Want to see how we built our pantry shelves, here's links to all the videos in the series: Part 1: th-cam.com/video/hY4f46IEsFE/w-d-xo.html Part 2: th-cam.com/video/7ovOzGwUE1s/w-d-xo.html Part 3: th-cam.com/video/c96pSdcc4Bs/w-d-xo.html Part 4: th-cam.com/video/Gkg34-AZ8T8/w-d-xo.html
i am a structural engineer. when you put load on one of those shelves, you are essentially putting a triangle of load from the ends to the middle of the shelf across each "beam". the way you solved it, you added all those loads to the weakest point in each beam [edit: the center of each beam], consecutively. as in- added together all the way down to the bottom beam which is now carrying that triangle worth of load from all beams above it. you will now see more deflection (bending) in the bottom beam, and each successive beam moving up as each is carrying less load. the simple fix is to shim it up to the hgt of the feet on your system. i would have shimmed the bottom first, using some sort of jack or wedge to get it to the correct hgt. then cut equal pieces of column (dowell) to size, and add them moving from the bottom to the top using a jack or manpower to get each to the correct hgt. but, shimming the bottom should at least limit your deflection as it allows the load to flow into the ground. i normally dont comment, and i hate armchair quaterbacking a grown dude from my home office in texas, but i do have a unique perspective, and decided i could help. im sure someone out there could teach me how to use my shift key better. seriously though, shim the bottom, and be sure and do the rear asap.
Well that was all gibberish to me. Lol But I think it's awesome that we all have different skills and have the ability to help one another get the best end result on our projects. Great comment!
I would use a small chain, like a dog chain, attached it at the “ceiling.” Then screw the chain's links to the shelving frame. It’s also a quick fix for overloaded pine shelving and clothes rods (found in older homes). But not necessarily the proper fix. Just measure your shelves level.
@@Slnaocwe LOL I agree that he lost me with his explanation. I do know that when dad built our shelves at the old house, he had two vertical supports per shelf. They were staggered so not on top of each other.
That was concern that I had right away just supporting the front. Putting extra pressure to the mid and the back of the shelves could cause more failure? I’m just a older farm girl seeing this sort of thing in my lifetime ☺️
Thank heavens. We just finished an inventory and reorganization of our canned and dehydrated goods, and our freezer and I was embarassed at how much food we have. But from the looks of your shelves, we have about half as much. I don't feel like such a hoarder any more. And we do have one set of shelves, filled with tomato product, that is starting to sag. It was the first shelving unit my husband built. That was in 1976, so it's stood up well.
WOW! Lots of canning! Glad I bought the steel shelves that hold 2000 lbs in 5 shelves 36" wide and 63" high. Shelves and legs are all double and steel and adjustable. Now they are $99 each I do love the space you have for storage and am jealous. But, yes, have modernize the structure. Imagine if you had put that on the first floor or higher in a building that old. YIKES! Looking at you old structure for the first floor. You have added a lot of weight in the kitchen. I remember the water bed days when you had to shore up under the house to hold the weight of the bed. We did not have all of these heavy appliances and cabinets when these houses were built. I think many people underestimate A LOT the amount of food we need to live. There is a metric on the web that tells you like how much water one person needs for 2 weeks. You will be shocked if you go and look at that. We are so disconnected from our past. Furniture wasn't built in in the Victorian days like we have today with cabinets and islands and huge stoves and sinks and dishwashers and refrigerators and freezers. Have you had your ground tested for water and movement too??? The University might do it for you. Oh, and don't get me started on trees - they can reek havoc with those roots. I have many 100 year old oaks. You can't even imagine what happened when we had an historical ice storm and some went over how big the base was. I also discovered when I put a ground spring fed pond in that taking down trees changes your whole water flow on the surface (grass).
We just redid our pantry so I weighed my jars and the heaviest was a quart of spaghetti sauce at 2 lbs 13 oz...so to be conservative I said 3 lbs per jar. Times the number of jars and you've got a solid idea! Happy honey do-listing, Todd. Can't wait to see both your and Rachel's faces together on camera soon. Prayers from MN.
Another thing to think about... If you have a conventional floor, you might want to add some additional support. Like myself, I've seen many people repurpose a bedroom for a pantry. Food can add a few thousand pounds before you know it.
my husband builds cabinets/ pantries so he beefed up ours by putting a trim like piece of wood on all 3 sides/ and back nailed against the walls / feel free to message me for photos/ yes our canning jars hold ALOT OF WEIGHT- and when you multiply each jar and the force it carries by all those shelves it could be a POWERFUL force if it breaks- and sadly a waste of food etc/. ours began to buckle so that is how he came up with the design/ and the dowel in the front is GOOD you've put in because of the span of space you have on your awesome shelves
Nice looking shelves. A big reason why you have deflection is a) the weight and b) the orientation of your 2x4 for the shelf framing. Dimensional lumber flexes on the flat edge. If you would have build the shelves on edge, crown up, they would most likely not budge an inch. Or supports like you’ve done does the trick as well.
Can't figure out how to insert a picture of shelves my husband made that have been incredible. Basically (2) 2 x 4s nailed back to back as uprights with 6" spaced notches for 3/4inch thick plywood shelves that can be slid in and out to fit items. The top and bottom shelves are fixed obviously for sturdiness. What's nice is that I can flip the shelves if start to bow, which over 12 years has been negligible.
I know you live in Michigan which is not earthquake country. But here in Oregon where they say the big one is coming I added eye hooks and bungee cords, I don't want things falling off the shelves. I enjoy your cooking, canning and construction videos. Thank you for all the time spent so people can watch them. Have a great day. Tom, Grants Pass Or.
A board would work better in an earthquake, I’m sure. A bungee cord is better than nothing, but I’m not sure it would hold a bunch of jars on a shelf. Check out Chelsea’s shelves from Little Mountain Ranch.
