My Shelf Came Off of the Wall... Sort of.

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jarrod Maas

New Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2018
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Okay, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, so if not, lead me in the right direction

Alright I have one long shelf mounted to a wall in my bedroom in 5 points. The shelf is on brackets like this:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbil...te-Magnum-Shelf-Bracket-EB-0099-8WT/204657448
but a longer length, and with 5 brackets. I installed them about a year ago. The two on the ends and the one in the middle were mounted to studs, using stud mounts, and the other two I used drywall mounts to mount them to the wall. For the last year I have had no issues with them, I put a bunch of books on them, enjoyed them, until quite randomly, this afternoon, the three in the middle partially removed themselves from the wall, causing many of my books to plummet to the floor. However, the weird part is, the shelf refuses to return to its original, level position. I would have to force it in order for it to be level again, or remove all the brackets and start over. It's not like there was too much weight, and that pulled it out of the wall, it's more as if this is its neutral position, and some other force besides gravity might be the culprit.

I don't have time to take down the whole shelf today, so I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts, or ideas as to what might have caused this, also any tips when putting the shelf back up.
 
This is common when the wall plane is not flat and the shelf was forced into place, however the shelf no returning to a level position can be attributed to parts of the wall material being pulled away and still attached to the anchors.
 
Drywall is not structural. Too much weight on the anchors and they will pull out. SUCKS, right? The brackets shot into the studs probably did not pull out. You're facing a complete removal, wall patch/repaint, then going for it again.

First, pick up as many studs as you can.
Second, use at least one bracket between studs (which I assume are 16"OC). Use 3/16" "butterfly wall anchors to attach these brackets. Make sure you have a washer on the screw to allow the screw head to compress firmly onto the bracket.
Third, do not put the Library of Congress on the shelves!
 
Back
Top