3m Shelves

[southstand]

I am about to build some floating shelves for my living room. The wall I'm using is 3 metres long and will act as a sort of alcove as one end juts out to form the door frame. It's 20cm deep hence the 8x1s below.

The wall is 3 metres long and I want the shelves to be quite chunky to take the weight of books etc

My current (approx) plan is to use:

Front/Top 8x1 (14m)
Support Battens / Struts 2x1 (14m)
Bottom 8x1 (12m)

My questions are:
What wood should I use to ensure that the shelves are strong, but not overly expensive?
What type of screws should I use for the battens (would 3" number 8's be ok?
How many struts should there be to 'support' the bottoms, given I want 3 metres shelves)

Any advice will be gratefully received!

 

[big-all]

heeellloo southstand and welcome

trying to understand your description

can you support the shelve both ends with battons!!!
you only need 2" 10s assuming its a solid wall, brown plugs and no6.5 or 7 masonary drill, and 20mm timber countersunk by 6mm

i would use 3m scaffold boards [new and unbanded ]or used and sanded if you like the rustic look

would also suggest you support halfway along the run with a piece of scaffold board cut to the length of the gaps between floor and first shelve and screw this throught from the top into the spacer to act like a leg with a skew nail into the floor to hold in place
repeat this process with each shelve

if you have accurately cut the spacers you can use them to mark the line for the battons each end

scaffold boards cost about £1.50 a foot

 

[southstand]

Great advice...couple of questions:

1) Do I only need battens on the sides?
2) Do the 'legs' have to be in one straight line (in middle), or could they be distributed (e.g. one leg in middle from floor to first shelf, then 2 legs on next shelf at 75cm and 225cm points)
3) Anybody know where to get new scaffold boards in Middlesex? Can I get the delivered?

Thanks

 

[big-all]

try phoning your local timber yard ,builders merchants or indeed a scaffold place


how many shelves are you planning!!!!!!
the boards will easily hold a stone a foot but may start to bend if you start loading the weight of several shelves mid span on the bottom

if you could plan the extra supports on the lower shelves may be ok

all depends on loading if its millions of books i would say not advisable for more than one shelve on another

what i would suggest isssss
you fit in the supports exactly where you want them without fixing them in[let gravity and friction hold them in ]

and see what happens when you load it up then observe over several months

but i wouldnt try and move a "support" that has several heavily loaded shelves above it

i dont think youll need support on the back wall with scaffold boards as long as you keep below 5 foot supports

it would also mean any book taller than the gap bellow the batton will be pushed forward by the thickness of the batton