Floating shelves full of books - good/bad idea, good/bad system?

[StephenStephen]

Hi all,

I need to put up some bookshelves, and would ideally like to use floating shelves. I've not used a floating shelf system before.
It's a new plasterboard wall, I've studs to fix into - It's the wall above the radiator, to the right of the door.
Books are mainly paperbacks - penguin size (if you see what I mean!)

What I'm wondering though, is whether filling floating shelves with lots of books is realistic?
If so - any recommendations on makes/systems?

Thanks for your thoughts - Stephen

 

[Nozzle]

If I were doing that, I'd fabricate some steel brackets in advance, use threaded rods and nuts welded to a bracket. Screw the bracket to the side of your studs screw in the threaded rod, fit the plastboard with a hole around the threaded rod and do from there. Studs taking all the load, plasterboard taking none. You could perhaps use threaded inserts and a setting tool in the plasterboard but I don't like your chances. Or find a fitting that is "screw thread" on one end, "machine screw" on the other end. Double back some nuts to screw it straight into the stud, then removed the double backed nuts leaving you a good strong fixing for your shelves.

Nozzle

 

[StephenStephen]

Thanks - sorry I was a bit unclear - the plasterboard is already up and finished!

 

[foxhole]

Shame , you could have backed the plasterboard with ply and had a secure fix, plasterboard alone is not suitable for ''floating shelves''.

 

[StephenStephen]

I'm assuming that the floating shelf fixings would go through the plasterboard into the studs, so the studs would be doing the work - am I missing something here about how they work?