Securing Tall Bookshelves

November 15, 2004 8:54 PM

How do I keep my tall bookshelves from falling over during an earthquake? [More inside]

I just moved to the San Francisco area, and I have a pair of nice bookshelves made of real wood. They’re fantastic, but they're also about seven feet tall. I'd like to do something to earthquake-proof them. What should I look for when I go to the hardware store? Angle brackets? A stud-finder? I'm living in an apartment, but I'm free to drill into the walls.

posted by amery to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

We got some tie-downs. They're purpose made, nylon web, with velcro on one half. You screw the non-velcro half into studs with washers and good screws (included), and then adhere anti-velcro to the top of the bookshelf. You can also screw the anti-cro in if you like (we did). Press the vel- and anti- cro to eachother.

Keep in mind, all the crap ON the bookshelves will likely come down if your in a big shake.
posted by daver at 8:59 PM on November 15, 2004

Couldn't you then mount a dowel or metal rod about 3" up and front of the shelf to keep the books from tumbling out?

If you can't hit studs, use EZ Anchors. They are infinitely better than those crappy self-expanding anchors.

Ypu might be able to find two-part metal brackets that "hang" the bookcase from the wall. Attach one bracket to the wall, the other to the bookcase, lift bookcase an inch, slide over bracket, allow to drop one inch. Just make sure the brackets don't take any weight ('cause they'd never be strong enough to actually suspend the bookcase). You just want to use them to keep the bookcase from pitching forward, which is a lot less stress than actual hanging.

Specifically, I'm thinking something like this or this.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:09 PM on November 15, 2004

If you shim the front of the bookcase properly, so the bookcase's center of gravity is back toward the wall, then anchoring it to the wall should be mostly a formality. Still a good idea, but it doesn't need to be quite as sturdy as if it were holding the entire weight of the bookcase.
posted by kindall at 9:26 PM on November 15, 2004

Here is the Shaky Isles, the official advice is to screw shelves to the wall with angle brackets, and to affix things on high shelves with glue or other adhesive.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:28 PM on November 15, 2004

Here in the Shaky Isles, the official advice is to screw shelves to the wall with angle brackets, and to affix things on high shelves with glue or other adhesive.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:28 PM on November 15, 2004

sorry!
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:28 PM on November 15, 2004

fastening the bookcase to the wall will stop the whole structure keeling over, but the contents may spill out anyway (still, that's less likely to squash someone or damage other things). our bookcases are in the form of an L (imagine putting your two in the corner of a room, one against each wall) which makes them intrinsically stable. there's not a lot you can do about the contents for a large earthquake (all the water spilled out of my brother-in-law's toilet cistern in '85 or whenever it was - at that point you should just be happy you're alive) but one thing others haven't mentioned for smaller tremors is a kind of semi-sticky rubbery webbing that you can buy in shops, cut to shape, and place on shelves under ornaments etc. it looks bad, but that doesn't matter if the shelf is above eye level, and it stops things "walking" off the edge. glass doors that lock shut are another possibility.
posted by andrew cooke at 4:15 AM on November 16, 2004 [1 favorite]

incidentally, have you got speakers on stands? you may want to use wall mounts instead.
posted by andrew cooke at 4:16 AM on November 16, 2004

Can I suggest that anyone with young children do this also? I friend of ours has a child with a broken leg because he climbed up on their bookshelf and it came down on top of him.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:33 AM on November 16, 2004

Flanders, I'd say shimming/securing *any* bookcase that big is a smart idea, regardless of where you live or if you have kids. But then, maybe I just bump into my bookcases more often than most people.
posted by Sangre Azul at 8:37 AM on November 16, 2004 [1 favorite]

I've got two little boys, and every "free-standing" case in our house is bolted to the wall. They still get firmly reprimanded if they start to climb up to get something, but at least this way, if we're not there, it's not going to fall over on them.

We did it by screwing thin pieces of wood horizontally to the wall studs, and then screwing the bookcase to that slat. Not only does it allow you to adjust the bookcases a bit left to right without drilling new holes into them, but if their "heels" are set away from the wall because of a baseboard molding, this helps keep them relatively straight up and down. Throw some shims underneath, and you've got a very sturdy setup.
posted by LairBob at 12:07 PM on November 16, 2004

Get a stud finder - they're cheap and they work - make sure you attach whatever you're using to a wall stud.
posted by jasper411 at 12:41 PM on November 16, 2004