closetladdershelving
I'd like to build a rolling ladder for my tall office closet using a kit. However, the shelving is metal ClosetMaid/Elfa-style and can't support a rod for the ladder to slide along.
My thought is to instead use a closet rod with supports on the left and right walls. Can this be feasible and safe? What other options might I have?
Since you are contemplating shelving, I am going to assume that
I've got a shelving unit in a storage area that can fit at absolute maximum volume capacity about 24 of these 10 gallon storage bins:
With all 24 on the shelves, I physically cannot add any more weight to the shelves because all of the volume is already consumed.
I estimate the maximum weight that I put in each of those bins is about 50 pounds of stuff. From moving them around and comparing them to the dumbbells at the gym, it's way more that 20 pounds and definitely less than 100 pounds. As a reference, filling the tub with water would weigh 81 lbs, filling with lead is about 946 pounds.
So, based on my estimate, I will be storing up to about 1200 pounds (24 tubs x 50 pounds each) of stuff on that shelving unit. More than 1200 pounds is unlikely because the shelf will reach its volume capacity first.
In this case I dare not use a shelving unit that will collapse under less weight than 1200 pounds because there will be nothing preventing an unsuspecting family member from exceeding that weight by adding another item to the shelf.
The shelving unit in the example above is 4'x2'x8' (WxDxH) or 64 cubic feet. Given the 1200 pound capacity, the density of stuff I am storing works out to 18.75 pounds per cubic foot. When I design shelving for my home, I use the round number of 40 pounds per cubic foot for a 2x safety factor.
For your example of 1.5'x8' shelves, assuming they extend to an 8' ceiling, you should design for an astounding 3840 pounds of load (1.5'x8'x8'x40 pounds per cubic foot) to be safe. This is not an exaggeration. Good shelving allows you to store a remarkable amount of weight in an extremely small volume, that is its whole purpose after all.
The stuff you are storing on wall mounted shelving is an overhung load. The wall mount shelving supports this overhung load by applying a torque to the wall to which it is mounted. Walls in residential construction are not designed to support a significant amount of overhung load.
To make matters worse, the torque on the wall increases with the square of the depth of the shelving because you are increasing both the weight and the lever arm of the overhung load. So, the torque from an 18" deep shelf is nine times the torque from a 6" deep shelf. Because of the squared relationship with torque, I never use wall-mount shelves deeper than 10".
On top of all this, even if your wall is able to withstand the torques involved, there are two additional worrisome aspects to consider:
A real risk is this scenario: A child climbs a wall mount shelf loaded with hundreds of pounds of stuff. The weight and motion of a child causes the multiplied forces in the bracket to exceed the failure strength of the bracket. This causes a catastrophic failure of the shelf's ability to support the load, and the child and load falls to the floor, crushing the child.
All of the problems that results from multiplying forces, the squared relationship of torque with shelf depth, and a wall that can't support weight are alleviated by using free-standing shelving.
I recommend using a properly engineered system like EZ Rect Type 1. It looks like this:
As I understand it, the EZ Rect system's patent has long expired, and there are now many manufacturers of that system. I've been using a generic version of that system for all my high-density household storage for almost 10 years.
Here are the benefits of EZ Rect Type 1 shelving solution as I see it:
Whatever system you end up with, you should expect the above benefits to be standard -- if it's not, keep looking.
Here is a picture from my last moving day. Shown is 7 "bays" of dismantled shelving capable of safely storing about 24 tons (42,000 lbs) in about 600 cubic feet of space.
I've encountered an amount of skepticism about whether catastrophic failure of shelving is, in fact, something to be concerned about. Here are two examples of catastrophic failure.
A worker died in this workplace accident in 2012 when an overloaded shelving system collapsed.
This is an extreme case of what can happen. I think it is instructive of the dangers nonetheless.
The great Jon Skeet tweeted this photo of what seems to be catastrophic failure of a wall-mount Cookbook Shelf:
In my area it is common in rental units to install panel doors in lieu of mirrored doors. We buy the mirrored door track, frame, roller, and hardware kits but with no mirrors. They call it a "knock-down" kit. We then cut wood or composite panels to fit where the glass would go. The manufacturer even gave us a table with net mirror glass dimensions, to use when sizing the wood panels. Check with a local high-volume window and door shop. You might even be able to get the kits from a "big-box" hardware store but I prefer to work with the guys at the sash and door shop for the personal service and expertise.
You might even be able to use your old frame and hardware, measure carefully first, then take apart the frames (they are screwed together) and cut wood panels to fit.
Best Answer
I'd put ledgers on the walls to the left and right of the shelves. By this I mean a board running horizontally the entire length of the wall, screwed in at the studs. This will give you something with some strength and stability to attach to.
You could run a steel pipe across from ledger to ledger, attached to the ledgers with floor flanges. I can say I have used 1" pipe and floor flanges this way for chinup bars many times and they held up well.
The weak point of the pipe is the threaded part, if it shears off it will be at the threads near the floor flange. If you want to be safe, run a 1" dowel inside the pipe. Even if the metal cracks, it's not going anywhere.
If the pipe is not sufficient, you could run a board across from ledger to ledger, just like a joist - you might even use joist hangers to fasten it to the ledgers. That would give you the surface the ready made rolling ladder kits want. Joist hangers are made to carry weight vertically, not horizontally, but I think they'd be strong enough for this purpose. If you want something stronger in the horizontal direction, that's easy enough to work out.