How much weight do you think these would hold?

ChristopherLutz · Jun 27, 2010

All - looking to build some cabinets in the garage, came across these in the Family Handyman mag:

http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Home-Organization/Garage-Storage/installing-large-garage-cabinets

I like the look and the install seems pretty easy (relatively speaking).

I'm concerned about how much weight they would be able to hold given the 2x2 framing?

Thoughts?

Is there something I could do to improve the structure to accept more weight?

I plan to try and do something like this across a significant section of my garage wall...guessing about 3 feet deep, 4 feet high?

Thoughts welcome, don't want to have design flaws from the very beginning.

e-tek · Jun 27, 2010

I'd say under 150 lbs for 2x2 construction and plus 400 pounds for 2x4. 'Course itdepends on your wall anchors too. Issue with 2x2 is also the ability for them to hold the screws used - not much meat there.

I'm in the midest of building a tree house addition and made the walls of 2x2 to save room - but they don't have to hold much weight!

ddawg16 · Jun 27, 2010

The key to the strength is how it's attached to the wall....

The plywood sides make it extreemly strong as far as shear stress goes.....the two major points of attachment strenght are at the bottom and top.

The bottom is what carries the majority of the weight. When I make my cabinets I always have a good support board that goes across and is securely attached to the sides.

On the top, that board is what keeps the top from pulling away from the wall...so it needs to be attached in such a way as to not let the sides pull away from it.

Here is a shot of one of the upper cabinets I made for my garage.....see the rear board going across the back? That is not intended to hold weight....just keep the top from pulling away from the wall.

What you can't see is the strip at the bottom....it carries the brunt of the weight....I have it attached to the sides and bottom shelf....

When I attach them I also screw in a bracket on the front top to the ceiling......with real wood I would not bother...but I used melamine....so I wanted a bit extra hold....

I feel these are strong enough that it would hold my weight.

ddawg16 · Jun 27, 2010

E-Tek....you are going to put a roof on that...right?

And you should have used a tublar slide.....that way it would keep the snow out in the winter time.....

This is what I made for my kids.....I used redwood....that stuff is expensive....but not very strong....

1984GMC · Jun 27, 2010

Tree houses belong in trees.

ddawg16 · Jun 27, 2010

1984GMC said:
Tree houses belong in trees.

Yep....I agree.....but these are not tree houses.....they are play areas for kids.....in my case, we call it "The Fort". If it was in a tree, we would call it "The Tree Fort".

Jack Olsen · Jun 27, 2010

Like ddawg16 says, the key to the whole thing is how you attach the verticals to the wall and then how you attach the shelves to the verticals (and also to the wall. You wouldn't need much more than 1x2s for the framing and you could put yourself inside the cabinets without an issue. But everything has to have strong ties back to the studs.

And then, on the 'play fort' sidetrack... well, some of us don't have trees (or very much lawn space):

nate379 · Jun 27, 2010

Not sure what I would have done as a kid if I didn't have at least a few acres to roam around on. Well I guess get obese playing Nintendo games I suppose?

overkill 19 · Jun 27, 2010

e-tek said:
I'd say under 150 lbs for 2x2 construction and plus 400 pounds for 2x4. 'Course itdepends on your wall anchors too. Issue with 2x2 is also the ability for them to hold the screws used - not much meat there.

I'm in the midest of building a tree house addition and made the walls of 2x2 to save room - but they don't have to hold much weight!

Great play house. Whats up with all the wires running all over?

mmhouse · Jun 27, 2010

When I attach a cabinet to the wall that will carry significant weight I typically screw a solid ledger board to the wall and set the cabinet on the ledger. Then the bottom attachment is just keeping the bottom from kicking out, the weight is supported by the ledger. It also makes the cabinet much easier to install. As someone else stated, the connection to the wall at the top is also very important to keep it from pulling out.

onewaydave · Jun 28, 2010

Diagonal brace under, back to the studs. Shelf brackets under, box stores have industrial sized ones.

Dave.

brownfoot · Jun 28, 2010

the 2x2's are just cleats attached to the 3/4 plywood to allow it to be lag bolted to the wall, should be able to hold anything you could lift to put in the cabinet
the weakest part of the connection is screwing the ply to the 2x's that are attached to the wall

Kevin54 · Jun 28, 2010

It was either that cabinet design or ones similar to them that were a little larger (maybe in the Garage magazine that was out a while back) that showed a couple of people standing in them. The key to supporting the weight is how the joints are made and fastened together. If you just nail a bottom to a wooden box it will not support nearly the weight as it would when the bottom is fastened into all four sides

kbs2244 · Jun 28, 2010

If you just make them 12 inches deep that will keep you from overloading them.

Wingnut65 · Jun 29, 2010

Thanks ChristopherLutz for posting this project. I have been looking for economical 42" tall cabinets to buy without much luck. This seems to be a great solution. I only need them 12" wide because I park cars next to them and this also solves my concern of swing doors hitting the car. Now that I think of it, I have seen at least one garage here with similar cabinets with sliding doors.

I agree with the others that the 3/4" plywood carries the dead loads and the 2x2's are cleats to hold the ply to the wall. I will go with screwing the plywood to the 2x's at 6" on center max.

28HopUp · Jun 29, 2010

mmhouse said:
When I attach a cabinet to the wall that will carry significant weight I typically screw a solid ledger board to the wall and set the cabinet on the ledger. Then the bottom attachment is just keeping the bottom from kicking out, the weight is supported by the ledger.

I'll echo this as well. Mounting a solid ledger to place the cabinets on will help with installation, keep them straight, and should assist with distributing the load weight.

How much weight do you think these would hold?

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