What started out as a simple project, a built in book case to house our ever growing collection of books, has turned into a complete rework of the family room.
Discussions about what the book case should look like, how big it should be and what kind of finish details we wanted on the book case, soon lead to "While we are at it" types of conversations.
Which lead us to decide that the book case should actually be built in, and occupy the side wall in the family room, which lead us to decide to also rework the front wall in the family room to remove a step in the wall created by the cinder blocks.
However, we decided that the step created by these cinder blocks, actually worked in our favor when it came to the built in book cases.
I was really concerned about building open shelved book cases that ran from the floor to the ceiling.
From a structural point I was concerned about how to anchor the book cases to the wall.
I could just see an eight foot high book case loaded with books, crashing to the floor someday, God forbid that anyone could be under it if that happened.
The fact that the wall we planned to install this book case on is 11' long, meant that we would have to divide this space into three or preferably four sections.
Which in itself complicates the issue of securing the book case to the wall, because all three or four sections would have to be secured together so if one came loose and started to fall, all of them would come down.
Also, I had concerns about the visual appeal of a floor to ceiling open shelved book case.
While this may really look great in a library, or a McMansion style home, our home just did not lend itself to a massive wall of bookshelves.
What we decided to do was to use the natural step in the wall created by the cinder blocks, as a separation point.
From the floor to the top of cinder blocks we would build out from the wall a set of enclosed book cases.
By building out from the wall, we were able to create a wider platform, upon which we were able to safely install open shelved book cases.
The lower book cases would be anchored to the floor and the side walls.
The upper book cases were then in turn be secured to the lower book cases and the side wall.
As an added safety feature I decided to stop the upper bookcase short of the ceiling short of the ceiling by 6".
On top of each of the upper bookcases, I installed a metal "L" bracket to the topside of each case and then into wall studs.
Since these brackets were on the top side of the cases, they wouldn't be seen, but added a lot of peace of mind to a worrier like me.
The first step was to once again remove the sheet rock on the lower half of the wall and the particle board shelf installed by the builder.
There really wasn't any reason to remove the sheet rock, other than to add some insulation behind it.
We made an assumption based on findings of the front wall that the lower wall was devoid of insulation.
Unfortunately, we were correct.
Instead of studding out the wall and adding R13 insulation as we did on the front wall, we elected to use rigid foam insulation on this wall.
Following manufacturer's directions, we cut and adhered the insulation to the wall.
We figured that the rigid insulation plus several inches of books would provide adequate insulation for this wall.
Many years later, I can tell you that the assumption was correct.
On the upper portion of the wall, the sheet rock was also removed.
This time it was so that we could remove the leaking, ugly and useless sliding aluminum window that graced the wall.
Removing the window didn't prove much of a task.
For some reason the builder hadn't bothered to caulk around the window, nor had he used a significant number of fasteners to attach the window to the house.
In fact I think we found a total of 12 nails holding in this six foot slider.
Oh well, their sloppy workmanship made it easy for us to remove the window.
It also explained why it leaked as badly as it did.
With the window removed, I restructured the wall, added insulation and closed up the wall with sheet rock on the inside and siding on the outside.
The sheet rock was taped, sanded and painted.
Original plans called for me to build the bottom bookcases totally out of 4/4 oak.
But after pricing out wide 4/4 oak stock at several dealers, we decided to try a different approach.
The carcasses of the lower book cases would be made of pine.
An oak face frame would adorn the front of the cases, and within each case we would build and install oak raised panel doors.
And after all of the lower cases were installed a single piece would be attached over all of the cases.
This would serve not only as a decorative top, but would also help secure the cases together.
The lower cases were relatively simple to construct.
These cases consist of a right and left side, a top, center and bottom self.
On the back of each case is a 1/4" thick piece of lauan plywood.
After purchasing the pine at the local big DIY store, I cut it to length for the pieces mentioned above, dressed one edge on the jointer and ran all of the stock through my surface planer to ensure that the stock was all the same size.
Once the pieces were properly dressed and sized, I took the right and left ends and sat them on my work surface, inside edges facing up and clamped them together and flat on the work surface.
In this orientation, I could cut the rabbets for top, center and bottom shelf in both sides at once and not really have to worry about alignment issues if I cut each side individually.
