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MDF for closet shelving

16 years ago

I'm in th middle of building a large closet organizer with MDF from Home Depot and regretting that I didn't check the grade of it first (light beige sheets). Anyway, anybody happen to know if the 3/4" stuff they stock is LD, MD or HD? It was like $26 a sheet, and my shelves are 14'deep x 28 wide. What kind of sag do you think I'll get over time. It'll be used mainly for light closet stuff like clothing and shoes, etc.

Also, to screw the fixed shelves into the "end grain", what size/kind of screws to you use? I was going to use 1/4 cabinet screws with the wide flat heads, but am thinking that diam. might be too large. I'm thinking instead of using 1 5/8" coarse thread drywall screws + glue, predrilled. Anybody have a preference on this?

Thanks much.

Thanks.

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Comments (3)

User
16 years ago
A 28" long shelf made of 3/4" thick MDF will eventually sag up to an inch. You can minimize that sag by adding a piece of wood about 2" wide to the front of the shelf---making a lip which adds strength.

Making 1/4" deep dado's and using glue/wood screws with coarse threads(1/4" by 1&1/2" long) will be better. You must predrill and do not use a power driver to fully seat the screws---too easy to strip out the threads in the holes.

If you can't make the dado's, glue/screw 2" strips of wood on which to install the shelves.

Reason is that even glue/screws used on butt joinery will not hold MDF shelving over time.
tryinbrian
16 years ago
The HD near me stock MD at around the price you mentioned, so that's probably what it is.

Regarding your plan, I'm with handymac, it will probably sag if installed as you describe. And drywall screws into the MDF doesn't sound strong enough even to hold it up in the long term.

MDF has some wonderful qualities, but it is weak, and very heavy. For those reasons I usually employ strategies along the lines of what handymac described. For shelves, in fact, I often use 1/2" MDF with a glued-on lip and perhaps glued on undershelf support strips of 1/4" or 3/8" dimensional material. This give you the strength of real wood with the smoothness, paintability, dimensional stability and economy of the MDF. (Finding the appropriate strips of wood could be problematic if you don't have a table saw.)

If you don't have a table saw, probably the best strategy is to create cleats made out of 1x2 material to support the MDF, with a 1x2x28" support connected to the front of the cleats to provide longitudinal support. Wouldn't look as good as the dado approach, but it would hold up well.
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I have Elfa ventilated shelves (and some drawers) in my pantry and laundry room both. I love them BUT I use liners so I don't have the wobbly issue going on. That would drive me crazy. Elfa's ventilated shelves, unlike what you can find at Lowe's, HD or Ikea, have the wires a lot closer together. They also "lock" into place so the wire part is sitting really firmly in the bracket - not just a piece of wood sitting on top of the shelf bracket. As far as organizing little things, Elfa has "shelf baskets" that you can put dividers in and stack stuff in if need be. In the pic below, I have one of those on the immediate left (3 shelves up) and above the counter top oven in the back. I use it for bags of baking stuff like chocolate chips, coconut, etc on the left and treats in the back. And I absolutely love their big drawers. Container Store's return policy is great too - anytime with a receipt and the best Elfa sales is 30% off all Elfa products. It starts Dec. 24th and goes through the end of January typically. There is one in the fall that isn't as good - 25% of Elfa Shelving. (No, I don't work for Container Store, I am just a big fan and will be buying some more Elfa stuff during their Dec. sale.) Here's a picture of our new pantry.
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I think you are thinking this through well. I would put the deeper shelves in the middle (easier to see and get to). Measure what you want to store in the pantry and make the shelves deep and tall enough for that. I stored lots of can goods in my last pantry (in the boxes they were sold in) that fit on an 11 in deep shelf. My newer pantry had shelves tall enough to use a canned goods storage container that works better. I had shorter shelves for foil and plastic wrap and sandwich bags. I store paper towels on the floor along with grocery bags. We used quality shelving in our pantry and it held up really well.
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Michael
16 years ago
Cabinet light rails make excellent stiffeners when applied to the front edge of the MDF. They are pre-notched 3/4" to fit over cabinet stock and will slip over the front edge of the shelf about 3/8".

Michael

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