Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Woodworking). This thread is read-only.
Hi Everyone, a customer has asked me to put a shelf made from some excess bamboo flooring she has above her fire place. I was wondering how I should attach it to the wall? Finish Nails? Nail Gun and Glue? Some other type of adhesive? Any suggestion?
The bamboo is only 4″ wide with tongue/groove. I will be cutting it down to 3 1/2″ wide. It is a 1/2″ thick. It would go above her tile which is wrapped around on the wall of her fire place. She has no mantle.
no nails with a couple finishing nails or drill, screw and button plugs…..
I’d never use nails on anything that requires withdrawal strength. Nails pull out easy too easily unless you’re using giant ring shank framing nails. Glue would also probably not be your best bet as the entire weight on your shelf would be held by the drywall paper.
For a shelf, I’d suggest securing it to the studs with structural screws. You can always countersink them and cover the hole with a plug if you want an invisible mount. If you wanted to get fancier, you could also go with blind shelf supports or Z brackets. Either would give you an invisible mount and good strength.
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Thank You, I appreciate the recommendations. I will stick with the screws.
I agree with the above,use screws into the studs and counterbore the holes and plug them.
I used some metal brackets, the flat ones to attach mantel. Was easy
french cleat ….
Z brackets are essentially metal French cleats – just thinner than you could make them with wood. Well, I suppose you could make French cleats out of super thin hardwood, but the metal variety it’s easier to put together in the field and requires less equipment.
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French cleat would work. If I’m under standing what you are doing correctly? Good luck.taylorv1 wrote:
Hi Everyone, a customer has asked me to put a shelf made from some excess bamboo flooring she has above her fire place. I was wondering how I should attach it to the wall? Finish Nails? Nail Gun and Glue? Some other type of adhesive? Any suggestion?
The bamboo is only 4″ wide with tongue/groove. I will be cutting it down to 3 1/2″ wide. It is a 1/2″ thick. It would go above her tile which is wrapped around on the wall of her fire place. She has no mantle.
IMG_7948.JPG
Millerz
Like a French cleat but just a floating shelf. Make a frame with solid wood skinned in the flooring. you can use 1/4″ ply and attach the flooring to that if it’s easier. Secure that to the wall then slide your shelf over the piece.
Check out this video for inspiration.
Hi,
A customer has asked me to make a 6′ long shelf above her fire place made out of extra bamboo flooring she has. The Bamboo Flooring is 3 1/2″ wide w/o tongue and groove. It is only 1/2″ thick She is precise on what she wants, but I don’t know what the best way to attach the shelf to the wall is. It will be going above her fire place. She doesn’t want z brackets, because it would leave a slight gap. She doesn’t seem to want any nail or screw holes on the actual face of the shelf. She was asking me about adhesive, to adhere it to the wall, than nail nails at an angle from the top of the shelf through the thickness. Is that a good way? Please help.
Adhesive bad. How about fattening up the base where it’s meets the wall and putting in some metal rods through the wall to support the shelf or some free floating tenons. The problem is the material is only 1/2″ thick so it doesn’t give you too many options. You might want to explain that the material won’t have much strength for support too. Maybe double the bamboo and putting a nice edge on it. That will give a little more meat to attach the rods or tenons into a larger mortise
before you do anything make sure wall is flat, other wise you might have a gap anyways or the top surface will be following the wall. I would glue three blocks with a 45 on bottom then take three blocks with 45 on the top sink the blocks in wall flush and hang it like a french cleat… if you know what I mean……
You could always put wood putty where the nails are
I was also thinking french cleat
Yea I think a French cleat is your best option
Jimbo
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You might be able to use concealed mounting hardware along the lines of these:
Or if the shelf is not going to be carrying a lot of weight you could use a t-slot router bit with a plunge router to cut screw slots directly into the material in several places on the back of the piece.
EEtwidget wrote:
Like a French cleat but just a floating shelf. Make a frame with solid wood skinned in the flooring. you can use 1/4″ ply and attach the flooring to that if it’s easier. Secure that to the wall then slide your shelf over the piece.
Check out this video for inspiration.
That’s a pretty neat idea.
This guy is seriously all about the Ryobi. Is he sponsored? I can’t think of any other reason he’d have SOOOO much green, right down to the tape measure and hearing protectors.
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Just to avoid confusion the OP did this twice, I just merged the two.
Floating shelfs are good too. I don’t know if you can fasten the flooring together good or not to build it and slide it on. You may need to build it on the floating shelf mount.
Millerz
Jimbos1ice wrote:
Yea I think a French cleat is your best option
Jimbo
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Doesn’t that create a gap? How can i make a french cleat with only 1/2″ material?
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I explained that in my first post
Gap should be minimal, you could always glue the bamboo to some 1x stock and make it that way
Jimbo
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Seriously, the floating shelf is the right way to do this. Build the shelf with cheap ply and skin it with the bamboo. Keep it simple! French cleats are great for stuff that gets moved & rearrange but too bulky for a mantel build.
There is one other solution for creating a concealed cleat system to hang thin material. You could use a plunge router to hollow out the necessary space on the back side of the material and then use a dovetail bit and straight edge to give an undercut on the top edge of the relief. Using a router table and the same bit (or simply a table saw), you can then create a strip of material with the same edge relief to cut your hanging blocks from. I personally do not recommend a full length cleat on thin material, unless your wall is dead flat with zero deviation. Using short cleats over the studs should suffice to hang a light weight project and give you some wiggle room to make any necessary adjustments. Make sure that the material used for the cleats is slightly thinner than the depth of the beveled relief area on the shelf, and once all adjustments are complete apply a couple of small spots of wood glue to the bevel for a semi-permanent fix.
Thanks for the information.☺️
Yes, thanks for sharing!
The bamboo floor covering feels very lovely under your feet. In addition, it is very light. However, I know that it absorbs odors or liquids well. You will need to be careful when lighting a fire in the fireplace. You will also need to make sure that the guests do not spill dark liquids on the floor. Otherwise, the bamboo will absorb all the liquid, and the color will remain on the floor. When we called the floor laying company from https://www.123floor.co.uk, they warned us that it was not very thoughtful to put a bamboo floor in the kitchen, so we laid the foundation in the living rooms with bamboo and left laminate flooring in the kitchen and by the fireplace.
taylorv1 wrote:
On 2/8/2016 at 5:55 PM, taylorv1 said:Hi Everyone, a customer has asked me to put a shelf made from some excess bamboo flooring she has above her fire place. I was wondering how I should attach it to the wall? Finish Nails? Nail Gun and Glue? Some other type of adhesive? Any suggestion?
The bamboo is only 4″ wide with tongue/groove. I will be cutting it down to 3 1/2″ wide. It is a 1/2″ thick. It would go above her tile which is wrapped around on the wall of her fire place. She has no mantle.
Have you tried sticking it with a glue gun?