Inexpensive, Heavy Duty, Easy to Move, Rental Friendly, Floor Standing, Ladder Book Shelves

I was short of funds and had overwhelmed my store bought MDF bookshelves, so I designed and built these bookshelves to house my ever growing book collection. Since it was a rental house, I wanted them to be strong and floor standing, but not so heavy they were hard to move when it was time to move again. Aesthetics wasn't top of my list at this time, so they are a bit raw, but they could be stained or painted to look nicer. They were designed to perfectly fit the length of the wall, so some of their stability is supplied by the walls at either end. I did add two L brackets after loading them to secure them from potentially tipping forward as they are on carpet. I would also recommend that in earthquake areas or if you have children,

Supplies

This is made completely from 2x4 lumber and 3-1/2 inch screws. The number depends on the length and height of your wall and the size of your books. A few L brackets may be added to secure them to the wall if needed. A saw (preferably a powered miter one), drill, pre-drilling bit, screw driving tip, and tape measure are needed. A square for marking long lines is helpful.

Step 1: Planning

This is where you figure out your material quantities. My wall was 10 ft long and my room has 8 ft ceilings. These numbers set the length of the sticks of lumber I needed for the ladder uprights and the shelves. The number of shelves and the length of the rungs is determined by your library.

I planned for 1 row of large/textbook sized books (14"), 4 rows of standard hard cover books (12"), and 3 rows of standard paper back books (10"). This is where I should have done my measurements a little smaller. I planned for book height of the tallest book plus shelf thickness plus support thickness, when I should have planned for book height plus shelf thickness plus maybe 1/2 inch. I found that I had enough room on the The book tops lean up against the support and it works sort of like a book end when you lower it a little. The gap between makes a handy spot to hide things you don't want to display.

So, based on the type of books and the ceiling height, you determine the number of shelves you're going to have. In my case, I planned for 8 shelves. Each shelf is made of 2-2x4s. In my case, I need 16-2x4s that are 10 ft long for the shelves.

I decided to divide my 10 ft length into 3 sections. For this I needed 4 support ladders. For each ladder I needed 9 rungs, one for each shelf and one at the top. 4x9=36 rungs total. I ended up using 8" long rungs. This is where you get the math going. I decided to use 10 ft sticks for the 8-8 ft uprights, that left me with with scrap enough for 24 rungs. One more stick covered the other 12. My project used 25- 10 ft 2x4s.

Each rung has four 3-1/2 inch screws. In my case, 4x9x4=144 screws or box of 150 or more screws.

Step 2: Lots of Saw Cuts

Time to make all those cuts. Measure and mark the height of the uprights. This is where that square comes in handy to make sure they are all even. Make those cuts and set the boards aside. Same with the shelf boards if they didn't come out to a nice even number like mine did. Don't make them too big (the exact length) as you will need a little wiggle room during assembly. Then measure and cut all those rungs. This part is a little time consuming and you will be grateful for that miter/chop saw.

Now clean up a little because this next part is going to take some space. I used the garage floor, but you can work anywhere you can lay down the uprights to work on assembling the ladders.

Step 3: Assembling the Ladders

For this step, I laid down all the uprights and made sure the bottom edges were even. Using some scrap pieces, I made sure the shelf supports were going the be well spaced. And using that handy square, I marked the spacing across all the boards right above where the supports would be. This is going to be very helpful for the next step.

Using the lines you drew, you will mark your predrill spots on the upright boards. You can be precise if you want, but I took a piece of scrap and made sure that the drill location would align to approximately the middle of the height of the shelf support and about 1/3 in from each outer edge. Repeat this 144 times and then predrill the locations for the screws. This is important to maintaining the integrity of the uprights. Not predrilling leads to splitting wood with the long screws. If you don't have anything else handy, use rungs to lift the pieces off the floor while you drill, being careful not to drill into them.

Next, lay one upright down and arrange a set of rungs in their appropriate location. Gently place the other upright on top forming the ladder. Make sure none of your rungs moved and that the rungs align correctly with the marks on the uprights. Once you are sure everything lines up correctly, you can start putting the screws in the predrilled holes and drilling them in.

Depending on the quality of lumber your hardware store provided you, you may have some cracks or splits occur at this point. If you do, I recommend predrilling the rungs with a slightly smaller predrill bit. A little extra time spent here will make a stronger, longer lasting book shelf.

Once you've screwed the first upright board to all the rungs, flip the assembly over. After double checking the placement of the rungs on this board, add the screws, predrilling the rungs if the wood quality dictates. This completes your first ladder.

Repeat for as many ladders as your design requires.

Step 4: Assembling the Shelves

Place your ladders in a stack against the wall. Slot the shelves into the ladder. I found stacking them made it easier to handle them while moving the ladders to their final locations. Having a friend will also help, but you can muscle through on your own. The first one is the hardest. At this point, you just scoot the first ladder across a little at a time, being careful not to drop the top shelves on your head, lifting the shelves a little as you go. Having a friend helping would speed it along.

Once the first ladder is at the other end, the rest of the ladders move more easily. Just place them at equal distances to best carry the weight of the books. In my case, I opted to leave an open space in the center to display taller items, but In hindsight I wish I hadn't. When I move again, I will probably replace the boards. I did add screws to each of those boards to keep them from sliding since they didn't have the walls to stop their movement.

Step 5: Fill and Decorate

For safety, I filled the bottom two shelves first, making sure to spread the shelf boards to their widest placement. I advise doing the same. If you plan to use anchors, install them before filling the upper shelves, attaching them to the upright and the wall. The shelves seem to be fairly stable, even on carpet, but sometimes it's better to err on the side of caution.

So far these shelves have held up very well in spite of the ever growing nature of my book collection. They are a little on the rough side, but I later found the wide uprights to be a handy place to add wire hangers for displaying rocks and minerals. I imagine this would work for any smaller collectibles. And the textbook depth shelves allow for a second row of paperbacks behind the first, though it is difficult to find a book you're looking for that way. I think if you made the shelf space taller and added another layer to raise up the back row that might help.