If you’re someone who’s lucky enough to get their hands on some metal storage shelving, yet you don’t want them to simply stand on the ground, you do have the option to hang them. However, the best way to hang the shelves is to use the French cleat method.
The cleat is something that will have to be fabricated by a welder who is in your area of residence, and it’s something that also consists of two different pieces of metal. One of the pieces is a strip that will be almost as wide as your shelves. This specific piece will be welded to the top rear edge of the actual shelves. The second piece is one that will be bolted to the wall, and it also has a slight outward bend towards the top of the strip itself. The slant will only need to be about ¼ of an inch, and the metal strip located on the back of shelves is designed to slide down behind the slanted piece of metal. This will cause the two to interlock, making it impossible for the shelves to either tip out or slide down from the wall, provided the metal strip on the wall is bolted securely to the wall studs.
Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to use lag bolts, which are essentially giant screws. However, the big issue with these is that they can lose a lot of holding power in the event the pilot hole is too large or if the bolt ends up getting overtightened.
Through bolts usually require more work; however, these types of bolts also hold a lot better. They contain both nuts and washers at the end of them which will pass into the finished wall behind the shelves. The most common way to attach a French cleat wall strip is by passing the bolts through solid blocking securely installed between the wall studs. In order to do this, you will need to first have access to the back of the wall in order to tighten the nuts onto the bolts themselves. This is something that requires a lot of planning due to the fact that the drywall located on the other side of the room cannot be finished until the rack itself is installed.
If a French cleat is something that you aren’t able to do, you may be able to bolt your shelves to the wall through metal that’s part of the outer frame of the shelving unit itself. Lag bolts may work best with this method.
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