[amyhunter]

Hi! I'm a new member with a question I wasn't sure where to put.


I am working on putting up bookshelves on an interior wall of my apartment.

Here are the facts:
1. building is 30 years old
2. Here is stud pattern: one at corner, the next 16", then 24" apart
3. My shelf is 8.5' long. It starts at the corner hitting the first stud, the 2nd stud 16" further, the next stud 24" further, next 24" out, next 24" out, ends another 14" with anchors in the sheetrock - so a total of 102" or 8.5'. It is anchored into 4 studs with the last 14" mollytogged into the sheet rock.
4. I'm using 6" red oak boards for the shelving.
5. I hoped to get 8 shelves.
6. Shelves are meant to hold books, which I realize are going to be very heavy.
7. I have no specifics on the studs, i.e., what are they made of, how wide, etc. It's an apartment building so I'm assuming cheapest design possible.


Two pictures are included to show what I'm using for materials.


Question: Will the weight of the books pull the shelves out of the wall creating a horrible, expensive mess? Is this a terrible idea? How much weight will each shelf hold and how much weight will the wall hold?


Thank you, in advance, for any helpful information!!

 

[Windows on Wash]

If you are picking up studs, those can hold a good bit of weight. You can see at Home Depot what they are rated for and they haven't changed style or specs in quite a while.

 

[lenaitch]

Do you know for certain they are wooden studs? You could possibly pull an outlet cover off and see if you can tell. If they are wood, as WoW says, so long as you are hitting them the shelves should be well anchored. Use every mounting hole.

 

[ron45]

Do you know for certain they are wooden studs? You could possibly pull an outlet cover off and see if you can tell. If they are wood, as WoW says, so long as you are hitting them the shelves should be well anchored. Use every mounting hole.

It does appear to be an apartment so check for metal studs.

 

[Domo]

You do have permission from your landlord, Right?

 

[amyhunter]

Ummm......no. Didn't think of that. The lease says I can use nails to hang anything up. The only restriction is on not using the 3m hangers because they will tear off a layer of the sheetrock (I've had it happen to me!).

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Evidently there are wood studs being the restriction is for nails only. If I were doing this I'd use - 10d Common nails - but locate the center of the studs to the best of my ability. Then to drive the nails into 30 year old studs i'd probably pre-drill with a 1/32" twist drill bit for starters and may need to increase that bit diameter to 1/16" depending the first attempts at driving a nail into those old studs. Being the brackets are probably made for counter sink flat head screws you may need a pin pinch or other blunt object to set the nails fully into the counter sink hole.