We did get lucky and found a farm up the road selling 6” x 2” x 12’ painters scaffolding used in the construction industry. It was A LOT of scaffolding for 250$ about 20 years ago. We got enough to re-floor the entire barn and enough to build the canning room shelves. Todd we did the same and had them fitted to canning jars. I have no idea how many jars are canned. I kind of just go by a 2-3 year supply of food myself. Good for you taking a fix on this. They look fabulous anyhow. PS.; I painted chalkboard paint on the edges so I could just write what was in the jars above for my poor DH that has to go down and find stuff for me on the fly.
Excellent information for all of us! I appreciate that both you, and Rachel, share the good and "bad." Your video started a needed discussion in our household ♥️
My sisters very well made shelves her husband made (he is an over achiever or overly secured etc). But they fell.. FULL of gorgeous canned goodies. Very huge and dangerous clean up. And so do sad and much hard work, no good food for the family of four. So glad you noticed they need attention. Good reminder for families to check theirs
I used your videos to build my last year. I put a support in the center and put my 2x4s the support way. I also used 3/4 inch sanded plywood. They are not as full as yours yet, so we will see if it holds up. I can go 6 deep on the quart and it is 6 ft long. I can stack pints two high.
I've designed & built my own free standing shelving for my pantry. Food Emergency Preparedness. I cut 3-4 spacers full width of the shelves to go across the 8ft length. No sagging.
Great video, I can't help it, I love when a man fixes things and takes care of stuff. Rachel will really appreciate it!! U both have built quite the stock pile of food!
I'm a retired union carpenter and have a suggestion for you when you install the new beams. I suggest you jack it up over the course of a couple of months. Otherwise you will have some popping. Your floor didn't sag all at once , it took some time. So jack it up with time. Maybe install bridging once you get it where you want it ? Back in the 1990's I lifted my house 9 feet and built a basement under it , and it took a while to settle down on the new walls. Used to hear wood popping for a few months. Hope this helps you and good luck.
definitely. when we did our living room area, we did it over the course of a week and a half. and a lot of plaster cracked. when I do the kitchen, there's much less load-bearing walls above it, but I still plan on taking it slow and doing over a long period of time.
Y'all did an amazing job canning, and storing all your garden foods. I'd hate to see something jappen to those shelves. Good thing your supporting them!! Ha, your floor is doing what ours did. Ours had major sag, learned the floor wasn't supported properly down our hallway which runs through part of the kitchen. We don't have a basement to stand up in to fix the floor. We had to hire out because you literally have to inch worm on your belly through the crawl space to fix the floor. My husband is a disabled Veteran, so there was no way I'd let him get under the house in the crawl space. We found an excellent team, with reasonable rates fix the floor and warranty it for 10 years. These guys had it fixed properly in a couple of hours. Were amazed on the difference, it was a 2 inch difference.
Ohh geez. That’s hundreds of pounds on those shelves hun. Two years ago I had one fall out of the cement wall took out two shelves below it. Thank God I only lost a few (5 or 6) jars of food but they were beans and ham Lost a few old bowls Real McCoy bowls 😢 Our shelves were made of oak (from our property) Only advice I can give anyone putting jars 🫙 on a shelf. Think of it like fire wood when you think it’s enough support triple it!! It’s absolutely heartbreaking 💔 to clean your hard work and broken jars off the floor. And speaking of the floor. If your storage is on a upper level of your house or apartment. Make sure the floors are strong enough to hold all that weight. ❤❤ I would also add more of those dowels that you cut at least two more offset on each of the shelves. That’s a lot of weight and a lot of work and a lot of money I can tell you it’s a Godawful sound when they come down and a horrible mess to clean up. We didn’t lose as many jars bc my husband put plywood floors in a root cellar so there was give to the floor when they came down they only fell a few feet and those jars are very durable 😂. Love your videos thank you for sharing.
Personally, I would have measured the height of the end which would have been the original height and picked them back up to the original height to take the sway completely out. Wood shelves scare me anyway 🤣 I use the metal shelves from SAM'S that have 3 vertical braces, which hold I believe hold 300+ lbs per shelf, 1500lbs total without casters, and they were only $99 when I found them a couple years ago. I think they are $129 now, but still probably cheaper than wood, lol. The other metal shelves from Lowes, Walmart, and home Depot DO NOT have the middle support brace and will bend like yours. I've actually pointed the metal shelves bending in other TH-camrs videos and they hadn't noticed it. I hope you get yours fixed!!! Nothing like waking up to find crashing jars hit the floor in the middle of the night 😭😭😭 Love you Todd and Rachel! ❤️Kacy
Wonderful that you have that much food! Great fix for the front, but unless you keep moving jars to the empty front spaces you will need to brace the back very soon. You're doing great Todd!
We had the same problem so my husband took it all off and put floor wood in supporting the shelf's in each one then to take it apart it's much better all the way up from floor to ceiling. Were going to do some new ones and remember our mistakes. Also never ever use plastic shelf's for food.
One gallon of milk is 8 pounds, there are 4 quarts in a gallon. So If I guess on how many quarts are on each shelf I'd say I have no idea. lol My husband built me some amazing shelves started with two, then three now four. Oh and one smaller but same build upstairs, so five.
When first started canning, we were storing the jars in the upper kitchen cabinets. The top two shelves started to bow. Since we rent we are limited on our options. So my husband converted an unused closet for food storage. Once we started to fill up the shelves, one of them sagged. He had to add additional support. You are right that weight adds up quick.
Thank you again for sharing your hard work and talent! As I had just mentioned on a previous video of yours in the comment section of how i needed to search a "how to" build the shelf system I just knew your folks wouldn't disappoint and I was right, Thank you again
Great video! Your channel is great for beginners and those more experienced at canning and how to use what we've put up. I'm glad you showed this. So many people don't realize just how heavy jarred food is. The pantry is still sooo pretty even with many jars used!
This happened in our new house in the pantry. Shelves started drooping. Since it was a new house, thankfully the builder came in and reinforced them. And he did it the same way you described with the boards. Definitely holding up now. OK, so I was guessing each quart jar probably weighs at least 2lbs..... but could vary depending on ingredient. But WOW.... almost 3lbs each!
