Maximum safe length for glass shelf?

[Nigel Watts]

The problem with designing a bathroom oneself - especially with no previous experience or qualifications - is that one is unlikely to anticipate all the potential difficulties.

I specified a shallow recess (some 4 inches deep) in a section of tiled wall sticking out into the room. On the other side is the shower cubicle. This recess was designed to take glass shelves for bottles of perfume, shampoo, medicines etc. The shelves will be nearly two feet long and I was planning to have a support half way along at the back as well as at each and until I realised that the wall is so thin here (a single layer of waterproof board tiled on both sides) that there would be a serious risk of drilling through to the shower cubicle. The fittings I have bought are for 6mm toughened glass. Can I get away with a two foot long by 4 inch wide shelf with no centre support?

Not really a period property question this, but forum members are so knowledgeable I am sure someone will know the answer.

 

[Penners]

Sorry if this is unhelpful, Nigel, but there are so many variables that your question is very difficult to answer. The weight of the bottles etc. and their spread and locations on the shelf (ie: centre, ends) will be very significant factors.

The following may be of some help:

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Bearing_Capacity_of_Glass_Shelves.html

 

[Feltwell]

Just a quick thought Nigel, and thinking laterally - does it have to be glass?

Acrylic ("Perspex") can be fabricated into all kinds of shapes and can be jointed, and can look like glass. It should be possible to have a clear acrylic shelf with a piece bonded vertically to the bottom, giving a T cross section - which would be both light in weight and would resist flexing. How the bonding would look through the acrylic I'm not sure, but I do know that the material can be jointed in several different ways and is frequently used for museum display cases - so I can't see it being a great problem.

Not sure how it fits in with your design ideas but another option may be to thermoform a piece of acrylic into an L shape, so you have the "downstand" at the front or back with no joint to make.

An example of a company I've heard of is below, but Google "acrylic fabricators" and you'll find plenty more.

http://www.dennyplastics.co.uk/

Although not as hard as glass, you can get scratch resistant grades of acrylic. Or maybe you could overlay it with a thin piece of glass? Only if it will stay 100% dry though - or you'll end up with water creeping into the joint I'd say.

Another option maybe to get glass cut, the edges polished and bonded into a T shape. No idea if this is possible or not! I wouldn't fancy a 2' plain glass shelf with no centre support, the problem is you don't know just how much it will end being loaded with full bottles in the future.

Final thought - you say your wall is only "a single layer of waterproof board tiled on both sides" - is there any danger of that flexing as a result of this shelf or anything else? That would be my concern in using that method, that any flex would make the tiles become detached or crack.

 

[Fred Drift]

Talking of which, have you SEEN the price of petrol these days? It's now more exensive than mineral water! :shock:

£73 quid just to fill the tank.... and it goes so quickly, it's as if I'm just burning the stuff! :roll:

 

[Feltwell]

Final final thought! I can't quite picture your intended location for this shelf (pictures can tell a thousand words apparently :wink: ) but are any of the fixing methods on this website possible to give continuous support to your new shelf?

http://www.glassshelf.co.uk/

I'm thinking of maybe one of their continuous channels along the back edge combined with the "wires from above" suspended glass method for a centre support on the front edge?

OR - this website is an interesting thought, if your walls are not finished yet? The "one shelf above another" method could be adapted with one of the ideas above to offer support.

http://www.floatingglassshelves.com/3.html

I'll shut up now (about shelves at least). Fred, have you ever considered this company as a potential employer?

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/jobs.htm

 

[Nigel Watts]

Thanks for all the ideas. The recess is just visible on the right of this picture:

The wall is solidly framed in timber with the recess fitting in between the studwork.

One thought that has just occurred to me is to put a cable support in the middle:

 

[MdB]

I think I would stay clear of Perspex as it it will scratch and look rubbish after a bit of use. Instead I would go for some sort of vertical support - maybe a couple of stainless steel poles or similar.

 

[Flyfisher]

Glass is pretty strong stuff. Its main downfall is that it's quite brittle. I can offer no scientifically-proven advice but my feeling is that a 2-foot length of 6mm toughened glass would easily support typical bathroom requisites. I reckon it would take quite a blow to break such a piece of glass.

However, for more informed advice, why not just ask the supplier of the glass? Surely they'd have experience of such things? They might even have access to the appropriate safety standards/guideline for glass shelving.

 

[Fred Drift]

Fred, have you ever considered this company as a potential employer?

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/jobs.htm

Can you imagine me in an interview? :shock:

 

[Schoolmarm]

Lol!!

Hello Mr Drift, so where were you last employed?


Um.......yes please, milk no sugar.

 

[AMc]

I specced two 40cm x 40cm 6mm toughened glass shelves polished on all edges for about £10 each when we did our master ensuite.
I've supported them on sections of architrave screwed into either side of the alcove - using metal corkscrew plasterboard fixings as there were no convenient studs. If mine were where they could be knocked I'd have put more architrave above to create a slot for them to fit in to prevent them lifting if you caught them from underneath.

I doubt you'll have any problems with 2 foot shelves. Make sure you measure accurately as you can't cut toughened glass and you'd be mad to use normal glass for shelves let alone in a bathroom. Ask for polished on all edges to make handling easier and don't fix them so you can remove them to clean them properly.



We had a few glass shelves in recesses either side of the chimney breast in the library. The previous owners had ornaments on them. I took out the shallow ones and replaced them with MDF for books and we put our glasses on the deeper ones- the only worry was a slight bow over the full length when laden. They were only supported at the ends on 4 metal peg shelf supports as found in flat pack furniture - which I didn't realise for a while and came to regret.

The deeper shelves were 120cm x 35cm of 6mm
The shallower ones were 120cm x 15cm of 6mm toughened glass.

I was a bit surprised a couple of years after we moved in when my 6 year old daughter came in and asked why there was glass all over the floor. I took a look and the upper of the two deep shelves had somehow slipped off its pegs and crashed onto the top of the lower shelf - I'd heard the crash days earlier but couldn't work out what it had been :0. We lost champagne flutes, martini glasses and a few other bits and bobs, both shelves were intact despite the upper one having crashed about 2 feet down onto the lower one.

I still have all the shelves - no one on Freegle wants them and I feel bad about taking them to the tip as I know how expensive they must have been.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Interesting that 6mm shelves well over 3 feet long survived so well.

On Thursday I ordered some shorter 6mm toughened glass shelves (for a different alcove) from my friendly local glazier. He thought that a two foot unsupported span would be perfectly fine so I might go with his advice.