Advice needed: best shelving method for heavy books in an alcove (70s flat, solid brick behind old plaster)

[daveshorty]

I want to put up shelves to hold mainly books including quite a few heavy coffee-table/photography books. The walls are original to the flat (1970s), so it's old, somewhat crumbly plaster over solid brick.

I'm trying to figure out the best fixing method before I commit to anything, and I'd like the shelves to have a good safety margin.


Options I've been considering so far:

• Twin-slot shelving system (uprights + brackets) fixed to the back wall
• Timber battens on the back and two side walls of the alcove, with the shelf resting on top
• A combination: twin-slot at the back, with side battens to help take some of the load
• Using brackets on sides and back

Questions:

• For a deep-ish shelf carrying heavy books, is twin-slot alone strong enough, or would you avoid relying on it given the plaster condition?
• Would you go with any battens instead, or as well?
• Any recommendations on fixings that get a good purchase into brick through old/crumbly plaster (as opposed to just relying on the plaster itself)?

Photo of the alcove is attached for reference. Appreciate any input from people who've done similar builds.

 

[Lower]

Battens and conventional rawl plugs into the brick would be my choice.

 

[stevie888]

Simple battens will be far and away the strongest and have the advantage that you can shift fixing location if you drill into a bit of soft material.

 

[jj4091]

Buy one or two scaffold planks from your local builders merchants and cut them up to rest on battens. They make excellent strong shelves

 

[endecotp]

How wide is the alcove?

Crumbly plaster is avoidable with long enough screws.

How likely are you to want to adjust the shelf positions later?

You also have the option of support only at the sides, which is how most bookcases work. Search for “Altro bookcase strip” for one solution. Use the “sagulator” to work out how much the shelves would sag without battens along the back.

 

[Koolpc]

Battens every time...

 

[opps]

How wide is the alcove?

Crumbly plaster is avoidable with long enough screws.

How likely are you to want to adjust the shelf positions later?

You also have the option of support only at the sides, which is how most bookcases work. Search for “Altro bookcase strip” for one solution. Use the “sagulator” to work out how much the shelves would sag without battens along the back.

If the OP goes for tonk strips (eg Altro), they will need the raised version- the flat version is designed to be routed into sheet materials.

To be honest, from memory we used either 3.5mm or was it 3.0mm screws? Given that the OP wants to fix into the bricks they will need 5mm or 4.0-4.5mm screws. I don't think there is any chance of the screw sitting in the countersunk hole. That might not be a deal breaker though.

The advantage of such systems is that the shelves can be turned over when they start to bow. If the OP goes down that path, I would recommend a total of 5 tonk strips, 2 each left and right and one at the back. A downside is that there will be gap at the back of each shelf.

A friend of mine was a cabinet maker- at his own home, he would scribe in 25mm MDF shelves to alcoves. He would then drill two screw holes for either end (in the wall) and one in the middle of the shelf. He would then rest the shelf on the screws and mark their positions. Then he would use a router to make slots on the underside to hide the screws when the shelf is lowered down. The slots would then be filled with two pack filler.

They looked like floating shelves rather than shelves on batons.

It worked well. I have done the same thing, and if you find one of the 5*70mm screws is a little high, you can tap it down with a hammer. If a couple are a little low, once you push in the 2 pack filler, it will fill the gap above the screw head.