I’m guessing an average weight of each 32oz jar is about 2 1/2lbs so I’m guessing each shelf is holding between 80-110lbs of weight because some foods will be heavier than others and the smaller jars are probably between 50-75lbs depending on sizes and content of jars…..great job I’m sure Rachel will love and appreciate it…..
I would recommend dividing your shelf length in thirds and installing a 2x4 as a center brace for support. I would not recommend using a dowell rod as a center support
Don't know how many jars you have but I think the standard full jar weights 2lbs quart and 1lbs for pint? This is going to be a doozy. I've often wondered about how much the shelves will hold. .... now back to the video 😁
Hi Todd, I think you are on the right track. When we built all of our canning shelves, we used 2"x6"s for the shelves in no more than a 4' span. Each shelf is 3 - 2"x6"s deep with 2" thick horizontal brackets on each end that go front to back(holds a row of 4 quart jars deep), with two 2"x6" vertical braces that go from floor to ceiling on each end. And so far, no bowing. The heaviest of all the sets of shelves is the one with the gallon jugs(plastic) of distilled water. Each shelf holding 30 - one gallon jugs. If a gallon of water is 8 pounds than that shelf is holding 240 lbs, and has not bowed yet. If you want, I can message a pic to you in IG.
We have 2 different types of metal shelf storage atm. The one is bent from quarts but holds pints fine. I plan on reinforcement pieces as they get empty just to make sure, plus adding wooden shelves in to hold more pints. I also had plans to do a 9 ft long 2 ft wide shelf to access from both sides, and now I think I will reboot my build plans to be sure they are hardy enough to hold what we plan on storing.
I'm sure that each jar is going to weigh a slightly different amount. As someone else commented, I would jack up the bottom shelf first and brace it, and work up to the top shelf. Having had shelving collapse from being overloaded in the past, it can be tricky to fix a problem like this. You may need to do something along the lines of a sister board
Remember each filled jar is going to weigh heavier or lighter than the other depending on what is in it. So, find the heaviest jar and go off that weight. This should give you allowances for extra weight.
such great information. To my surprise my small shelving unit was holdings 55 pounds per shelf of pints. No wonder things are bowing around here. Thanks it was an eye opener
I can't believe there are so many jars of food. You guys are amazing. I sure hope that those braces do the trick and you don't have to add more on the back side. Oh the job that would be..jars are beautiful though😉
Plus all the weight on the floor. This is good information to consider if you dont store shelves on a sturdy concrete floor. I think if you store on Pier and Beam construction, that much weight probably needs to be reinforced under the crawl space. Im blessed to store in a basement but many dont have a concrete base so thats something to think about. Thanks for showing us this. now I am going to do math in my basement. lol I hate math.
We made our shelves wooden shelves able to hold jars 6 deep (as far as I can reach) and 7 across. They are very strong and the way we built them, I don't think they will ever sag or move during an earthquake. It takes up a bit more room, but they are solid as bedrock. Our metal shelves are rated for 500 pounds each shelf and can hold twice as much food per shelf. They require bungees to earthquake proof them, though. We had some cheap shelves many years ago now that we propped up with tubes of PVC pipe for a few months while we finished building the wooden shelves. They worked long enough.
This is my worry, I'm in the process of having shelves built. But I am hesitant because of the weight. Thanks for giving me an idea of how to go about it.
When my hubby built my canned food pantry shelves he put a center support from the top shelf to the floor. Mine won't sag or fall. He also put in extra supports on the walls to hold up each shelf. Including the backs of the shelves. We knew how heavy home canned foods are. Just fill up a box with 12 full jars. And lift it. That shows you fast, how heavy pints are, quarts are etc. Better to be safe than sorry.
Hey Todd. This is just a temporary fix. I think you need some metal brackets or something that will hold the weight. If you grab something without thinking about it and knock into the dowel, all your food would collapse. I don't know exactly what you need, I'll leave that to experienced builders but I would use metal and to brace it front and back or else you may lose all of your hard work.
It would hold, the 2x4 won't snap. Not enough weight for that, just to bend over time. Now, it could theoretically bend enough and rip the threads out of the screws, but even then it won't sheer them off.
Great video! I took notes. We're moving in to a smaller house(we're renovating it right now). I bought a couple shelves from the hardware store to put my canning on...I took notes so I can figure out how many jars the shelf will handle! 1650 lbs no longer sounds like unbeatable for loading it...
It’d be nice if you could put a bar code on an Avery label on each jar. Then you could track the date of canning and if/when you used it. Put it in an Excel sheet. Find out what’s moving per month, and what you have that is getting a little old. Do it now when you have time. And if you scan the lids of what you use, you won’t have to inventory so much. You are sort of living off your goods. Most canners just preserve the few yummy things they grow. Then you could highlight the items that move (and should focus on), and the ones that don’t. Am I’m not picking on you. I just want to find out what I should grow and maybe what I shouldn’t. Maybe do a top ten of things to can/freeze?? We want to learn from your experiences.
They did their current top five favs and least a bit ago. It basically revealed what I expected. Unless carefully meal planned, the jars pulled most often will be the ones that should be spaced out between less delicious things. lol Try a jar of anything new, a couple months or so in from canning date so flavor is sort of set. Then meal plan the rotation from there. Happens also when you can't easily find or see the variety of options. Which obscures what to can more/less of next year. For instance, we discovered the labeling I use is too coded, and my spouse has only a vague guess at what is in most of the jars. Leaving him alone for weeks would be a slight disaster. Plus the meat and starch sections would get light, but the veggies would be rarely remembered. Most requested movers change a bit every year too, when you try a new way/recipes, of canning the less desirables. Or you find a better way to use them. Like roasted radishes changed our winter planting plans, from now on. 40 yrs of the same ways, changed after the first meal. Will they can and then roast as nicely? Remains to be seen/eaten this summer! Advice is to try each homegrown variety or specific thing a number of ways. Then try it canned or dried a number of ways. If you all can't find a way to like it, don't grow it again. No matter how much it thrives where you live. No matter how much the entire region just loves to eat it. Or grow it only to give to those who do like it, and as animal feed.