To cut the rabbets, I used a 3/4" straight bit installed in my plunge router .
The depth of the plunge was set to exactly 3/8".
To ensure the correct placement of the rabbets, I used an all in one clamp as guide.
Even though the All in One clamp secures itself to the stock, I added additional clamps to make sure that they did not move when I ran the router against them.
Because pine is a relatively softwood, I was able to cut the 3/8" rabbets in one pass.
If it had been a hardwood like oak, then I would have cut each rabbet in a couple of passes.
Once the rabbets were cut, I took them along with the top and bottom selves to the table saw where I cut a 1/4" wide rabbet along the back edge.
This rabbet was set back 1/4" from the back edge of the pieces.
This rabbet is for the lauan plywood back.
The center shelf was then also taken back to the table saw where its width was reduced by a 1/2".
( 1/4" Plywood plus the 1/4" offset).
Once this was done, the carcasses were assembled using glue and sheetrock screws driven from the outside of the end pieces, and through the plywood into the center shelf.
As each case was assembled, I kept checking to ensure that they were really true and square.
I should note that the bottom shelf was installed so that the top of the shelf was 2 1/2" off the floor.
The reason I did this was that I wanted the top of the shelf to be even with the top edge of the lower rail of the face frame.
When I was building the lower carcasses, I had cut the stock for all four sections, but I held off cutting the shelves for the last unit to their exact length until I had installed the first three cases.
While I trust my measuring skills, I have learned to always give yourself a little wiggle room whenever possible.
Thankfully, I had held off because the wall at the left end of the assembly was a little out of plumb, "gee what a shock", forcing the cases a 1/4" closer together.
I had installed the first case on the left, followed by the one on its right.
I skipped the next one and installed the one on the right end next.
Then by measuring the distance of the gap, I was able to final cut the shelves of the final unit to length.
When all four cases were installed, I secured them together and to the floor and the side walls.
I also took the time to verify that the tops of cases were level and shims were used as needed to bring the cases level.
Hey, I just realized how long I have been talking.
How about joining me later so we can build the upper cases.
Check back soon for the next installment of this project.
Discussions about what the book case should look like, how big it should be and what kind of finish details we wanted on the book case, soon lead to "While we are at it" types of conversations.
Which lead us to decide that the book case should actually be built in, and occupy the side wall in the family room, which lead us to decide to also rework the front wall in the family room to remove a step in the wall created by the cinder blocks.
However, we decided that the step created by these cinder blocks, actually worked in our favor when it came to the built in book cases.
I was really concerned about building open shelved book cases that ran from the floor to the ceiling.
From a structural point I was concerned about how to anchor the book cases to the wall.
I could just see an eight foot high book case loaded with books, crashing to the floor someday, God forbid that anyone could be under it if that happened.
The fact that the wall we planned to install this book case on is 11' long, meant that we would have to divide this space into three or preferably four sections.
Which in itself complicates the issue of securing the book case to the wall, because all three or four sections would have to be secured together so if one came loose and started to fall, all of them would come down.
Also, I had concerns about the visual appeal of a floor to ceiling open shelved book case.
While this may really look great in a library, or a McMansion style home, our home just did not lend itself to a massive wall of bookshelves.
What we decided to do was to use the natural step in the wall created by the cinder blocks, as a separation point.
From the floor to the top of cinder blocks we would build out from the wall a set of enclosed book cases.
By building out from the wall, we were able to create a wider platform, upon which we were able to safely install open shelved book cases.
The lower book cases would be anchored to the floor and the side walls.
The upper book cases were then in turn be secured to the lower book cases and the side wall.
As an added safety feature I decided to stop the upper bookcase short of the ceiling short of the ceiling by 6".
On top of each of the upper bookcases, I installed a metal "L" bracket to the topside of each case and then into wall studs.
Since these brackets were on the top side of the cases, they wouldn't be seen, but added a lot of peace of mind to a worrier like me.
The first step was to once again remove the sheet rock on the lower half of the wall and the particle board shelf installed by the builder.
There really wasn't any reason to remove the sheet rock, other than to add some insulation behind it.
We made an assumption based on findings of the front wall that the lower wall was devoid of insulation.
