Carpentry, item 03
Custom Shelving and Bookcases, Built to Span Without Sagging
Store-bought shelving bows under real weight because it's built to a standard length, not your wall. The Renaissance Handyman sizes shelf thickness and support spacing to the actual span, scribes every built-in tight to a wall that isn't straight, and mounts TVs and art to fixings rated for the real load.
Chapter 01
Span and sag
A shelf that bows in the middle almost always got there through simple arithmetic nobody did first: too much span for too little thickness, or supports set too far apart for what's actually going to sit on it. Store-bought shelving is built to a standard length and a guessed load, which is exactly why it bows and a built-in does not.
We size the shelf thickness and the support spacing to the real span and the real load before any material gets cut. Books and glassware ask more of a shelf than a row of picture frames does.
Painted door casing and baseboard trim beside a window with soft natural light
Scribing to the wall
Almost no wall in an older home runs perfectly flat, so a built-in that's cut square and pushed against it leaves a gap you can see daylight through at one end. Scribing means cutting the back edge of the piece to follow the actual contour of the wall, so the line stays tight from corner to corner instead of tight at one end and open at the other.
Load-rated fixing for TV mounts and art
TV wall mounts and fine art installations are both on the list, and both live or die on what's holding the weight, stud, blocking, or a toggle fixing sized to the real load rather than whatever anchor happened to be in the drawer. We pick the fixing to match the actual weight going on the wall, every time.
After the first heating season
Wood shelving and cabinetry move a little as a house goes through its first full heating season, drying indoor air in ways that can loosen a fixing or shift a reveal by a hair. We're glad to come back and re-tighten anything that's moved once that first season has passed.
The Renaissance Handyman. Free estimates, over 20 years of experience. Call 203-278-7858.