You are making my point. They canned a lot of excess things they had. And they seemed to have canned specific things. They may be better off leaving them more generic and flexible for multiple uses. I like learning from other people's experiences. I think more conversations and videos on the non-movers is a good one to have. Plus, what's peoples thresholds for tossing them or feeding them to the livestock. 3 years? It all part of the canning process. Yes, the yummy stuff, and things you like, move. I was just thinking when you have tons of stuff you are more susceptible to old ones and some non-movers.
It got too late one night last week for me to run the canner & I didn't want to out the jars in the fridge so I thought I'd carry the Presto 23qt with the water & 7 full quart jars in it to the very cool garage overnight.... NOPE! The canner plus the 7 jars probably weighed about 45 - 50lbs or at least it felt like it! My hubby is a contractor so he has reinforced all my shelves though they are very much smaller than the ones you built (only 1' to 3' deep). Most of my shelves are prefab & aren't the right height so I'm getting egg boxes & similar size from the grocery store to store jars in on my shelves to double stack them. One full quart jar is almost 3lbs each on average. You better plan to reinforce the middle & back of the shelves also. Just doing the front will not be enough to be safe. I realized the weight when I was putting jars in boxes & carrying them down to the basement to store. Hubby originally argued with me about the shelves until he felt the weight of the boxes. Have fun but be safe with your back!
When you can the stuff just take a permanent maker and write on the glass with the year , product and directions if need be. Wipes off with washing or rubbing alcohol. Great idea about the doll rod. But what is the saw you used called? Thanks 😊
Great supply of food you have. Could be wrong, but it seems the dowels might put extra pressure on the middle of the shelves below them by adding some additional weight from the shelf over it.
I would've guessed each qt be at least 2lbs each, haven't finished video yet. I'm running into issue store bought shelves bending, my husband is going to figure something out. Wow! Wouldn't have thought qt weigh that much!
I was thinking in the neighborhood of 200 lbs. My canning jars are currently sitting in boxes on the floor. I'm hoping Bully shelves will handle them when I move.
We built your shelves, I knew the risk of this going in. In the end the weight gets distributed down through the posts, but the 2x side is obviously the weakest configuration a 2x4 can be. But 2x4s are strong either way. It's unlikely to break, the only way it falls is if the screws sheer (very unlikely as the sheer strength is way more than you have and it's not on one screw ;) ) but, if it can strip out it can bend enough for things to fall. Or, if the wood on the top half of the screws breaks the wood. Thats entirely possible. Just put 2x4s in front and back in the middle as braces, and make it all the way to the floor. It will be fine. The plywood still distributes the load. And if you're really worried, do the same at the edges to the floor. Yes, it won't look as good but that will be solid as a rock. It's all just ensuring the load is transferred to the floor.
do you need to put dowels about halfway back as well or just in front? edit - rewatched and heard you say prob add another dowel as the jars get used in the back ........ looks sooo pretty with all the jars
Isn't that just how it goes? 🤣 The storage of all those jars and the weight of all the good food is just another part of the battle. Love how you figured it all out. Edit: Who would've thought that much weight could be in one area?! 😱 Now I'm rethinking my design for the shelving in my small hall closet.
@@cynthiafisher9907 yep, and its a simple fix.. if you even have the issue. Hell, it could be just that if you pay more attention to grain direction its not necessarily just the weight, but the drying of the wood to the grain. pattern.
Want to see how we built our pantry shelves, here's links to all the videos in the series:
Part 1: th-cam.com/video/hY4f46IEsFE/w-d-xo.html
Part 2: th-cam.com/video/7ovOzGwUE1s/w-d-xo.html
Part 3: th-cam.com/video/c96pSdcc4Bs/w-d-xo.html
Part 4: th-cam.com/video/Gkg34-AZ8T8/w-d-xo.html
i am a structural engineer. when you put load on one of those shelves, you are essentially putting a triangle of load from the ends to the middle of the shelf across each "beam". the way you solved it, you added all those loads to the weakest point in each beam [edit: the center of each beam], consecutively. as in- added together all the way down to the bottom beam which is now carrying that triangle worth of load from all beams above it. you will now see more deflection (bending) in the bottom beam, and each successive beam moving up as each is carrying less load.
the simple fix is to shim it up to the hgt of the feet on your system.
i would have shimmed the bottom first, using some sort of jack or wedge to get it to the correct hgt. then cut equal pieces of column (dowell) to size, and add them moving from the bottom to the top using a jack or manpower to get each to the correct hgt. but, shimming the bottom should at least limit your deflection as it allows the load to flow into the ground.
i normally dont comment, and i hate armchair quaterbacking a grown dude from my home office in texas, but i do have a unique perspective, and decided i could help. im sure someone out there could teach me how to use my shift key better. seriously though, shim the bottom, and be sure and do the rear asap.
Well that was all gibberish to me. Lol
But I think it's awesome that we all have different skills and have the ability to help one another get the best end result on our projects.
Great comment!
I would use a small chain, like a dog chain, attached it at the “ceiling.” Then screw the chain's links to the shelving frame. It’s also a quick fix for overloaded pine shelving and clothes rods (found in older homes). But not necessarily the proper fix. Just measure your shelves level.
Looks like theres a market for a sagging shelf fix kit.
@@Slnaocwe LOL I agree that he lost me with his explanation. I do know that when dad built our shelves at the old house, he had two vertical supports per shelf. They were staggered so not on top of each other.
That was concern that I had right away just supporting the front. Putting extra pressure to the mid and the back of the shelves could cause more failure?
I’m just a older farm girl seeing this sort of thing in my lifetime ☺️
I just had three shelves of canned goods fall down on top of each other.What a mess. I would definitely put that back brace in!
Oh no! I hope you didn't lose to much canned food.
I am so sorry, I hope you did not loose to much.