Unfortunately, we were correct.
Instead of studding out the wall and adding R13 insulation as we did on the front wall, we elected to use rigid foam insulation on this wall.
Following manufacturer's directions, we cut and adhered the insulation to the wall.
We figured that the rigid insulation plus several inches of books would provide adequate insulation for this wall.
Many years later, I can tell you that the assumption was correct.
On the upper portion of the wall, the sheet rock was also removed.
This time it was so that we could remove the leaking, ugly and useless sliding aluminum window that graced the wall.
Removing the window didn't prove much of a task.
For some reason the builder hadn't bothered to caulk around the window, nor had he used a significant number of fasteners to attach the window to the house.
In fact I think we found a total of 12 nails holding in this six foot slider.
Oh well, their sloppy workmanship made it easy for us to remove the window.
It also explained why it leaked as badly as it did.
With the window removed, I restructured the wall, added insulation and closed up the wall with sheet rock on the inside and siding on the outside.
The sheet rock was taped, sanded and painted.
Original plans called for me to build the bottom bookcases totally out of 4/4 oak.
But after pricing out wide 4/4 oak stock at several dealers, we decided to try a different approach.
The carcasses of the lower book cases would be made of pine.
An oak face frame would adorn the front of the cases, and within each case we would build and install oak raised panel doors.
And after all of the lower cases were installed a single piece would be attached over all of the cases.
This would serve not only as a decorative top, but would also help secure the cases together.
The lower cases were relatively simple to construct.
These cases consist of a right and left side, a top, center and bottom self.
On the back of each case is a 1/4" thick piece of lauan plywood.
After purchasing the pine at the local big DIY store, I cut it to length for the pieces mentioned above, dressed one edge on the jointer and ran all of the stock through my surface planer to ensure that the stock was all the same size.
Once the pieces were properly dressed and sized, I took the right and left ends and sat them on my work surface, inside edges facing up and clamped them together and flat on the work surface.
In this orientation, I could cut the rabbets for top, center and bottom shelf in both sides at once and not really have to worry about alignment issues if I cut each side individually.
To cut the rabbets, I used a 3/4" straight bit installed in my plunge router .
The depth of the plunge was set to exactly 3/8".
To ensure the correct placement of the rabbets, I used an all in one clamp as guide.
Even though the All in One clamp secures itself to the stock, I added additional clamps to make sure that they did not move when I ran the router against them.
Because pine is a relatively softwood, I was able to cut the 3/8" rabbets in one pass.
If it had been a hardwood like oak, then I would have cut each rabbet in a couple of passes.
Once the rabbets were cut, I took them along with the top and bottom selves to the table saw where I cut a 1/4" wide rabbet along the back edge.
This rabbet was set back 1/4" from the back edge of the pieces.
This rabbet is for the lauan plywood back.
The center shelf was then also taken back to the table saw where its width was reduced by a 1/2".
( 1/4" Plywood plus the 1/4" offset).
Once this was done, the carcasses were assembled using glue and sheetrock screws driven from the outside of the end pieces, and through the plywood into the center shelf.
As each case was assembled, I kept checking to ensure that they were really true and square.
I should note that the bottom shelf was installed so that the top of the shelf was 2 1/2" off the floor.
The reason I did this was that I wanted the top of the shelf to be even with the top edge of the lower rail of the face frame.
When I was building the lower carcasses, I had cut the stock for all four sections, but I held off cutting the shelves for the last unit to their exact length until I had installed the first three cases.
While I trust my measuring skills, I have learned to always give yourself a little wiggle room whenever possible.
Thankfully, I had held off because the wall at the left end of the assembly was a little out of plumb, "gee what a shock", forcing the cases a 1/4" closer together.
I had installed the first case on the left, followed by the one on its right.
I skipped the next one and installed the one on the right end next.
Then by measuring the distance of the gap, I was able to final cut the shelves of the final unit to length.
When all four cases were installed, I secured them together and to the floor and the side walls.
I also took the time to verify that the tops of cases were level and shims were used as needed to bring the cases level.
Hey, I just realized how long I have been talking.
How about joining me later so we can build the upper cases.
Check back soon for the next installment of this project.