Garage shelf design question

[Rat407]

OK, I'm looking at putting up some shelves in our garage for all my wife storage bins full of holiday decorations, ie Christmas, Halloween, Easter. I was wanting to do something clean looking and different.

The space I was going to use is the part above the garage door. I have a 10' ceiling so all that across the 16' door is a good choice. I want to come out 2' from the wall and I will be down 29" from the ceiling. I looked all over Youtube and Pinterest. What I was wanting to do and like the way it looks is use black pipe for the supports. Basically come out from the wall 2' at each stud and on the end do the same but do a loop. Basically, come out from the wall up high 2' then down the 29" to the bottom support. Kind of like this picture.

My question is how much weight do you think it would hold since it is going to be a side load on the pipe threads and not a vertical load?

For the shelf I was going to use 3/4" plywood. I could just rip the 4'x8' sheet in half.

<div><a rel='follow' href='https://www.houzz.com/products/danya-b-industrial-pipe-wall-shelf-prvw-vr~103719801' target='_blank'><img src='https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/3be1425c09de5854_3-2423/industrial-display-and-wall-shelves.jpg' alt='Danya B. Industrial Pipe Wall Shelf' border=0 width='320' height='154' nopin='nopin' ondragstart='return false;' onselectstart='return false;' oncontextmenu='return false;'/></a></div><div style='color:#444;'><small><a style="text-decoration:none;color:#444;" href="https://www.houzz.com/products/display-and-wall-shelves" target="_blank">Purchase display and wall shelves on Houzz</a></small></div>

 

[rok_hunter]

I've got one of the kits bought off Amazon similar to your pic and the pipes that come with that, I wouldn't trust to more than a few pounds. If you buy no-kidding steel piping from a hardware store you'd be better off, but it's more expensive. You could also have the front pipes come down from the ceiling if you have a truss to screw the base to, that would probably strengthen it considerably.

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[evildky]

How much weight do you want it to hold? Do you plan to anchor the "top" to the ceiling or loop back to the wall as shown in your pic? Obviously up to the ceiling would be stronger. also I assume you'll be placing all these "brackets" so that they screw into studs (joists as the case may be). Do you plan to place them every 16" or every other stud so that they are 32" apart? Are you using only the ply as the shelf? The further apart your "brackets" the less the capacity.

 

[eastbaysubaru]

The shelves I built above the garage door attached to the ceiling joists as well as the wall structure. I also used 2x4s across the joists to spread the load in the attic across multiple joists. I would try to attach to something in the ceiling as well so it's not all hanging off the wall. I've had hundreds of pounds on my shelves for over a decade with no issues whatsoever. Good luck and make sure to post pics of them when they're done!

-Brian

 

[Rat407]

I plan on putting them every 16" on center on the studs in the wall. I think I would be in luck and the ceiling joist come out from the font wall about the length I would need so I could go into them. I agree that would give it more strength. Yes using black pipe from a plumbing supply store.

Here is how I'm storing some plywood that we use to cover our sliding glass doors during hurricanes.

 

[Renegade1LI]

I have had good luck using 2 x 6’s, you can span 4-6’ depending how you load them and they’re not expensive to build.

 

[bradpac]

Using actual black pipe with your dimensions with the supports every-other stud, you should have shelves capable of holding a few hundred pounds over the span, if it's spaced pretty evenly. More than enough for general household junk.

 

[drx2]

Just a thought. Be careful when it comes to spacing the supports whether they are attached to the ceiling joists or wall stud. If they are too close you may have difficulty storing longer items that you want to place up there. The shorter the distance between supports the greater the angle needed to fit them in.

 

[theoldwizard1]

You will hate yourself if you do it that way. The pipes will always be in the way when loading and unloading.

Depending on you load, these are the cheapest, quickest, easiest bracket to install.



20" x 13" Heavy Duty Shelf Bracket

They claim 1000 lbs/pair, but that must be when the brackets are installed with the 13" on the horizontal and no spec on between bracket spacing. I have similar one in my garage, spaced every other stud. I used 1/4" x 2 lag bolts so I had to enlargen the holes. If you want to lay 24" wide plywood on top just make sure to use adequate screws and place heavy item toward the back.

 

[Marctrees]

3/4 ply is ridiculous crazy overbuild.

1/2 ply is MORE than adequate.

Marc

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, Overbuilt is good, I think the pipe and fittings will be more than adequate. My concern is the strength of the fasteners and how well they are embedded into the building structure.

 

[joey1320]

That shelf design is extremely anti-function.

 

[damon18]

I needed the same and also have a ten foot ceiling. Built the 24 inch deep shelf from inexpensive 2x3's and 1/4 inch ply.

Screwed one 2x3 to the wall above the spring to create a rear ledge support for the back of the shelf, then created the front ledge with a 2x3 screwed to then 2x3 drops which are attached to the ceiling joists with screws.

I ran into a problem in that the joists ran parallel to the shelf, and the one i needed to attach to was at about 27 instead of 25 inches. So in the attic I screwed 2x4 sisters along the bottom of the joists to create something strong to attach to.

Not pretty like the pipe method but strong and inexpensive.

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[Marctrees]

Totally agree w Damon's design... One thing to add - Run the shelf ply facegrain front to back and NOT left to right.

Shelf will support much more before sag.

Marc

 

[lowbucktruck]

Jump starting thread... I am building overhead storage shelving above my garage door now. Using Unistrut. It's very strong.