Omg….same! I’ve got beet juice everywhere
Nnoooo! Oh no, I'm so sorry that suck! I agree with the above. I hope you didn't lose to much!
I had 6 fall down on them selves they were the plastic shelves.
I lost a few things but will not use the plastic anymore.
Wow! I'm looking to build myself such a shelf....and I didn't think all this could weigh so much! Good to know, I'll build it strong.
Thank heavens. We just finished an inventory and reorganization of our canned and dehydrated goods, and our freezer and I was embarassed at how much food we have. But from the looks of your shelves, we have about half as much. I don't feel like such a hoarder any more. And we do have one set of shelves, filled with tomato product, that is starting to sag. It was the first shelving unit my husband built. That was in 1976, so it's stood up well.
WOW! Lots of canning! Glad I bought the steel shelves that hold 2000 lbs in 5 shelves 36" wide and 63" high. Shelves and legs are all double and steel and adjustable. Now they are $99 each
I do love the space you have for storage and am jealous. But, yes, have modernize the structure. Imagine if you had put that on the first floor or higher in a building that old. YIKES!
Looking at you old structure for the first floor. You have added a lot of weight in the kitchen. I remember the water bed days when you had to shore up under the house to hold the weight of the bed. We did not have all of these heavy appliances and cabinets when these houses were built.
I think many people underestimate A LOT the amount of food we need to live. There is a metric on the web that tells you like how much water one person needs for 2 weeks. You will be shocked if you go and look at that. We are so disconnected from our past. Furniture wasn't built in in the Victorian days like we have today with cabinets and islands and huge stoves and sinks and dishwashers and refrigerators and freezers.
Have you had your ground tested for water and movement too??? The University might do it for you. Oh, and don't get me started on trees - they can reek havoc with those roots. I have many 100 year old oaks. You can't even imagine what happened when we had an historical ice storm and some went over how big the base was. I also discovered when I put a ground spring fed pond in that taking down trees changes your whole water flow on the surface (grass).
We just redid our pantry so I weighed my jars and the heaviest was a quart of spaghetti sauce at 2 lbs 13 oz...so to be conservative I said 3 lbs per jar. Times the number of jars and you've got a solid idea! Happy honey do-listing, Todd. Can't wait to see both your and Rachel's faces together on camera soon. Prayers from MN.
'You're nice and safe now carrot' 💓
Wow. Those shelves have done great. Good thing y'all caught it.
Another thing to think about... If you have a conventional floor, you might want to add some additional support. Like myself, I've seen many people repurpose a bedroom for a pantry. Food can add a few thousand pounds before you know it.
We put in 2 x 4 spacers and toe nailed them in so they wouldn't move. Still strong after 24 years!
my husband builds cabinets/ pantries so he beefed up ours by putting a trim like piece of wood on all 3 sides/ and back nailed against the walls / feel free to message me for photos/ yes our canning jars hold ALOT OF WEIGHT- and when you multiply each jar and the force it carries by all those shelves it could be a POWERFUL force if it breaks- and sadly a waste of food etc/. ours began to buckle so that is how he came up with the design/ and the dowel in the front is GOOD you've put in because of the span of space you have on your awesome shelves
Nice looking shelves. A big reason why you have deflection is a) the weight and b) the orientation of your 2x4 for the shelf framing. Dimensional lumber flexes on the flat edge. If you would have build the shelves on edge, crown up, they would most likely not budge an inch. Or supports like you’ve done does the trick as well.
Can't figure out how to insert a picture of shelves my husband made that have been incredible. Basically (2) 2 x 4s nailed back to back as uprights with 6" spaced notches for 3/4inch thick plywood shelves that can be slid in and out to fit items. The top and bottom shelves are fixed obviously for sturdiness. What's nice is that I can flip the shelves if start to bow, which over 12 years has been negligible.
I know you live in Michigan which is not earthquake country. But here in Oregon where they say the big one is coming I added eye hooks and bungee cords, I don't want things falling off the shelves.
I enjoy your cooking, canning and construction videos. Thank you for all the time spent so people can watch them. Have a great day. Tom, Grants Pass Or.
A board would work better in an earthquake, I’m sure. A bungee cord is better than nothing, but I’m not sure it would hold a bunch of jars on a shelf. Check out Chelsea’s shelves from Little Mountain Ranch.
I put wood slats in front so I can still reach and bring out a jar but the jars can't fall out.
We did get lucky and found a farm up the road selling 6” x 2” x 12’ painters scaffolding used in the construction industry. It was A LOT of scaffolding for 250$ about 20 years ago. We got enough to re-floor the entire barn and enough to build the canning room shelves. Todd we did the same and had them fitted to canning jars. I have no idea how many jars are canned. I kind of just go by a 2-3 year supply of food myself. Good for you taking a fix on this. They look fabulous anyhow. PS.; I painted chalkboard paint on the edges so I could just write what was in the jars above for my poor DH that has to go down and find stuff for me on the fly.
Excellent information for all of us! I appreciate that both you, and Rachel, share the good and "bad." Your video started a needed discussion in our household ♥️
My sisters very well made shelves her husband made (he is an over achiever or overly secured etc).
But they fell.. FULL of gorgeous canned goodies. Very huge and dangerous clean up.
And so do sad and much hard work, no good food for the family of four.
So glad you noticed they need attention.
Good reminder for families to check theirs
This is exactly what I needed to see. Been trying to figure out how to support mine! Thanks for this!
I used your videos to build my last year. I put a support in the center and put my 2x4s the support way. I also used 3/4 inch sanded plywood. They are not as full as yours yet, so we will see if it holds up. I can go 6 deep on the quart and it is 6 ft long. I can stack pints two high.
It’s not a good idea to stack jars. If one on the bottom goes bad, the lid wouldn’t be able to lift off to let you know there’s a problem.
Never stack jars no matter how tempting it is.
I've designed & built my own free standing shelving for my pantry. Food Emergency Preparedness. I cut 3-4 spacers full width of the shelves to go across the 8ft length. No sagging.
