Tile – How to attach a shelf to a tile wall in a repairable manner

mountingshelvingtile

I am renting a flat and have permission from the landlord to put up shelves etc as long as "I don't wreck the place".

In the kitchen there is a lack of storage space, and a large blank tiled wall above the sink and worktop. I would like to make use of this space for storage using a couple of shallow shelves.

What is the best way to attach shelves to a tiled wall in a way that can be easily repaired with minimal noticeable damage?

The wall behind the tiles is brick, so will take screws very well. The tiles are ceramic, but not glazed, so will not take any kind of suction cup.

Best Answer

Depending upon how large the grout lines are I would carefully drill through those with a masonry bit, and then use plastic anchors and fasten shelf brackets with screws. Use enough brackets to support the size shelf you need. Then, if the shelf ever needs to come down the holes in the grout lines can be repaired easily.

Shelf construction

If the shelf has its front open edge positioned such that at each four feet the cable would go up to a separate roof truss than I think that you have a workable system. Make sure that your 2x3's under the outer shelf edges are placed to that the nominal "3" inch dimension is vertical.

Hardware

Note that the lowest cost eyebolts, known as the "bent type eye bolt" are generally not recommended for lift and continuous tension applications. For this application it may be suggested to search out the drop forged type eye bolts as shown on the right below. These will cost more but they are actually specified for "lift" type applications.

bent eye bolt drop-forged eye bolt

If you do use the bent type, orient them so that the split end of the eye is up, as show above. Definitely use through-bolts rather than any type of screw-in eye.

eye screw

I would use 5/16" diameter eye bolts or larger.

Connection points

attachment points

Put the upper end of the cable through a threaded eye bolt that goes all the way through the side of the rafter truss and is secured in the far side with a washer and nut. Avoid the use of a screw eye type fastener. The eye bolt should be attached to the upper rafter part of the truss instead of the lower cross tie. When drilling the hole for the eye bolt position it in the upper part of the rafter as opposed to the lower portion.

Put the bottom end of the cable through an eye bolt that is long enough to go through the shelf material and the 2x3 and secure on the bottom with a washer and a nut.

Note that the orientation of the cable clamps is important, and it is always advisable to use two cable clamps for securing the cable.

Cable sizing

The size of cable is really dependent on the amount of load that you expect for the shelf. I would think that 3/16" diameter cable would be adequate for this application. The chart below will help to explain why I recommended 3/16" (assuming you use the 1x19 type of "stainless steel aircraft cable").

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Kitchens – How to attach metal knife rack to tile without ruining tile

If the tiles have a non-porous glaze, an adhesive over a larger contact area should work fine.

Adhesive Joint Strength and Surface Area

The strength of the adhesive joint is proportional to the area in contact. This is how drywallers hang 100lb sheets of drywall with adhesive and almost no screws: Because of the large area over which the adhesive spreads the holding force to the studs or joists. The larger the sheet of drywall, the larger the adhesive surface area, the higher the holding strength.

Adapter Plate

Because the rack's mounts have small surface area, you would build an adapter plate with adequate adhesive contact surface area to support the weight. You mount the rack to the plate and adhere the plate to the tile.

Suppose the plate had an area 4"x4" in contact with tile. That bond will be 20x the strength of the 0.9"x0.9" area of your existing mounts. Increasing the contact area is how you get strength from your adhesive joint.

Adhesive Type

Once you've increased the contact surface area, you are no longer requiring anything extraordinary from your adhesive. I would guess that something like silicon tiling caulk that is designed for clean removal from tile would work best. You don't want something with too much holding force per unit area because it will take too much force to pop the plate off when you're done.

Plate Material

Ideally the plate material is something slightly flexible so that you can peel rather than pop the adhesive joint when you remove it.

If the plate is rigid then you'll be applying the entire failure force to the tile when you remove it. This could crack or lift the tile.

On the other hand, a flexible plate allows you to peel the plate which means overcoming only a small area of holding strength at a time. This is the exact same principle as peeling scotch tape.

Sacrificial Test

To be safe you'll want to test a representative mockup of an adapter plate and tile to test the following:

the plate/tile bond is adequate to support the weight
the adhesive can be removed without marking or marring the tile or grout
you can pop the plate from the tile without breaking or lifting the tile