Hanging shelve on metal studs

["Gary Smith"]

I have a need to hang some wooden shelves that will be need to be mounted on drywall that was installed over metal studs. These shelves will be heavy and will need to be attached to the metal studs. I need some recommendations on what type of fastener to use and any tips!

[John Timberlake]

What little experience I have with metal studs would force me to use toggle bolts or something similar. I had some selves come off that were attached to slat wall that had 20 screws into the metal studs. The studs are designed to make the drywall rigid, not much else. My opinion is that no type of screw will hold any significant amount of weight in metal studs.

[Carroll Courtney]

Have you thought about toggle bolts or molley bolts?If you have an HD in your neighborhood, they have a good selection of fastners.Maybe use a 1X2 as a cleat.What I did one time for a friend,I mounted some corbels and then put the shelve on top of the corbels.Just a couple of ideals.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I live in a house with metal studs. Where the kitchen cabinets are hung they used 1x wood between the metal studs for strength. Same thing in the laundry room for those cabinets. So... for a strong connection you may want to remove some drywall strips horizontally then add 1x or even 2x wood inbetween the studs to screw into. If your load isn't too heavy and you've been living right you might want to try toggles etc. Good luck.

["Jason Belous"]

I do a lot of commercial build outs all metal studs. The only sure fire way is to cut out the drywall very cleanly and install wood backing inbetween the flanges. next cut out blow out patch from new drywall and very easily mud the areas and hang shelfs. I would never trust the metal studs for support. and mechanical fastners you may get away with an expandable anchor if the weight is not to heavy. good luck to you.

[Brian Dormer]

I have metal studs in my home office/library and my workshop (both of which I built myself). I've hung 10 foot long floor to ceiling shelves and 36" wide cabinets on them with no problems - and those shelves are LOADED with books and shop stuff - same with the cabinets. If they ever fall - it will register on the Richter scale. But some of them have been up for nearly 10 years with no movement whatsoever. ( when I was a teenager, some shelves my dad hung with molly bolts had a catastrophic failure about 10 feet in front of me - I *NEVER* want to have a similar experience. If anyone had been sitting or laying on the floor at the time.... well, it would have been VERY bad ) There are a couple of tricks that I use (your mileage may vary): Metal studs can bear LOTS of weight - but it has to be distributed right. If you hang a shelf or cabinet in the middle (vertically) of the wall - you'll generate a "belly" in the wall because the stud will warp. (Don't ask me how I learned that) You CAN hang big cabinets without blocking - *IF* you attach them very near the "top plate" of the steel studs. There's enough material and structure at the very top locations that the studs won't bend under load. Ok - so for shelves, I use the heavy duty shelf standards from HD (for some reason, Lowes doesn't seem to carry the stuff). Each shelf bracket has TWO sets of "teeth". Use AT LEAST a 4 foot long section of "track" (longer is better) on the wall. Anything less, and you could cause the "belly" effect. Put a coarse thread drywall screw thru EVERY hole in the track - that will distribute the load. You can either buy pre-made melamine shelves or make your own. The standards come in white and black - presumably you could also spray some Krylon on white ones for custom colors. CABINETS - If you are hanging them REALLY CLOSE to the "top plate" you are probably good to go. Just make sure you get a screw into each and every stud at the top AND bottom of the cabinet. For my shop cabinets - I hang a 1x3" cleat where the bottom of the cabinets go - this makes it possible to install the cabinets single handed. I just leave the 1x3 there when I'm done. I've done the same thing with molding in our laundry room. BUT - I had some 15" tall cabinets in my shop that I hung about 2 feet down from the top (I store stick lumber above them). That situation will bow the studs. I didn't want to rip the wall apart - so I just put a sheet of 3/4" plywood (leftover subfloor) on the wall and hung the cabinets over the plywood. I'm not a small person (6'2" & 250+ lbs) and I can hang from the cabinets without causing any movement. The plywood distributes the load across all the studs and makes the wall really stiff. Of course, all this assumes that the studs were installed properly (ie to building code). Since I installed mine, I KNOW they are. If you can check your top plates - it wouldn't hurt to make sure they are well attached to whatever is above them. If you have any other questions - feel free to PM me.

[Les Garten]

Ok, gonna bump this old thread.

I need to hand some shelves in my garage. I have these darned metal studs under drywall.

I have a pic at the bottom to show the type of shelving.

My plan is to attach some wood like 2x4s with a bunch of toggle type attachments. I'll drill the 1/2" holes for the toggles and when I attach the 2x4s, I'll also use liquid nails to glue to the drywall. Then place the shelf mounts to the wood. This is in the garage so I would like them to hold some weight. I also would like to avoid cutting out the drywall and re-doing it.

Any thoughts on this?

178828_lg.jpg

[Jeff Duncan]

Those Hilti style toggle bolts hold like nobody's business....you should be fine doing them that way. As for the glue, not sure what it's going to do? If the bolts failed the glue isn't going to hold them up. IN fact the only thing the glue would do is pull the paper off the face of the drywall....there's simply no structural bond there.

good luck,
JeffD

[Lee Schierer]

My plan is to attach some wood like 2x4s with a bunch of toggle type attachments. I'll drill the 1/2" holes for the toggles and when I attach the 2x4s, I'll also use liquid nails to glue to the drywall. Then place the shelf mounts to the wood. This is in the garage so I would like them to hold some weight. I also would like to avoid cutting out the drywall and re-doing it.

Any thoughts on this?

178828_lg.jpg

I would skip the liquid nails. All you will be gluing to is the paper on the dry wall and that isn't very strong. Also, I noted that at least one poster recommended using drywall screws. This is not a good idea. Lots of folks use them, but they are only made to old drywall and are too brittle for structural work, therefore I don't recommend using them for anything except installing drywall. Run your 2x4's from floor to ceiling. Anchor into your metal studs with toggle bolts near the top and then spaced along the length

[Les Garten]

Hmmm,
The reason I mention the Liquid Nails is that have you ever tried to remove a mirror glued to a wall. Not as easy as you would think.

But I see what you are saying, if the toggles blow, the nails ain't gonna hold.

[Les Garten]

Hi,
I originally thought I had metal studs, and I do inside my house for these shelves to hang on. But in the Garage I have a different setup as below.

I have to put up some Quantum Storage system shelves on my garage walls. I am using some cantilevered Arms that convert roll around shelves to wall shelves. You can see them here at this PIC:





So I am wanting to mount a 2x4 about 48" long or something like that to my walls. Then mount the brackets to those and hang the shelves on the poles as shown.


I have Concrete Block construction finished with sheet rock. I attached a pic of that. Looks like a small furing strip is used to hang the sheetrock on 24" centers. I can find these with a stud finder. From the concrete block to the outside of the sheetrock is 1 1/4".


So I have 2 scenarios, one where I can use the furring strip, and one where I can't use the furring strip because of spacing.


How to proceed?