My advice on putting up an industrial pipe shelving kit

I’m not a professional or anything, so don’t take anything here too seriously. I just tried to write accurately what worked for me.

Note that it’s technically possible to drill a hole in a live electric wire, which is dangerous, or a water pipe, which is messy. Be careful – if you’re going into a stud there isn’t much to worry about, but notice if something seems harder than it should (nice to check with an awl, but I haven’t done that) and quickly give up. Practically speaking, it’s not likely that you’ll hit something – a pipe and a stud can’t exist in the same space. If you’re using drywall anchors, don’t drill past the drywall.

Fun story – I was drilling next to an outlet into the stud, and noticed that something was starting to lift and poke out of the drywall. I quickly stopped; one screw had to be good enough for that shelf. When people put electric cables next to the inside of drywall, they’re supposed to put a metal plate to protect it from drilling; that’s probably what I hit.

Words

Shelf pipe – the horizontal pipe which the wooden shelves will eventually rest on.

Support pipe– the vertical pipes, which connect, and are attached to the floor (or to the ceiling, but I’m scared of the ceiling. Or you don’t have to connect them to the floor or the ceiling, but I like the feeling of having some extra support)

Flange – the metal circle things, which connect to the wall and floor. The shelf pipes are screwed into them

Stud – big piece of wood inside your wall, which the drywall is attached to. Can hold a lot of weight, and isn’t an electrical cable or pipe. I only like attaching a flange directly to this.

Materials

  • I use this kit. There’s a bunch around, but this is a good price, and people seem happy with it. We like it.
  • A laser level. You want the shelf pipes to be coming out of the wall forming a straight, vertical spine with the support pipes. You don’t want it crooked, and you don’t want it zig zag. I tried doing it without a level, I tried doing it with a manual (spirit) level, it was awful. Use a laser level.
  • Good screws. The kit comes with some small, dinky black screws. Upgrade. I got GRK screws, 1.5 inches long, with an R4 head (the more common ones are phillips and flathead, but R4 is the best. You don’t have to worry about the head getting rubbed out, they can withstand a ton of torque).
    • Length of the screw: you want to go an inch into the stud, no problem. So if you’re dry wall is ½ inch thick (the most common), you want 1 ½ inch screws at least. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can do 2 inches. I accidentally got 2 ½ inches – that’s a bit much. It’s very unlikely that you’ll hit anything, but not really necessary.
    • Thickness of the screw: #9. I’m tempted to try a #10, but it fills the holes in the flange pretty snug, leaving little margin for error.
  • Stud finder – you have to find the studs. They’re usually 16" apart, from one center to the next. I like this one, super simple to use, but there are a million brands out there. Note that this one doesn’t warn about live electrical wires, but in theory you don’t have to worry about that if you’re going an inch into a stud. And live wires are supposed to have metal plates protecting them.
  • Awl – I didn’t use one, I don’t have one, but it’s a nice way to poke into where you’re pretty sure there’s a stud and know for sure. If you’re using some good grk screws, this could probably remove the need to drill a pilot hole. And if there’s a metal plate protecting some electric cables, or a pipe, you’ll probably feel or hear it. A Phillips screw driver should work also.
  • Power drill and set of drill bits – of course. Get one with rechargeable batteries. I have this one, but there are lots of good ones.
  • Carpenter Pencils – I like drawing a lot of lines on the wall to know what I’m doing.
  • 6 inch level

A note about laser levels: A laser level casts a straight line, but you want the support pipes to be straight up and down |, not a straight, diagonal line on the wall / . The simple ones have a spirit level attached (bubble in yellow liquid), and you have to manually make sure that the laser is, in fact, level, and pointing straight up to the ceiling. A self leveling laser level is more expensive, and really won’t make a noticeable difference when all is said and done, but it takes out some guesswork when you’re making your vertical lines. I didn’t use one, but I would have liked to.

With a manual laser, there is some wiggle room for you to fiddle with where it’s basically straight up. A self leveling laser takes out that variable. Less choice makes things easier. And if you want the line to be a little bit diagonal, I think most laser levels allow you to set the line a bit off.

