How much weight can a partition wall take?

[noobiediyer]

I'm planning the layout for a new utility room. There's a couple of items I'd like to fix to the wall inside the utility room but due to layout constraints, I can only put them on a stud partition wall.

The wall is about 230cm wide and about 240cm high. In the centre of the wall (but standing on the floor) is a washing machine. A small gap above this, I'd like to mount a shelf on the stud wall to then put a tumble dryer on it. I'm not sure of the weight but I would guess around 40 to 50kg. After another small gap above the tumble dryer, I'd like to mount a small 9U server rack. This would be mounted directly on the wall. I'm guessing the server rack empty is around 20 to 25kg. The rack is rated up to a maximum of 90kg but I'm likely to have far less than that as I'll have some networking kit in there, a couple of routers/modems, some other small network devices. My best guess is around 30 to 35kg with all the stuff I want in it. I guess depth of the items are also important as the deeper they are the more of a pivot they'll be against where they are mounted. Tumble dryer is about 65cm deep and the server rack is about 60cm deep. There is also going to be a gas system boiler along with all it's piping on the partition wall, but I'm not sure how much this weighs. I would guess around 35kg.

To summarise:

1. Tumble dryer on shelf - 40 to 50kg
2. Server rack mounted to wall - up to 35kg
3. Gas system boiler - approx 35kg

So my questions are:

1. Can a typical stud wall take this kind of load?
2. If not, can stud wall be built in a way to be re-enforced so it can take that load? (partition wall has not been fully built, still has exposed timber frame)?
3. Is there anything else I should consider or be aware of from now?

Thanks in advance

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Depends what your stud wall is made of & how and where itsfixed to the floor/walls/ceiling.

Word of warning- the drier on a shelf fixed to stud wall will be very noisy-the wall will resonate effectively amplifying any noises from the dryer.

Mechanically, you'll be much better off with legs supporting the front of the shelf (or chipboard sides would do just as well), the loads will then be vertical & 2 x 2 or greater studs will carry them no probs.

Server rack- not sure i'd put it in a high humidity area but your funeral. Again, can the sides be fixed to the ceiling at the front (maybe just continue your chipboard sides above the drier).

EDIT Forgot about the boiler. Again you may get noise issues, 3 x 2 or greater studs will be fine. Consider sheeting the stud with 18mm ply or OSB ( to stiffen it up- downside is you may make the noises worse). Fill the wall with noise insulation slabs

 

[johnny2007]

Tumble drier is 600+mm deep, so no shelf will support it.
The stud wall can be as strong as you want, but the fixing will be pulled out of it by the weight.
You have 2 options:
1. Stacking kit, cheap enough online
2. Build a "table" from the floor wider than the washing machine so it can be pulled out. The floor will take the weight.

 

[noobiediyer]

Tumble drier is 600+mm deep, so no shelf will support it.
The stud wall can be as strong as you want, but the fixing will be pulled out of it by the weight.
You have 2 options:
1. Stacking kit, cheap enough online
2. Build a "table" from the floor wider than the washing machine so it can be pulled out. The floor will take the weight.

I'd never heard of a stacking kit, just did a look online and I can see that it would take care of the washing machine and tumble dryer stack.

Any ideas on how to manager the server rack?

 

[^woody^]

A single wall unit, and food can be 30-40kg. They get hung on partition walls, several of them.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

That will be an awful lot of weight and all on one side of the wall, I would suggest it would be OK if there were a similar amount of weight on the other side to counterbalance it. Another approach would be legs down to the floor, or perhaps some suspension method from the ceiling taking some of the loads.

I agree with it being too moist an atmosphere for a server rack and the likely vibration/ noise issues.

 

[noobiediyer]

A single wall unit, and food can be 30-40kg. They get hung on partition walls, several of them.

I guess the difference is, a wall unit isn't as deep. The server rack is 600mm deep so this would create more of a pivot force than a wall unit.

 

[noobiediyer]

That will be an awful lot of weight and all on one side of the wall, I would suggest it would be OK if there were a similar amount of weight on the other side to counterbalance it. Another approach would be legs down to the floor, or perhaps some suspension method from the ceiling taking some of the loads.

I agree with it being too moist an atmosphere for a server rack and the likely vibration/ noise issues.

But there won't be any servers in the rack. Most of the devices won't even have any moving parts e.g. patch panels, network switches, Virgin Media hub. I think the only thing with moving parts is the hard drive in a single drive NAS (network attached storage). Most of these devices are quite a bit less sensitive than a typical computer/server.

 

[JP_]

Why not build a shelf rack out of timber? Something like this, with another shelf on top

 

[JohnD]

Any ideas on how to manager the server rack?

stand it on the floor.

 

[^woody^]

I guess the difference is, a wall unit isn't as deep. The server rack is 600mm deep so this would create more of a pivot force than a wall unit.

No, loads are almost all vertical always.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

No, loads are almost all vertical always.

The deeper the load placed on the wall, the greater the leverage on that wall. 30kg at one foot out, will exert a leverage of 60kg at two feet out from the wall.

 

[noobiediyer]

Why not build a shelf rack out of timber? Something like this, with another shelf on top

That's not a bad shout, I could use a stacking kit for the dryer on the washing machine. But for the server rack, I could build a shelf that goes directly from the floor to the top of the dryer for the server rack. Server rack could still be wall mounted but the shelf would take the bulk of the load.

 

[JohnD]

Server rack could still be wall mounted but the shelf would take the bulk of the load.

or the floor.

 

[Alec_t]

The deeper the load placed on the wall, the greater the leverage on that wall. 30kg at one foot out, will exert a leverage of 60kg at two feet out from the wall.

15kg leverage at two feet out.