Ideas for shelving lots of books...cheap

[Chuck Saunders]

I am moving into our new house (big time gloat coming). Between my wife (the librarian) and I we have a lot of books. Our new house will not support the full wall bookcases like we have in the current house. So, I am going to put up shelves in the basement. The basement stays dry. I am looking for ideas on how to get the most shelf space for the least cost. Since the shelves will be in the basement, appearance is not as important.
What would you suggest?

[Carl Fox]

ripped CDX plywood and cinder blocks.

[Chuck Saunders]

True, though simple spans of CDX bow pretty bad, and you end up with shelves filled with cinder blocks. I would prefer to raise the bar a little higher. Thanks for sharing.
Chuck

[Charlie Plesums]

My basic bookshelf is made of 3/4 inch plywood just under 12 inches deep (good use of plywood), with a shelf length of 24 to 36 inches (if the shelves were really going to be heavily loaded, I would go towards the shorter shelves, or maybe 31 inches to optimize plywood use. Glue a 1x2 to the front edge of each shelf for appearance and stiffness.

Put a fixed shelf part way up for stability - so no more than 5 feet without a fixed shelf. That fixed shelf is often 30 inches off the floor. Normally I use a 1/4 inch plywood back for sway stability, but if you don't want a back, then I would put a horizontal piece (maybe 6-12 inches high) across the top front or the back to stabilize sway.

Shelf pins make adjustable shelves easy... I recommend drilling with a plunge router, 5/8 inch collar for the template (big enough for dust collection) - if you are going to drill all the way through (for pins on either side) use a spiral upcut bit; if going half way through a straight bit will be cleaner.

[Ben Cadotte]

2 sheets of MDF or particle board and 1 sheet of 1/4" luan will give you 2 - 2' wide x 6 - 8' tall shelf cabinets. Total cost around $60 for mdf and luan, maybe $50 for particle board and luan. 12" deep, x 2' wide, 7 shelves each unit. Height deppends on ceiling height. Painted MDF would look just like the shelf units sold at the Borgs for 4x the cost.

[Carl Fox]

True, though simple spans of CDX bow pretty bad, and you end up with shelves filled with cinder blocks. I would prefer to raise the bar a little higher. Thanks for sharing.
Chuck

Of course! I make joke.

[Jim Mims]

I agree with Charlie. Some more ideas I had:
You could also use pine, fir or spruce boards. Type and grade based on what you want to spend and what's available locally. The boards can be used for the shelves and carcass. That would be less cutting.
If you need to make assembly even easier, use one or two 1-1/2"wide x 3/4"thick strips (liking firring strips) spaced vertically from top to bottom along the face of the shelves to prevent sagging.
- Jim

[Chuck Saunders]

Of course! I make joke.

Thanks Carl, you have restored my faith in the creek. I will admit that I was sucked in completely. Glad you were joking.

I appreciate everyone sharing their time. I am thinking melamine with faceframes to serve as thje shelf stiffeners.

[Pat Germain]

If appearance is truly not an issue, I would start browsing your local thrift stores: Good Will, DAV, Salvation Army, etc. They often have those government style, steel bookcases and cabinets. They don't look very nice, but they're cheap and pretty durable.

You can also occasionally find some decent wooden furniture, albeit beat up. It won't be a valuable antique, so you won't feel guilty about putting on a coat of paint.

FYI, you can also pickup steel file cabinets cheap at thrift stores. They work great for the shop.

Thrift store furniture is quite literally cheaper than building it yourself with MDF.

[Vernon Taylor]

Therer is a company called This End Up. Take a look at their bookcases which are built out of 1x4's. My daughter had bought some when she first got out of college. We built duplicate additions . you might even be successful in using pallet wood for a lot of the pieces. Just a thought. I did a google search and their site has lots of pictures.

[Vince Shriver]

Maybe this doesn't fit your "cheap" criterion, but you might take a look at the standards and shelf supports from: www.johnsterling.com

[Brian Backner]

Chuck,

I faced the same problem for my massive magazine collection (25,000 issues, give or take).

What I ended up doing was using 20' construction grade 2x12's. These are suspended from the ceiling joists using 3/8" threaded rod (the heavy duty stuff the plumbers use) with washers/nuts supporting each level.

Rather than affix threaded hanging plates to the joists, I lag bolted parallel 2x4's to the underside of the joists and passed the rods through drilled holes with washers and lock nuts. This allowed me more flexibility with rod spacing. I also believe it is a lot stronger

When you hang the rods, you want to cut them about 4" short of the floor. Then install the pre-drilled shelves one at a time (drill 1/2" holes for 3/8" rod) by blocking it up and threading the washers/nuts. Getting all of the rods into all of the holes is a multiple person job. Once all the shelves are installed and leveled, make up a 3.5" take up piece for the bottom of the rods using a 3" carriage bolt and a threaded rod connector. Thread one on the ends of each of the rods and screw it down to contact the floor - this takes a lot of the weight off the joists and transfers it to the floor.

I've had my system up now for 6 years with 14 fully loaded shelves and it is still rock solid. Total cost - I have two 7 shelf sets for a total of 280 lineal feet of shelving - was about $400, or about $1.43 per foot.

Be warned though - the one disadvantage to this system is that you will go out of your mind threading all the nuts!!!!!

Not pretty, but it works, and it's cheap.

Brian

[Brian Kent]

Carl, I still like your idea best. If I remember right, they look best with hobbit posters and a bead curtain.

[Prashun Patel]

My advice for basement shelves is to make them sturdy enough to handle heavy weight. If yr books are precious, you should really store them in a box with some kind of dessicant.
Here's what I did in my basement that works fantastically. This way also allows you to make it yourself w/o any helpers:

Use 1/2 plywood cut into 2ft x 4ft lengths.
Mount the 1/2" pwood to 2x3 frames that'll support the front, rear, and side edges.
Use 2x3 uprights spaced every 4 feet. From the ground up, cut ledgers/spacers that you mount to the uprights. Rest one shelf on the ledger and screw it to the upright, then keep adding ledger /spacers and work yr way up.

Anchor 2x3 ledgers along the basement wall to which the rear uprights can be mounted.

I have these throughout my basement. They're strong enough to climb on and will hold hundreds of lbs of anything.

[Chuck Saunders]

Good ideas all, thank you. I am afraid that in this house, hanging the shelves from the floor joists would probably pull the house down. But I like the simplicity.