Fitting a shelf

dennisd
dennisd Forum Participant Posts: 157
edited April 2020 in Caravans #1

I'm looking for some info about fitting a shelf. It won't be taking much weight , triangular and it'll be in a corner. One side is the caravan wall and the other side is a wardrobe wall. I've looked online but I can't find shelf supports or fixing brackets that look suitable., I don't want toggles or rawl plugs inside the wardrobe. My idea right now is to drill some holes , glue some short pieces of dowel in the holes and then glue the shelf on top of the dowels. Anybody got any other ideas? TIA.

Comments

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
    1000 Comments
    edited April 2020 #2

    If you really need the shelf 😉 .... Rather than use dowels you might be better to just glue the shelf directly to the walls .... depends really how thick the shelf is ie how much surface area the shelf edges has. 🤔

  • marchie1053
    marchie1053 Forum Participant Posts: 584
    edited April 2020 #3

    If you use a dowel on the wardrobe side, could you avoid drilling through to the interior space, i.e. leave about 3 mm of material intact? Then you could either shorten the dowel or drill deeper into the shelf to maximise support. Another option is to use a biscuit jointer and a narrow biscuit to avoid breaking through the wardrobe wall.

    Caravan wallboards are beyond me. I'd want to know that there are no pipes or cables in the vicinity and whether there are struts or supports that could be used, or that there would be space for a toggle fitting. Is there a bonded finish to your caravan and are there any warranty implications if you start drilling? Just thoughts/questions.

    Steve

  • Freedom a whitebox
    Freedom a whitebox Club Member Posts: 296 ✭✭✭
    100 Comments
    edited April 2020 #4

    If the shelf is not for taking heavy loads then I agree with MM and would use glue. Glue some thin battening strips to the walls and then fix the shelf on top of these. 

  • Metheven
    Metheven Club Member Posts: 3,987 ✭✭✭
    1,500 Likes 1000 Comments
    edited April 2020 #5

    I'm an expert at fitting shelves or so I thought, fitted one on the rear bathroom external wall, from outside and close up you can even see the small protrusions on the metalwork cos' I used too long a screws embarassed

    For my next effort with corner shelves above the bed with only hard insulation behind the wallboard, I drilled a hole and extruded something similar to 'No Nails' into it, then gently pushed in a rawlplug and letting it set. In addition applied small dabs of 'No Nails' to shelves before fixing.

    If the screws were too long again then I would have hung the bathroom towels on them laughing

  • JohnM20
    JohnM20 Forum Participant Posts: 1,416
    1000 Comments
    edited April 2020 #6

    Can I suggest that if using glue, clean off any surface varnish, paint or 'wallpaper', ' on the walls and off the shelf in the area that you want the glue to bond. If this isn't done, the bond will only be as strong as the bond of the 'varnish etc' to the wall boards / shelf, not very strong at all. 

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