Floating Shelf Bracket Instructions

Our brackets are used for hundreds of different uses, making it very difficult to provide a comprehensive installation guide. Instead below are some tips to aid in your custom installation.

Mounting Brackets to Wall:

• Our brackets are best mounted in studs. This gives a dramatic increase in weight capacity.

• Our brackets can be mounted into drywall using drywall anchors, weight capacity will depend solely on the capacity rating of the anchors you choose.

• For the most strength our brackets should be mounted to a wood surface (directly to studs). You can mount them over the top of the drywall, and most of our customers do, but be aware that it is less than ideal. The drywall can compress under the weight of a loaded shelf causing some minor sag.

• Mounting to stone is done using concrete/stone anchors just as you would mount anything else to stone. Follow the anchor instructions.

• When installing on a tile wall, install the bracket first and then tile around them if possible.

• We recommend a #8 x 2.5” wood screw for mounting to stud walls.

• If mounting hole location does not work in your custom install additional holes are easily drilled using a 3/16” drill bit.

• Our 24” and 32” brackets have holes spaced 16” on center for standard stud placement.

• Our 12” and 4” brackets should be mounted to blocking in the wall for maximum capacity.
  

Alignment and Shelf Drilling:

• We suggest mounting the brackets to the wall based on stud placement first.

• Once the brackets are mounted, then measurements should be made for hole placement on shelves. Having the bracket offset in the shelf is generally not a problem, unless the offset is extreme.

• Once the brackets are mounted you can place the shelf on top in the correct position and mark the center of one of the rods. Then using the diagrams below mark the centers for the other holes and drill.

• The easiest way to drill holes in you shelf for our brackets is to use our Drill Guide Kit. It comes with a custom made drill bit and a matching guide to ensure that your floating shelf mounting holes are straight, square, and perfectly placed every time!

• Our drill bits are extra long and sized for that perfect fit. They are manufactured slightly larger than the rod size needed, however they are still small enough to give a good tight fit. Designed to be used with any hand drill with a 1/2″ chuck.

• If you purchased our Heavy Duty Brackets, you will need to use the ¾” Drill Guide Kit. If you purchased our Medium Duty Brackets, you will need to use the ½” Drill Guide Kit.

• Our Drill Guide Kits are available on outlets such as Amazon or our Website.

• Otherwise you will need a drill press to drill the holes for your shelves. We recommend a 13/16” or 20mm Drill bit for Heavy Duty Brackets and a 33/64” or 17/32” bit for Medium Duty.
  

• All of our rods are 6″ long from the front of the backplate. Holes should be drilled to a depth of approx 6.5″.

• Construction adhesive can be applied to the rods before installing the shelf for a permanent mount. Shelves and rods can also be drilled from the underside and a screw inserted if desired.

Shelf Selection:

• Check out our floating shelf listing on our website for premium wood shelving.

• The backplates for our brackets are 1.5” tall. This gives a good compromise of vertical support and low profile.

• Unless the brackets are mounted behind the drywall with only the rods exposed, shelves should be a minimum of 1.5” thick to hide the bracket.

• If mounted on top of the drywall, is is best to use shelves greater than 1.5” thick so that a lip can be made in the shelf to conceal the back plate from view.

• Shelves may be solid wood with holes drilled for rods, or hollow construction with a 3/4 “ gap. Hollow construction is the easiest method.

See Below for dimensional drawings to drill holes with correct placement and spacing

2” Bracket:

12” Bracket

24” Bracket

32” Bracket