Installing Metal Storage Shelves
Metal storage shelves can quickly and easily be installed in any room in your home, including your garage. Perfect for storing clothes, food canisters, tools, or virtually any other small item, metal storage shelves are an inexpensive solution to a cluttered room.
Metal storage shelves include three main components: shelf standards, shelf brackets, and shelves. Shelf standards are essentially rails that are secured flat to the wall. The shelf brackets are then slotted into the standards to provide support for the shelves. The shelves rest atop the brackets.
What You Need
You will, of course, need a set of standards, brackets, and shelves. Be sure to buy standards and brackets that are designed to be used together. For example, if you choose twin-track standards (which carry more weight), be sure to buy twin track brackets. Also, buy brackets and shelves with corresponding depths. For deep shelving, you’ll need 10-inch brackets and shelves. As for length, shelves typically sell in 16-inch and 32-inch varieties. Also buy two-and-one-half-inch woodscrews to secure the standards to the wall. Count up the screw holes in the standards to figure how many screws you’ll need.
To finish the installation, you’ll need a stud-finder, a pencil, a level, and a screwdriver.
Installation
Use a stud-finder device to mark the two edges of a wall stud where your shelving will be hung. Find and mark a second stud 16 or 32 inches to the side, depending on your shelving.
Now, with a helping hand, place one of your standards along one stud and insert a screw into the top screw hole. Screw it down so that the standard hangs free. Place a level along the standard and adjust it to vertical. Insert another screw into the bottom screw hole and screw it down. If the standard is perfectly vertical, install all the screws tightly.
Next, insert a bracket into corresponding notches of both standards. Place the second standard up to the wall along the second stud. Rest your level on the two brackets as if it were a shelf plank. Adjust the second standard up or down until the level shows horizontal. Make a pencil mark in the top screw hole of the second standard. Now install the second standard just as you installed the first. When completed, you can insert all your brackets and lay down your shelving.