Great video, I can't help it, I love when a man fixes things and takes care of stuff. Rachel will really appreciate it!! U both have built quite the stock pile of food!
I'm a retired union carpenter and have a suggestion for you when you install the new beams. I suggest you jack it up over the course of a couple of months. Otherwise you will have some popping.
Your floor didn't sag all at once , it took some time. So jack it up with time.
Maybe install bridging once you get it where you want it ?
Back in the 1990's I lifted my house 9 feet and built a basement under it , and it took a while to settle down on the new walls. Used to hear wood popping for a few months.
Hope this helps you and good luck.
definitely. when we did our living room area, we did it over the course of a week and a half. and a lot of plaster cracked. when I do the kitchen, there's much less load-bearing walls above it, but I still plan on taking it slow and doing over a long period of time.
Y'all did an amazing job canning, and storing all your garden foods. I'd hate to see something jappen to those shelves. Good thing your supporting them!!
Ha, your floor is doing what ours did. Ours had major sag, learned the floor wasn't supported properly down our hallway which runs through part of the kitchen. We don't have a basement to stand up in to fix the floor. We had to hire out because you literally have to inch worm on your belly through the crawl space to fix the floor. My husband is a disabled Veteran, so there was no way I'd let him get under the house in the crawl space. We found an excellent team, with reasonable rates fix the floor and warranty it for 10 years. These guys had it fixed properly in a couple of hours. Were amazed on the difference, it was a 2 inch difference.
Ohh geez. That’s hundreds of pounds on those shelves hun. Two years ago I had one fall out of the cement wall took out two shelves below it. Thank God I only lost a few (5 or 6) jars of food but they were beans and ham Lost a few old bowls Real McCoy bowls 😢 Our shelves were made of oak (from our property)
Only advice I can give anyone putting jars 🫙 on a shelf. Think of it like fire wood when you think it’s enough support triple it!!
It’s absolutely heartbreaking 💔 to clean your hard work and broken jars off the floor. And speaking of the floor. If your storage is on a upper level of your house or apartment. Make sure the floors are strong enough to hold all that weight. ❤❤
I would also add more of those dowels that you cut at least two more offset on each of the shelves. That’s a lot of weight and a lot of work and a lot of money I can tell you it’s a Godawful sound when they come down and a horrible mess to clean up. We didn’t lose as many jars bc my husband put plywood floors in a root cellar so there was give to the floor when they came down they only fell a few feet and those jars are very durable 😂. Love your videos thank you for sharing.
Personally, I would have measured the height of the end which would have been the original height and picked them back up to the original height to take the sway completely out. Wood shelves scare me anyway 🤣 I use the metal shelves from SAM'S that have 3 vertical braces, which hold I believe hold 300+ lbs per shelf, 1500lbs total without casters, and they were only $99 when I found them a couple years ago. I think they are $129 now, but still probably cheaper than wood, lol. The other metal shelves from Lowes, Walmart, and home Depot DO NOT have the middle support brace and will bend like yours. I've actually pointed the metal shelves bending in other TH-camrs videos and they hadn't noticed it. I hope you get yours fixed!!! Nothing like waking up to find crashing jars hit the floor in the middle of the night 😭😭😭 Love you Todd and Rachel! ❤️Kacy
They need a center column for support in the middle of the shelf. Great building.
Wow! That's awesome!! No wonder those shelves are starting to sag.
Wonderful that you have that much food! Great fix for the front, but unless you keep moving jars to the empty front spaces you will need to brace the back very soon. You're doing great Todd!
Yep. Been there. Had my shelves come down. Sounded like a train came through my basement. The whole house shook!!
Is the floor level shelf supported under the dowels?
This was a great video, people really need to plan for the weight of their jars.
Thank you so much Todd.
We had the same problem so my husband took it all off and put floor wood in supporting the shelf's in each one then to take it apart it's much better all the way up from floor to ceiling. Were going to do some new ones and remember our mistakes. Also never ever use plastic shelf's for food.
You're doing a good job, holding down the fort! And I was totally blown away by how much weight those shelves hold!
glass jars on their own are heavy. But that is a LOT of food. It must make you feel good to see the fruit of your labor.
Divine timing because I just started to build my pantry shelf!
Great job Todd!!!!
“WOW” just the weight alone Todd., that’s a long honey-do-list because you could use Rachel help. Good luck 1-28-2023👍🏽👍🏽❤️
😂 this made me run an take a good look at my female home made shelf's.. thanks for the video.. Blessings
Wow that's a lot of weight, good thing you caught now and not have a shelf crash and all that hard work you put into making great food gets destroyed.
I'm going round up and prep my shelves for 3 lbs per quart jar.
Thanks for this!!
One gallon of milk is 8 pounds, there are 4 quarts in a gallon. So If I guess on how many quarts are on each shelf I'd say I have no idea. lol My husband built me some amazing shelves started with two, then three now four. Oh and one smaller but same build upstairs, so five.
My husband used cement blocks, but we learn from our mistakes. God Bless
When first started canning, we were storing the jars in the upper kitchen cabinets. The top two shelves started to bow. Since we rent we are limited on our options. So my husband converted an unused closet for food storage. Once we started to fill up the shelves, one of them sagged. He had to add additional support. You are right that weight adds up quick.
Thanks for the pointers when building shelves. Didn't realize you had that much weight per shelf.
Wow yeah that's a lot of weight 😓 you've got me kinda worried about my shelving now!
Happy Canuary. I have the same problem with a pantry I made by combining two book cases back to back. Thanks for the solution.
Thank you again for sharing your hard work and talent! As I had just mentioned on a previous video of yours in the comment section of how i needed to search a "how to" build the shelf system I just knew your folks wouldn't disappoint and I was right, Thank you again
I think there's a whole 3 or 5 part series on the full build.
Great video! Your channel is great for beginners and those more experienced at canning and how to use what we've put up. I'm glad you showed this. So many people don't realize just how heavy jarred food is. The pantry is still sooo pretty even with many jars used!
