A DIY Challenge - raising IKEA units to top of wall

masculinist

The stairs in my home form the core of the building.

The walls encircling the stairs are made of strong solid blocks.

For many years the lower half of these walls have held photos and paintings and it was often thought that the walls up to the ceiling were a waste of space suited to some sort of built in shelves like a fancy library in Trinity College etc with a ladder.
Custom jobs are expensive and complicated so it was always a plan put on the back burner for some unspecified future date until I was hit by an idea.
to buy an already made bookshelf and re-purpose it by raising it and securely bolting it to the wall. In my favor the walls are strong, solid and capable of holding huge loads.

Attached is a typical photo of my chosen bookshelf, the Kallax Ikea unit. It is more of a multipurpose unit than a bookshelf.
Cabinet doors or drawer inserts can be purchased for the cubby holes or 'squares' as well as regular boxes.


So now comes the practical part. I have the unit. I have my eye on Rawl bolts and some similar brand called Molly. I also identified some industrial brackets which can apparently hold 150kg each.

I am considering the idea that these units are designed to support weight from the ground up while sitting on the ground therefore support from the base is absolutely crucial , as opposed to supporting each level as a separate shelf. And of course there has to be a smaller bracket holding it into the wall.

Any thoughts about this ? About the number, location and type of bracket and bolts ? I am concerned about shearing , static and bending moment forces on the shelves and particular parts of the unit.
Or about whether I should attach it to the wall in parts or raise it al in one piece ?

This is for me an exciting project if I can pull it off as it will create huge amounts of storage out of what used to be empty walls.

There are two main walls around the stairwell where they can go without looking bad so I will have at least two of these. I cant seem to think of any way to join them at the corners which would look nice so I may just have one centred on each wall. If anyone can think of an idea please let me know. Or has any comments at all on this. Safety is the number one priority. Maybe it would be safer to attach flat plates at any location where bolts go through in order to spread the pressures ? Once this goes up it will be up there practically forever.

whizbang

All you need is a length of 2 x 4 fixed to the wall under the unit, 3 off M8 rawlbolts will take all the weight.

I would probably put 4 metal angle brackets screwed onto the side panels, into the wall with size 8 plastic plugs.
something like these

slimjimmc

Ikea tend to use hollow core panels in a lot of their furniture. These panels are basically a wooden frame sandwiched between two thin sheets of board. The top, bottom and both sides of that unit seem to be made from this type of panel so make sure you fix any brackets into the solid areas of these panels rather than into the cavities. You should be able to tell by tapping the board in various places and listening for where it sounds hollow or solid.

masculinist

Cheers for the responses. I have one of those units picked up from bargain corner at half price. It was scratched on the bottom panel where it touched the floor but since the whole thing is symmetrical , I will have the scratched part touching or facing the ceiling where nobody could see it except with great difficulty even if they got onto a ladder.

whizbang wrote: »

All you need is a length of 2 x 4 fixed to the wall under the unit, 3 off M8 rawlbolts will take all the weight.

Do you mean to erect a shelf and then sit the unit on top or do you mean to fix this 2x4 along the plane of the wall like fixing a baton onto the wall , not projecting out the same way a shelf would ?

My concern about this would be about any bending moment on the lower beam projecting out from the wall and whether the materials could deform over time under a load. It was originally designed to support its loads from the ground up over the whole base.

This is the thing here with its dimensions

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10275862/#/20305745

whizbang wrote: »

I would probably put 4 metal angle brackets screwed onto the side panels, into the wall with size 8 plastic plugs.
something like these

I have an unused pack of angle brackets purchased in Lidl about 6 years ago. I was going to use them to repair some chairs at the time but ended up just getting new chairs. Finally my compulsive tool buying and hoarding will pay off

I suppose it would be silly to use stronger connections to the wall than go into the panels themselves but I feel averse to using any plastic plugs in the wall for this case. I saw some product similar to metal Rawl bolts called Molly which is pretty cheap for a pack of ten so I may go with those. Is anyone familiar with that brand ?
I managed to plead for and get at customer services 2 brackets from Ikea which don't ordinarily come with the unit and which cant be bought separately from them.

slimjimmc wrote: »

Ikea tend to use hollow core panels in a lot of their furniture. These panels are basically a wooden frame sandwiched between two thin sheets of board. The top, bottom and both sides of that unit seem to be made from this type of panel so make sure you fix any brackets into the solid areas of these panels rather than into the cavities. You should be able to tell by tapping the board in various places and listening for where it sounds hollow or solid.

