Shelving For DVD’s

[Garrett]

I’m thinking of putting some shelving up for my DVD’s. I need help on two things.
One: the wall I’m putting it on is plasterboard, how do you miss hitting (drilling) one of the upright beams that they are nailed on, without striping the wall paper off.
Two: what’s the cheapest place to get some brackets that look a bit decent the ones I have seen are ether cheap and cheap looking, or half decent and cost about £5 a time.

[Flimber]

1. Joist/Stud detector. £13.99 from Screwfix.

2. If you don't mind plain pine shelving (or you could paint/varnish it later), Focus DIY do a four pack of two long and two short shelves with screw-on bookends and 'hidden' fixings, so no bracketry anywhere. May not be what you want but thought I'd mention it. They're £3.99 per pack (of four) and fit CD's, DVD perfectly.

Mike.

[slingshot]

Originally posted by Garrett
One: the wall I’m putting it on is plasterboard, how do you miss hitting (drilling) one of the upright beams that they are nailed on, without striping the wall paper off.

As above get a stud detector and if you can attach the shelves to the studs rather than trying to use plasterboard plugs. It'll be a lot more solid.

[James45]

yep I'd advice using the studs rather than the plasterboard itself as well. you can get some very ingenious and sturdy screw-in solutions for plasterboard but they are only as strong as the plasterboard they are attached too, which at its best ain't great.

[bh]

How to miss the studs...tap along the wall and you'll hear the sound change as you tap over the solid surface.

As for fixings, Rawl cavity fixings are very reliable (no exploding drill holes in the plaster).

http://www.rawl.co.uk/rawlplug/rawlp...t?OpenDocument

Don't feel constrained in the positioning of shelves due to the seeming weakness of plasterboard. Good fixings spread the weight very effectively. My kitchen wall has a vertical pan rack holding 5 heavy duty pans and its safe as your proverbial houses.

Forget missing the 'uprights' they are where you want to put your fixings, it will be a lot more 'solid' than relying on rawl/plaster fixings which will over time loosen up especially if you've got kids. You could use a detector but a series of 'taps' will be enough to locate the studwork.
Lastly if it goes wrong you can always blame B&Q, Hombase etc if it collapses!

[BigAde]

Just to reaffirm what's already been said...

Screwing into the studs is the best solution, since it gives the best support for the load. But having said that I have used the rawl plugs that bh gives in his link dozens of times all over my house. The are the best, most heavy-duty plasterboard fixings available and I swear by them. As long as you're sensible and you use a sufficient number to spread the load, you'll be fine. I've used them for my wall-mounted kitchen cupboards, a bookcase packed with VERY heavy books and various other things. No problems at all, plus they give the ultimate flexibility with where you place your shelf... i.e. you're not constrained with where the stud work is.

Besides, compared with books, DVDs aren't that heavy, so you should be able to use whatever method suits you best.

[RimBlock]

I have two shelves on a plasterboard wall.

The shelves are supported by two uprights which are screwed to the wall via 4 rawl fixings. As you screw into them they open like an umbrella behind the plasterboard to grip and spread the load.

The two shelves support books and around 50 records without a problem. The shelves are around 3ft long.

Due to the weight to size ratio of DVD's I do not think you will have any problem with fixing to anywhere on the wall (to studs or plan plasterboard).

If you were putting something like power amps onto a plasterboard wall then attaching to the stud work would be the best way to go but for dvd's don't worry about the plasterboard being able to support them (unless you are going to pile them in one upright column).

Info on fitting (spur) shelving here. These are the same 'type' of shelves I use but mine are wooden rather than metal.

You can get most of the different fixings from screwfix direct here.

Hope this helps.

RB

[marky_h]

In my old house, I had five 8' long Contiboard () shelves, supported on 5 racking uprights fixed onto a plasterboard wall, with the 'umbrella' type fixings. I had my entire video collection (300+) and most of my CD's (200+) on there without any problems.

M

[BigTone]

Dot and Dab warning :-!!!

If your house is new then the plasterbaord will not be set on wooden studs but the pb will be stuck onto the wall (which will in turn most likely be a block wall).

If you do have studs, then they will be set 18 inches apart, and you'll also find noggings (horizontal bracing for the vertical studs) set at approx 4 foot from the floor, i.e. the height at which you pb is fixed as most boards are 8 by 4 foot.

So if you have no studs and you need a heavy weight fixing, then you need to use a fastening that is designed to pass throught the pb and into the block wall. I've used these and they are great (bought from screwfix), but if you only need light weight fixings i have used the ploytoggles (and for shelving the polytoggles are unbeatable, again bought from screwfix).

Your CD's and DVD's never feel heavy wun till you get 100 or so of them together :-)

Methinks I've done to much diy

Tone

[Garrett]

Update

I went in the loft, and over the wall I found where the wooden vertical supports where for the plasterboard. I could use one for a couple of shelf supports.
To see if a screw would go in I used a very fine nail then removed it and used the screws. But on the other end I had to use some heavyweight Interset Plasterboard Fixing that open up something like a double umbrella.

Thanks you all for the tips and help.

[shodan]

Originally posted by Flimber

2. If you don't mind plain pine shelving (or you could paint/varnish it later), Focus DIY do a four pack of two long and two short shelves with screw-on bookends and 'hidden' fixings, so no bracketry anywhere. May not be what you want but thought I'd mention it. They're £3.99 per pack (of four) and fit CD's, DVD perfectly.

Mike.

In my experience of these (Bought a couple of packs two weeks ago for putting DVD's on...), they are cheap and nasty. They are easy to work with and look ok on the wall (ish) but out of my two packs I bought, two of them split!!! In each pack, one of the brackets which screw into the wall, just split in half. VERY annoying because although I could keep the shelf for any use I'd like, it means I have 1 bracket which I can't do anything with until I get more of these shelves and they break until I eventually have a full set again!!!!

There air was blue in my part of the world...

[Flimber]

Shodan, when I bought mine I picked the packs very carefully; it was obvious some were better than others ~(as well as different colours !). Sorry to hear you had a poor couple - hope it wasn't just on my 'recommendation'. You can always take 'em back, Focus are great for returns - but they were only £3.99/pr after all.

Mike.

[shodan]

Flimber, it's all your fault! Hee hee
I'd seen them in there ages ago and remembered them... I too had a good look through and thought I'd got a good couple.

I didn't take them back as the service I received from the staff at the store was abismal! I queued for nearly 10 minutes whilst 4 of the toerags stood around eating and chatting. I was fuming at them so I decided not to go back and complain. Go another shelf a week later and it is up on the wall holding my DVD's. at last!

[Dronach]

I've found that the best way to put up shelving has been watching the rugby all afternoon. I'll explain. I ought my wife the gift of a circular saw and some wood. She's just spent all afternoon building the CD/DVD shelves (not quite finished, she'll need to get on the job tomorrow)

However, they've been built in an alcove, so she's used wooden uprights on the sides with shelving screwed to the uprights to make the stength. They're looking really good so far.