This happened in our new house in the pantry. Shelves started drooping. Since it was a new house, thankfully the builder came in and reinforced them. And he did it the same way you described with the boards. Definitely holding up now. OK, so I was guessing each quart jar probably weighs at least 2lbs..... but could vary depending on ingredient. But WOW.... almost 3lbs each!
Great job, I'm about to relevel our 1889 homestead; everything sags to the middle. 👍👍💛
I’m guessing an average weight of each 32oz jar is about 2 1/2lbs so I’m guessing each shelf is holding between 80-110lbs of weight because some foods will be heavier than others and the smaller jars are probably between 50-75lbs depending on sizes and content of jars…..great job I’m sure Rachel will love and appreciate it…..
I would recommend dividing your shelf length in thirds and installing a 2x4 as a center brace for support. I would not recommend using a dowell rod as a center support
Don't know how many jars you have but I think the standard full jar weights 2lbs quart and 1lbs for pint? This is going to be a doozy. I've often wondered about how much the shelves will hold. .... now back to the video 😁
I always learn so much from this channel! Great information, thank you.
Hi Todd, I think you are on the right track. When we built all of our canning shelves, we used 2"x6"s for the shelves in no more than a 4' span. Each shelf is 3 - 2"x6"s deep with 2" thick horizontal brackets on each end that go front to back(holds a row of 4 quart jars deep), with two 2"x6" vertical braces that go from floor to ceiling on each end. And so far, no bowing. The heaviest of all the sets of shelves is the one with the gallon jugs(plastic) of distilled water. Each shelf holding 30 - one gallon jugs. If a gallon of water is 8 pounds than that shelf is holding 240 lbs, and has not bowed yet. If you want, I can message a pic to you in IG.
Sent pictures on IG in a message
We have 2 different types of metal shelf storage atm. The one is bent from quarts but holds pints fine. I plan on reinforcement pieces as they get empty just to make sure, plus adding wooden shelves in to hold more pints. I also had plans to do a 9 ft long 2 ft wide shelf to access from both sides, and now I think I will reboot my build plans to be sure they are hardy enough to hold what we plan on storing.
I'm sure that each jar is going to weigh a slightly different amount. As someone else commented, I would jack up the bottom shelf first and brace it, and work up to the top shelf. Having had shelving collapse from being overloaded in the past, it can be tricky to fix a problem like this. You may need to do something along the lines of a sister board
Remember each filled jar is going to weigh heavier or lighter than the other depending on what is in it. So, find the heaviest jar and go off that weight. This should give you allowances for extra weight.
My metal shelving unit full of canned goods and preserves collapsed a week ago, what a mess!! Lesson learned.
such great information. To my surprise my small shelving unit was holdings 55 pounds per shelf of pints. No wonder things are bowing around here. Thanks it was an eye opener
I can't believe there are so many jars of food. You guys are amazing. I sure hope that those braces do the trick and you don't have to add more on the back side. Oh the job that would be..jars are beautiful though😉
Two RC cans in each shelf worked great in my cabinet for years now.
Great idea!
What's an RC can?
Plus all the weight on the floor. This is good information to consider if you dont store shelves on a sturdy concrete floor. I think if you store on Pier and Beam construction, that much weight probably needs to be reinforced under the crawl space. Im blessed to store in a basement but many dont have a concrete base so thats something to think about. Thanks for showing us this. now I am going to do math in my basement. lol I hate math.
Good point
Thanks for the details! I am needing new shelves and wasn’t sure what kind of weight capacity I should anticipate 😅👍
We made our shelves wooden shelves able to hold jars 6 deep (as far as I can reach) and 7 across. They are very strong and the way we built them, I don't think they will ever sag or move during an earthquake. It takes up a bit more room, but they are solid as bedrock. Our metal shelves are rated for 500 pounds each shelf and can hold twice as much food per shelf. They require bungees to earthquake proof them, though. We had some cheap shelves many years ago now that we propped up with tubes of PVC pipe for a few months while we finished building the wooden shelves. They worked long enough.
Ha! I didn’t type it in, but I guessed 200 lbs! 😂 How awesome that you guys have so many jars. 🙂
This is my worry, I'm in the process of having shelves built. But I am hesitant because of the weight. Thanks for giving me an idea of how to go about it.
When my hubby built my canned food pantry shelves he put a center support from the top shelf to the floor. Mine won't sag or fall. He also put in extra supports on the walls to hold up each shelf. Including the backs of the shelves. We knew how heavy home canned foods are. Just fill up a box with 12 full jars. And lift it. That shows you fast, how heavy pints are, quarts are etc. Better to be safe than sorry.
Hey Todd. This is just a temporary fix. I think you need some metal brackets or something that will hold the weight. If you grab something without thinking about it and knock into the dowel, all your food would collapse. I don't know exactly what you need, I'll leave that to experienced builders but I would use metal and to brace it front and back or else you may lose all of your hard work.
It wouldn’t collapse immediately, just like it hasn’t collapsed before he put the dowels in.
It would hold, the 2x4 won't snap. Not enough weight for that, just to bend over time. Now, it could theoretically bend enough and rip the threads out of the screws, but even then it won't sheer them off.
@@cynthiafisher9907 It's already leaning down. Of course it could.
👍 good to know .thanks for the link to the other video!
We just did the dowel thing for our canned goods shelves!
Awesome food storage!!!!
Great video! I took notes. We're moving in to a smaller house(we're renovating it right now). I bought a couple shelves from the hardware store to put my canning on...I took notes so I can figure out how many jars the shelf will handle! 1650 lbs no longer sounds like unbeatable for loading it...
Great progress; thanks for sharing! Blessings to your family 🤗💜🇨🇦
I love the way that canned food looks, We have had the same issue with it sagging. I think this is a fab idea! I think that Ill give this a go
It’d be nice if you could put a bar code on an Avery label on each jar. Then you could track the date of canning and if/when you used it. Put it in an Excel sheet. Find out what’s moving per month, and what you have that is getting a little old. Do it now when you have time. And if you scan the lids of what you use, you won’t have to inventory so much.
