and the strength of the bookcase.
I have used my cheapo pipe/cable detector dozens of times and it's well worth having one. But I don't want to risk drilling where there's a "hit", even if the underlying (embedded) "metal" may be a steel plate of some sort. Hence my question about glueing instead.
You don't seem to be being very helpful here! But thanks anyway.
MM
I have now attached a 6" long 2" x 1" strip using No Nails and the book case is now steadied. Oh, and you can't see the strip because it's behind the book case.
MM
Technically the forces on the restraint are zero. What force is the restraint required to react to?
A person falling and grabbing the bookcase is the biggest I can think of. You could stop that by a floor fixing assuming the floor is strong enough.
Any load on the shelves will make the bookcase more stable and it will resist toppling reducing the load on the restraint.
And assuming that the fabric and contruction of the bookshelf is strong enough. Say the fixing is 6" from the front edge of the bookcase, and the bookcase is 6' high - that's a pretty effective lever, and if someone is standing on steps to reach the top shelf and they fall backwards I reckon there's a fair chance that they can pull the fixing through the bottom shelf, or pull the shelf away from the rest of the case.
I didn't consider that, but I guess if you're struggling to reach a high shelf it's probably because the lower shelves are well stocked. But maybe they're being used for display or storage of items less massive than books. :-)
This 'book' case is actually being used for storing lever arch files, of which I have accumulated quite a number over the years. The only person with access to these files is me. Well, and the executor or my estate, perhaps. Hopefully many years hence. Nevertheless, I hate wonky shelves that waver a bit when you try to woggle them to and fro. A steady is not only a safety device (I might be in hospital suddenly and a relative has to reach up to retrieve a particular file, for example), but it gives me peace of mind.
MM
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.