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Fixing to the walls, help please.


Blokey

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Hi, what do I do please to fix to the walls of my narrowboat, shelves ,cupboards etc etc.

Looking down the length of the boat from inside it is quite hexagonal and being to carpentry what Mother Theresa is to cage fighting I need some helpful advice please.

Edited by Blokey
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Hi, what do I do please to fix to the walls of my narrowboat, shelves ,cupboards etc etc.

Looking down the length of the boat from inside it is quite hexagonal and being to carpentry what Mother Theresa is to cage fighting I need some helpful advice please.

Is it plywood lining, or tongue and groove timber or similar? Wherever we fixed anything remotely heavy to the lining, we tried to ensure that at least some of the fixing screws went into a batten behind the lining. So far so good. Quality screws are best, I bought some bargain ones for work and ended up skipping them. I like "Rapier" screws for construction and they have been fine.

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Yeah, light things are ok just into the ply/t&g, such as a hook for calender or light picture. But anything more you will have to get it to go into the battens behind.

- Also, possably most importantly, make sure there are no cables (mains or otherwise) behind there.

 

 

 

Daniel

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Ive not made myself very clear. Sorry fellers. Its the angle thats the problem. I put up shelves etc at home and its 90 degrees and Bobs your uncle. Its a different ball game on the boat isnt it?

Is there particular fixings that I can buy to compensate for the angle as I want to make a nice job of it.

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Ive not made myself very clear. Sorry fellers. Its the angle thats the problem. I put up shelves etc at home and its 90 degrees and Bobs your uncle. Its a different ball game on the boat isnt it?

Is there particular fixings that I can buy to compensate for the angle as I want to make a nice job of it.

 

 

No easy solution here and you highlight why many good joiners don't last to the first pay day in the boat fitting game!

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Ive not made myself very clear. Sorry fellers. Its the angle thats the problem. I put up shelves etc at home and its 90 degrees and Bobs your uncle. Its a different ball game on the boat isnt it?

Is there particular fixings that I can buy to compensate for the angle as I want to make a nice job of it.

 

 

What I did (and I am NO expert!) was hold the shelf up with the fixing until it was vertical (and therefore only one edge against the wall). Focus on one side and lets call the edge (or corner) against the wall A and the one not B. I measured the distance from B to the wall and made a note.

 

Then I used the distance measured from B to the wall, and marked this measurement on A towards the shelf (i.e. away from the wall) and drew a line from there to the corner B. I sawed along the line and there we have a shelf that will fix to the wall.

 

It worked the same for cupboards and partitions.

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What I did (and I am NO expert!) was hold the shelf up with the fixing until it was vertical (and therefore only one edge against the wall). Focus on one side and lets call the edge (or corner) against the wall A and the one not B. I measured the distance from B to the wall and made a note.

 

Then I used the distance measured from B to the wall, and marked this measurement on A towards the shelf (i.e. away from the wall) and drew a line from there to the corner B. I sawed along the line and there we have a shelf that will fix to the wall.

 

It worked the same for cupboards and partitions.

 

EH! :P

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And a spirit level is no help at all......:P

I was told of a DIY fitter who used one. As he worked his way along the boat, fixing cupboards and things, the boat gradually leaned further over that way, and if you looked along from one end to the other you could see a sort of helical twist to them.

  • Greenie 2
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Any intricate shpes, then the easiest way IMHO is to make a cardboard or similar template. You can afford to scrap cardboard. An "expert" at work once asked me why wasn't I using a spirit level. I told him I had lost it, but would buy another for when I set my snooker table up on board.

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This is as good as it gets...........

 

Angle.gif

 

i used something round (or a screw does as well) to make sure the shelf/top was straight - it rolls off if it isn't!

 

 

Is there no end to this girls (young lady) talent. :lol::P

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I was told of a DIY fitter who used one. As he worked his way along the boat, fixing cupboards and things, the boat gradually leaned further over that way, and if you looked along from one end to the other you could see a sort of helical twist to them.

Haha!

- Thats an absolute classic!!

 

But yes, of cause it is true that the use of leval should be thought about before taking it too literally.

- I bealve thoughout our boat everything was based on the floor being "leval".

- This is certainly what i would be doing in terms of left/right leval. Ie, assume an even keel.

 

However, may boats have a floor/baseplate that is far less leval than ours, sloping down towards the stern.

- However, this is also the direction in which a spirt leval may be used more, as even quite a large addition/removal of weight aft/forward only makes a fairly negliable change in angle.

- If i was fitting just an extra shelf or two to an already fitted out boat, my plan would almost certainly be jsut to get them paralell to the exsisting fittout. Assuming it was roughtly stright, and wasnt about to be changed.

 

 

 

But yeah, geting back to the OPs questions, the basic plan is to decide what "leval" is, and then arrange to mount the shelf/unit at that angle.

- Eather by removing material from one side (ie, the top, to take into account the tumblehome sides)

- Or to add materal (packing, or addapting of shelf brackets) to the other side (ie, bottom). If that makes sence?

 

 

 

Daniel

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  • 8 years later...

To find the level take a datum measure from a currently known datum point ie bottom of the internal gunwall. For the flush fitting against the wall lining you will simply need to scribe against the fitting edge of the shelf then plane with I suggest a block plane to shape. Not difficult when you get your head round the carpentry speak.

Forgot to mention you could use hollow wall fixings good quality ones will take a pretty hefty load.

Edited by Happy Bachelor
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  • 4 years later...
8 minutes ago, Maritime Fox said:

This is an interesting solution https://www.kerolhardware.co.uk/glass-brackets/stainless-steel-shelf-support-for-sloping-wall.html

 

I want to fit shelves to the side kitchen wall and I didn't want to guess the required angles. 

That's a real handy idea!

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29 minutes ago, Maritime Fox said:

This is an interesting solution https://www.kerolhardware.co.uk/glass-brackets/stainless-steel-shelf-support-for-sloping-wall.html

 

I want to fit shelves to the side kitchen wall and I didn't want to guess the required angles. 

It's certainly a good idea, but at £9 per bracket it's too expensive for me ?

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