how much weight can a hinged wall hold?

[Olyar15]

I have a 16'x12' shed in the back yard that I use for storage and a workshop. I'm finding that the garden tools take up a lot of space on the walls, so I thought about making a small hinged wall to increase wall storage.

This is a picture of the corner of the shed that I use for storage:

My idea is to create basically kind of like a door on the wall, using a 4x4 post as the doorjamb, and making the wall out of 2x4s. Question is, will this be able to hold a lot of weight? I thought about maybe adding a caster on the bottom to support it. Am I overthinking this, since it will only be holding some tools and yard equipment?

This is a sketch of what I am thinking about. The horizontal pieces are where I'll be putting hooks to hold the stuff. I also thought about adding pegboard on one side to increase tool holding capacity. The idea of having it hinged is to make it easy to access both sides of the wall.

Thoughts? Comments?

 

[Jim B]

I have wooden gates that weigh more than your hinged wall will weigh. It all depends on the hinges you choose and how many you use. I would put some cross bracing on that wall though or it's likely to sag over time. Or maybe face it with plywood to take the shear load.

 

[Thumper68]

If it were me I would add a diagonal brace from the lower hinge side to the top and a caster

 

[BD1]

If concerned , you could use a full length piano hinge.

 

[mike_81]

wooden solid core doors weigh a ton and they only use 3 hinges. Just get heavy duty hinges and make sure you use long screws.

 

[Zeke]

The more hinges the better. But, as mentioned, the swung part of your deal will want to sag. Cover at least one side with ply or pegboard and use a ton of screws for shear.

BTW, some folks will put 2 hinges at the top to help with the weight.

 

[Falcon67]

It's not so much the hinges as what holds them up on the wall. Most hinges will handle quite a bit - but will pull out of the wall or move the wall they are anchored to unless it's well braced. I have a 4' x 6' wood gate that hangs on two regular home center garden gate hinges. The gate weights a lot and the hinges are fine. The two heavy galvanized posts both 24" in the ground with concrete and attached to each other with 2x4s and fence - well, they are leaning under the strain.

 

[Nowater]

Consider a steel cable, maybe 1/4 or 3/8 inch from the bottom corner of the hinged wall up to the top of the four by four. The cable in tension holds a lot of weight.

 

[rharman]

I'll vote for the caster under the corner. It's a no-brainer and will hold anything you want.

Not sure on the piano hinge unless you can get a pretty good width. I'd be more inclined to go with (4) 4" **** hinges.

 

[djjsr]

I recently removed a steel 36x84 door that weighed over 200 lbs. It hung on three 4" heavy duty hinges for over 50 years.

 

[Fyrme]

wooden solid core doors weigh a ton and they only use 3 hinges. Just get heavy duty hinges and make sure you use long screws.

I vote to find a used solid core door and you will have an instant swinging wall. Throw up some 1x4 horizontal French cleats make some hooks and hang your tools from that. This way you will not have to worry about the sag issue. If worried about the hinges, add two more and have 5 total. Used doors sell for $25-$50 around here. Way cheaper than the lumber and time/headache to build one and worry if its gonna sag.

 

[rieferman]

The entire wall that you see next to the door in this picture is supported on the right hand side by three strap hinges. I did lag bolt both sides of the hinges, and I glued the sheetrock in addition to screwing it.

While my application isn't opened frequently (we just hinged this wall because otherwise we wouldn't be able to get material, like couches etc., upstairs due to small stair landing) the three hinges had no trouble with the load, and there has been no sagging.

Just wanted to give you an example of some pretty extreme weight on a hinge setup (sheetrock both sides, trim both sides, insulation).

 

[Olyar15]

An update on my little project. Finally built it after taking your comments into consideration. I did try using a caster, but found out that my floor isn't quite level, which caused the caster to bind when trying to swing the wall, so I removed it.

This is what I ended up with:

I will be drilling holes into these 2x4s to hold my drill and router bits. The lower 2x4 is removable to facilitate drilling the holes.

Some storage area for screws and nails.

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions.

 

[Boatracer1000]

I have a similar question. I am making a folding work bench out of a 30" wide solid core door. I plan on having 2 legs on it for support, but my concern is the hinge. I have a 2x6 (that will likely be lag screwed, unless everyone thinks that is overkill) screwed into 4 studs. What kind of hinge should I be using, don't want to have it rip out.

 

[LeeG]

I did two commercial 4" door hinges and a pair of casters.m my wall was just over 6' wide though.

 

[ducktapeguy]

An update on my little project. Finally built it after taking your comments into consideration. I did try using a caster, but found out that my floor isn't quite level, which caused the caster to bind when trying to swing the wall, so I removed it.

If you're still worried about the weight, you could use a spring loaded gate caster which is built to handle the variation on uneven terrain. If you match it to the weight of the door, the caster would basically be supporting all the weight and the hinges are just there to keep the door vertical. Doesn't look like you have that much weight on the door and it's not very wide, so I don't think you'll have a problem unless you start storing anvils on it.

 

[Chart]

I have a similar question. I am making a folding work bench out of a 30" wide solid core door. I plan on having 2 legs on it for support, but my concern is the hinge. I have a 2x6 (that will likely be lag screwed, unless everyone thinks that is overkill) screwed into 4 studs. What kind of hinge should I be using, don't want to have it rip out.

Put the wall-side of the work bench ON TOP of the 2x6 which is lagged to the studs. Then put your hinges on top of the bench and attached to the studs above the bench. When folded up, the weight is hanging from the hinges on the studs. When down, and being used, the 2x6 is supporting the back of the bench, not the hinges.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Instead of a caster which has a small diameter wheel and will catch, try using a 5-6" diameter lawn mower / yard equipment wheel. The solid rubber ones with the plastic hub are perfect and easy to attach to the end of your shelf with a lag bolt. Larger diameter wheel will roll over those imperfections readily and be easy to attach in place.

I'm not entirely sure you're saving much space with this setup though, since you have to keep the area clear for the shelf to swing out.

You might try several of your shelf units as you've built them that slide out into the space on an overhead rail. They can be parallel to each other when closed in a very small space, and let you pull out only the one you need. That would be very compact storage.