You are sort of living off your goods. Most canners just preserve the few yummy things they grow.
Then you could highlight the items that move (and should focus on), and the ones that don’t.
Am I’m not picking on you. I just want to find out what I should grow and maybe what I shouldn’t.
Maybe do a top ten of things to can/freeze?? We want to learn from your experiences.
Grow What you like to Eat!!!???
They did their current top five favs and least a bit ago. It basically revealed what I expected. Unless carefully meal planned, the jars pulled most often will be the ones that should be spaced out between less delicious things. lol Try a jar of anything new, a couple months or so in from canning date so flavor is sort of set. Then meal plan the rotation from there.
Happens also when you can't easily find or see the variety of options. Which obscures what to can more/less of next year. For instance, we discovered the labeling I use is too coded, and my spouse has only a vague guess at what is in most of the jars. Leaving him alone for weeks would be a slight disaster. Plus the meat and starch sections would get light, but the veggies would be rarely remembered.
Most requested movers change a bit every year too, when you try a new way/recipes, of canning the less desirables. Or you find a better way to use them. Like roasted radishes changed our winter planting plans, from now on. 40 yrs of the same ways, changed after the first meal. Will they can and then roast as nicely? Remains to be seen/eaten this summer!
Advice is to try each homegrown variety or specific thing a number of ways. Then try it canned or dried a number of ways. If you all can't find a way to like it, don't grow it again. No matter how much it thrives where you live. No matter how much the entire region just loves to eat it. Or grow it only to give to those who do like it, and as animal feed.
You are making my point. They canned a lot of excess things they had. And they seemed to have canned specific things. They may be better off leaving them more generic and flexible for multiple uses. I like learning from other people's experiences. I think more conversations and videos on the non-movers is a good one to have.
Plus, what's peoples thresholds for tossing them or feeding them to the livestock. 3 years? It all part of the canning process. Yes, the yummy stuff, and things you like, move. I was just thinking when you have tons of stuff you are more susceptible to old ones and some non-movers.
We also put supports into our pantry/closet.🤗
It got too late one night last week for me to run the canner & I didn't want to out the jars in the fridge so I thought I'd carry the Presto 23qt with the water & 7 full quart jars in it to the very cool garage overnight.... NOPE! The canner plus the 7 jars probably weighed about 45 - 50lbs or at least it felt like it! My hubby is a contractor so he has reinforced all my shelves though they are very much smaller than the ones you built (only 1' to 3' deep). Most of my shelves are prefab & aren't the right height so I'm getting egg boxes & similar size from the grocery store to store jars in on my shelves to double stack them. One full quart jar is almost 3lbs each on average. You better plan to reinforce the middle & back of the shelves also. Just doing the front will not be enough to be safe. I realized the weight when I was putting jars in boxes & carrying them down to the basement to store. Hubby originally argued with me about the shelves until he felt the weight of the boxes. Have fun but be safe with your back!
Thanks!
Thank you Annette ♥
I just love looking at all of those jars! Inspiring!
Love seeing your basement, wish I had one
When you can the stuff just take a permanent maker and write on the glass with the year , product and directions if need be. Wipes off with washing or rubbing alcohol. Great idea about the doll rod. But what is the saw you used called? Thanks 😊
Yikes,that's a lot of weight. Good job fixing the problem Todd!.
WOW!! New here and looking forward to watching your videos. 😀
Great supply of food you have. Could be wrong, but it seems the dowels might put extra pressure on the middle of the shelves below them by adding some additional weight from the shelf over it.
I would've guessed each qt be at least 2lbs each, haven't finished video yet. I'm running into issue store bought shelves bending, my husband is going to figure something out.
Wow! Wouldn't have thought qt weigh that much!
Beautiful pantry❤
What a good problem to solve in the pantry.
Hey Todd wow that's a lot of weight! Nice fix and thanks for sharing. God Bless.
FYI for future reference, book and canning jar shelving should only span 3-4 feet from an engineering standpoint to prevent sagging of wood shelving.
I was thinking in the neighborhood of 200 lbs. My canning jars are currently sitting in boxes on the floor. I'm hoping Bully shelves will handle them when I move.
Just a thought: Is the back going to hold up? My hubby builds things like a tank and that is why. Sure hope and pray that your shelves hold up.
EXCELLENT topic!!!! Thank you for doing this video!
Yeah, I've been worried about my overloaded shelves, also. Im using book shelves that hang from the wall.
We built your shelves, I knew the risk of this going in. In the end the weight gets distributed down through the posts, but the 2x side is obviously the weakest configuration a 2x4 can be. But 2x4s are strong either way. It's unlikely to break, the only way it falls is if the screws sheer (very unlikely as the sheer strength is way more than you have and it's not on one screw ;) ) but, if it can strip out it can bend enough for things to fall. Or, if the wood on the top half of the screws breaks the wood. Thats entirely possible. Just put 2x4s in front and back in the middle as braces, and make it all the way to the floor. It will be fine. The plywood still distributes the load. And if you're really worried, do the same at the edges to the floor. Yes, it won't look as good but that will be solid as a rock. It's all just ensuring the load is transferred to the floor.
do you need to put dowels about halfway back as well or just in front? edit - rewatched and heard you say prob add another dowel as the jars get used in the back ........ looks sooo pretty with all the jars
How have the dowels held up? Did it help prevent further sagging?
Isn't that just how it goes? 🤣 The storage of all those jars and the weight of all the good food is just another part of the battle. Love how you figured it all out.
Edit: Who would've thought that much weight could be in one area?! 😱 Now I'm rethinking my design for the shelving in my small hall closet.
The length of the span is the problem. If the shelves were a lot shorter, it wouldn’t be as much of a problem.
@@cynthiafisher9907 yep, and its a simple fix.. if you even have the issue. Hell, it could be just that if you pay more attention to grain direction its not necessarily just the weight, but the drying of the wood to the grain. pattern.
So smart.. better safe than sorry