This unit has some hollow core panels but still appears very sturdy. I consoled myself with the notion that at least it may be less heavy as a result. I notice that Ikea supplied some sort of special blunt screw with the wall brackets I managed to which appears to be good at gripping that sort of thing. I need to investigate if those screws are any good for this and if they can be purchased elsewhere since Ikea dont sell them separately.




Any further thoughts about this ? I would rush into many a project and worry about small details later but considering the height of this and the loads involved I need to consider every possible consequence very carefully for everyone using the stairs. A heavy book slipping off a shelf from a great height from a unit which becomes non level under its self weight could injure or worse.

hognef

If these, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_(fastener), are the ones your looking at, then they certainly work. While Rawlplug might be more common in this country, Molly plugs are used a lot in Scandinavia. I presume you're attaching to a hollow-core (plaster-boarded) wall? If not, these won't be much good to you.

dodzy

hognef wrote: »

If these, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_(fastener), are the ones your looking at, then they certainly work. While Rawlplug might be more common in this country, Molly plugs are used a lot in Scandinavia. I presume you're attaching to a hollow-core (plaster-boarded) wall? If not, these won't be much good to you.

Read the OP. The unit is going onto a solid wall, so the expanding fittings will not work here.

OP, as previously suggested. Get a length of 3x2 or 4x2 just slightly shorter than the unit width. Bolt this to the wall and then sit your unit onto it. All that remains is for you to put up 3 L brackets ( top left, right and centre ) to sit discreetly under the top panel of the unit. a few self tappers drilled from the underside and you're done.

Dont over-complicate this. The unit will me more than capable of holding the decorative type stuff / books / whatever you intend to display. The wood underneath will carry the shear weight without issue. The brackets up top will only serve to keep the unit flush with the wall, carrying virtually ZERO weight.

hognef

dodzy wrote: »

Read the OP. The unit is going onto a solid wall, so the expanding fittings will not work here.

I did. It mentioned a solid wall and molly plugs (a mismatch, indeed, due to the expandability - - unless there are others by the same name). Nobody had yet commented on the feasibility of using one with the other. Which is why I responded, and, in the process, tried to clarify. I explicitly stated that the two wouldn't work together.

Only trying to help.

whizbang

Having had a quick look at some of these units, I definitely would have another look at screwing into the side panels.
maybe use a nut/bolt through.

sort of special blunt screw

These are known as chipboard screws. Drill the hole first.

I would defo use the side panels to screw to the wall, and also make sure the batten supports the side panels also.

The fasteners you are looking for are often called sleeve anchors. They come in a huge variety of sizes, and are more reliable- I like to use these also in place of plastic plugs, but they do need a good material core, and the correct drill bit.

masculinist

Thanks for all the support. I just got some tiling jobs out of the way. I retiled and resealed my leaky bathroom which had been bothering my for years.

I also had a big stack of nice tiles from God knows where at the back of my garden shed taking up a lot of space for years which I couldnt bring myself to throw out. I finally bit the bullet to eliminate this clutter by using them to tile under my stairs and a storage room. I am very pleased with the end result.
Interestingly [or not] , engraved on the back of each tile is the words ''West Germany 1984'' .

Yes. I saw 'Molly' in Woodies and on some of the packs there was a rating in Kiliograms. The wall is very much solid and concrete blocks thankfully.

I think the description ''sleeve anchors'' applies to these. These look mostly identical to the Rawlbolts I used previously to hang a swiveling bracket with a heavy television on the end , [and a much smaller unit] onto a solid wall. So I have experience with that sort of bolts and have been very satisfied with them.

I can picture the idea of the 2 by 4 securely bolted to the wall under the unit. And I can see very well that this sort of arrangement would give fantastic grip if the wood is orientated flat against the wall. And that supporting wood in this orientation would not suffer from anything but negligible bending moments.
Are you all in agreement that this 2 by 4 [or similar size] is bolted flat against the wall instead of like a regular shelf at right angles ?

I imagine putting a very strong shelf up for the unit to sit on is also another theoretical possibility. It would be adding extra weight to the supports but if 150 Kg rated industrial brackets and sleeve anchors similarly rated are used in combination then this seems do-able too.