Hang a floating mantle


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Old 11-30-14, 10:21 AM
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Hang a floating mantle

We recently upgraded our fireplace mantel and surround which led to my wife requesting I hang the old mantel in the nursery.

Originally, it was toenailed into the drywall and studs, a very flimsy setup. It appears that the mantel will accept a 2"x3" inside its frame (interior of mantel is 2" high, 3" deep, 60" long)

Drilling through the 3" side of the 2x3 and attaching it to studs with lag bolts was my original thought. But the mantel shelf is 7" wide and that would seem to act as a lever pulling down on those lag bolts. I'll probably only be able to attach to tHREE studs and don't want this thing falling down.

Any ideas? I though about attaching a 2x2 to the studs, then 1x2 brackets (using the full 3" of internal space. I thought that might help spread the load a little better.

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Old 11-30-14, 10:28 AM
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Welcome to the forums! You could increase the lumber to 2x4 and use 1/4" x 5" lags through it into the studs. You will increase your holding power by screwing down from atop the mantel into the 2x4 once the 2x4 is mounted and the mantel slid in place. If you still feel it is a little weak (doubtful), you could always add decorative corbels beneath it.
 
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Old 11-30-14, 12:12 PM
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Use PL Premium and lag bolts to attach the 2 by material to the wall. Apply more PL to the top of that ledger and slip your mantel over it and screw the mantel into the ledger.
 
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Old 11-30-14, 01:02 PM
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There is no need to use adhesives to attach the mantel or ledger board to the wall or each other. Lag bolts that hit good wood in the studs will provide quite a bit of holding power. Pre-drill and counter sink screws from the top of the mantel into the ledger to hold the mantel itself. Use plugs to fill the countersink holes stained to match the mantel. Use of glues in the process will make it nearly impossible to remove down the road without destroying everything.
 
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Old 12-01-14, 10:22 AM
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Unless you're planning on loading it up end-to-end with hardcover books, or mounting it low enough that a toddler might try to climb on it, using a 2-by cleat lagged into three studs should be plenty strong. with a cantilever-style arrangement, I'm not sure you'd really gain much with a 2x4 vs 2x3 cleat since I'm assuming it's the 1.5-inch face that'll be against the wall either way - that footprint height is the most crucial dimension for strength in this situation, but 1.5 inch should be sufficient. You might get a little strength improvement if you were to cut out the drywall and attach the cleat directly to the studs, but not enough to be worth the trouble it'd take to make the cutout and re-close the wall around the cleat (not to mention the hassle this would become if you or a future owner chose to remove the thing someday).

If you can make pocket holes in the top, using those to tie the upper face of the box into the studs once it's set on the cleat would improve the overall strength quite a bit, and as chandler said, adding corbels underneath (also tied onto the studs) should give you all the strength you'd ever need for a shelf that size.
 
 

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