Lumber Rack

I have the wall mounted galvanized brackets that Lee Valley sells… they lag bolt into the wall studs and you can buy different depth brackets. They work great, I have them going from floor to ceiling and my rack holds many board feet of lumber.
here is a link to the page at Lee Valley
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32145&cat=1,43326

Check out lee valley lumber storage system. Holds 500 lbs at the tip of each peg ! I have that system and love it.

-- rob, ont,canada

athomas5009,

I built my own no-longer-used brackets from wood to support stored lumber. The L bracket had a diagonal brace like the Knapp & Vogt system you mentioned. I found the diagonal brace to be a problem, since the diagonal brace got in the way. Therefore the Lee Valley system with the same load capacity but no diagonal brace would make stacking lumber easier.

I did a quick calculation and found that 4/4 red oak (with a density of 56 pounds/cubic foot) in 6” widths x 8’ long stacked 8 layers (i.e.8”) high at 3 boards per layer would weigh about 500 pounds. Therefore if 4 brackets are used to hold 6” wide 4/4 red oak boards at 3 boards per layer, the lumber could be stacked 32 boards (32”) high. This 3 across x 32” high stack supported by 4 brackets would weigh about 2000 pounds. Since each standard holds 2000 pounds and four standards are needed to support four brackets, there could be up to 4 stacks or 128” high of red oak at 3 boards across.

If my arithmetic is correct, either system (4 standards and 16 brackets) will hold a lot of lumber, about 1200 bf.

Mine current rack I is similar to the metal knapp and Vogt design. It has the 45 degree support arms and yes they do take up enough space to bother you. That is one thing I disliked about the KAndV system but I figured it was sturdy and the braces were have the size of those on my current rack.

That is something I’ll keep in mind though But from the responses so far it sound like heavy duty metal brackets should do the job nicely, with or without brackets.

-- Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust, and when you're up, it's never as good as it seems, and when you're down, you never think you'll be up again, but life goes on.

athomas5009,

I am passing along a sale ad from Woodpecker that came in my email. They offer what they call Portamate Storage Rack for $47. It appears to consist of two standards and enough brackets to form 6 storage levels. It is made from 1” tube steel and each level holds 100 pounds. Two sets would then offer a 200 pound capacity. There are no diagonal braces.

The weight capacity is lacking compared to the other two systems already discussed, but then shorter stacks of material mean the material is more accessible. I am not sure how two sets of the Woodpecker of storage rack compares in price to the other systems you are considering. But given all that is included for the price, it may be worth consideration.

http://www.woodpeck.com/portamatestoragerack.html?btatid=3.AIdT.CFygsQ.FsQ0.AaWRdA..AtM-3A.b..l.BtDZ.n...i5nsQg&btac=2as5rol2lj1pvob53s12wtk5e3pe8

I made my own with some 2X4’s and 1/2” electrical conduit. Inexpensive and effective.

-- Roger M, Aiken, SC

I did basically the same thing as Roger, but used black iron pipe. I used this plan:

I have the lee valley racks in my garage, about 300board feet of white oak in this picture.

-- I always suspected many gun nuts were afraid of something, just never thought popcorn was on the list.

athomas5009,

I am passing along a sale ad from Woodpecker that came in my email. They offer what they call Portamate Storage Rack for $47. It appears to consist of two standards and enough brackets to form 6 storage levels. It is made from 1” tube steel and each level holds 100 pounds. Two sets would then offer a 200 pound capacity. There are no diagonal braces.

The weight capacity is lacking compared to the other two systems already discussed, but then shorter stacks of material mean the material is more accessible. I am not sure how two sets of the Woodpecker of storage rack compares in price to the other systems you are considering. But given all that is included for the price, it may be worth consideration.

http://www.woodpeck.com/portamatestoragerack.html?btatid=3.AIdT.CFygsQ.FsQ0.AaWRdA..AtM-3A.b..l.BtDZ.n...i5nsQg&btac=2as5rol2lj1pvob53s12wtk5e3pe8

- JBrow

I bought some of these on sale at Lowe’s I think they were $20 each.
It does the job, but wouldn’t trust it with really heavy loads.
I also have to use shims under the lumber so it is supported at each bar, but that could be a problem with any rack.

-- Joel, Encinitas, CA

So… I over engineer everything. My concern with these storage systems is will as standard 2×4 stud support these? At what point does one add a sister stud or go with a 4×4?

The Lee Valley rack looks pretty good, but I store my lumber vertically. For me, I never grab the first board on top. I sort through the stack to find the best grain match for the project I am working on. It is much easier to flip through the boards in a vertical rack, and you don’t need to remove each board.
http://lumberjocks.com/pintodeluxe/blog/41318

Just a thought. Your needs may vary.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

I’d have to trim 4 inches off each board to stand them up. I wrote notes on the edge of each one and used chalk to highlight knots and anything I might need to fix.

-- I always suspected many gun nuts were afraid of something, just never thought popcorn was on the list.

I do vertical racks to stand up all my large slabs and big pieces that I’m going to sort through a lot.

For lumber and small pieces I buy at the store, I use the Portamate racks. They are simple to put together and hang and so far I haven’t had any problems with weight. They’re also on sale throughout the year as different stores do various specials. They were on sale for $30 during the Christams sales at Lowes.

So… I over engineer everything. My concern with these storage systems is will as standard 2×4 stud support these? At what point does one add a sister stud or go with a 4×4?

- Nezzerscape

I’m quite sure Roger and Adam’s solution won’t fall down, but I wanted to be able to load mine up to the max and let my kids play around under them without the least worry it would fall, so I laminated two 2×4s together, and ran the black iron pipe through the face, then anchored each 2×4 post to the cement wall with 5 1/2”x5” redhead anchors. I used black iron pipe something like 17” long, I forget, and hanging on the end of one I could just barely get the pipe to bend. At maximum packed load with the densest wood possible, each shelf would be 1000 lbs at 12 feet long. So there’s easily more than a 2x safety factor there considering all the weight is not at the ends and even hard maple is just over half as dense as the densest tropical woods. Way over engineered, yes, but that was the goal, and it was fairly cheap.

I have a portamate rack like jbro listed for my general “accessible” storage.

I have the heavy duty Lee Valley system that Jsilverman listed, both aboce the portamate rack, and over the Garage door.

If I were doing it over, I would go 100% Lee Valley style. But the Portamate rack was my first install… and you know how it goes to get the incentive to take down your lumber rack and replace it with something else… “if it ain’t broke” rules the day. :-)

-- “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Mark Twain