Instructions

Pipe

  1. Put together the pipes and stuff
    1. HAND TIGHTEN ONLY. There are 2 things you’re screwing together, hold one of them, and turn it. Don’t try to get extra torque by pushing on a shelf pipe to screw a support pipe into the joint. I did that, things ended up a bit crooked, and it was a pain to take it apart to change it. Don’t do that. If your shelf pipes end up pointing in different directions when you do this (and they will), LOOSEN them to get them to align. If you hand tighten them, and loosen to alignment, it’ll be plenty sturdy.
      1. If you’re really struggling to tighten them and can barely loosen them, you’re overdoing it.
    2. Make it as tall or as short as you like.

Prep

  1. Find the studs. Go up and down the wall, and make a few lines. If you’re not sure, make a small hole with the awl (or careful drill). Try to put it somewhere which will be covered later by the flanges. I did this sometimes and found I had missed the stud entirely.
  2. Get a level laser line on the wall over the stud.
  3. Draw with a pencil over the laser. If you don’t want to see them, with a ruler you can guess around where the flanges will go, and only draw there. After the whole thing is up and you have all the holes in the wall, if you really want you can take it down, erase the lines (wet paper towel), and put it back up.
  4. Lean one whole section against the wall – a whole line of sections and supports
  5. With the hand level, try to make sure the lowest support and shelf pipes are mostly level.
    1. For the support pipe, lean the 6 inch level against it at 2 points, parallel and perpendicular to the wall. I’ve been advised that a post level would be useful for this, but haven’t tried.

Drill

  1. Make sure the flange is parallel to the wall, press it up against it, and make an indentation in the drywall with the awl (or a screw, or a screwdriver) where the screws will go through.. This’ll make it a lot easier to drill at the right point.
    1. The flange has 4 holes for screws. I advise having 2 centered vertical holes (:), and just ignoring the other 2 holes. 2 holes well into the stud is more than enough support. Both holes should be on the laser pencil line you drew earlier.
  2. Drill pilot holes into the drywall and a bit of the stud. This makes drilling the screw a lot easier to keep in the right place. It gets a bit annoying switching between the drill bit and the screw bit, though.
  3. Screw in the screws. I tend to screw them most of the way in, but leave a bit for after all the screws are in, but I don’t know if that does anything
  4. Repeat for the next flange 1. I like to do one at a time, instead of doing all the pilot holes in one shot, in case the positioning of the pipe changes as a result of being in its final position on the wall.
  5. And the next
  6. Until all the screws are in.
  7. Tighten them, if you didn’t already.

Finish

  1. Do the same thing for the other side of the shelf. 1. Try to make sure that the bottom shelf pipe is level with the first side’s bottom shelf pipe. Or the bottom flange, if that’s easier.
  2. In theory, it would be nice to make sure that each shelf of the two sides are level, using a laser level to make a line through where (vertically) to place the screws or something. Practically, as long as you make sure that the support pipes and shelf pipes are all basically level, it’ll be good enough.
  3. A note on how far apart to place the sides 1. Our studs were 16 inches apart 2. I had one empty stud between the 2 sides, so 32 inches apart 3. I put up a second set right next to the first one, no empty studs in between (so 16 inches apart) 4. Pipe on stud, empty stud, pipe. And again: pipe, empty, pipe**| – | | – |**

Wood shelves

  1. Don’t get pine, get hardwood, oak or maple and the like, or plywood. I used this plywood. You can get it cut in the store, or specify online. I said online to do 4 cuts of 9" ⅞; the last shelf is a bit thinner, but still fine. So we have shelves that our 4 foot wide, and just under 10" deep.There are lots of great cheap plywoods around; this one has a poplar base, which is a cheap but good enough hard wood. 1. Thickness: the thickest plywood is ¾". Get that. If you’re getting solid hard wood – you can get what they call 1" (which is actually ¾"), or a bit bigger. I hear that 2" (“nominal inches”, actually more like 1" ¾) of oak can have as much space as you like between the supports, and can hold a ridiculous amount of weight without bending. But ¾" plywood at 32 inches between the supports is fine. We have a big set of shas on one, there isn’t noticeable bending.

Some final notes

You probably want two bookends on each shelf, so that nothing falls on your head. I have a bunch that I got at Weinstein’s hardware in Crown Heights, but he doesn’t carry them anymore. I suppose you get a 2×4 or something and drill it to your shelves. Or, just find some bookends. Somewhere.