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I've got this storeroom that's been added on to the house at some stage. The wall on the left is the original exterior wall, and I believe the construction is double brick all around.
The space is very small, so I'm looking to add a mezzanine floor for storage. It needs to be above head height - I'm imagining it going roughly where those existing boards up on the wall are, just needs to be big enough to storage storage bins, xmas tree, etc. Most of the stuff in photo would ideally end up being stored there, aside from lawn mowers of course. Would certainly need to be able to handle me climbing up there to grab stuff.
Since the space is so small, I'd really like to use a floating design - having a box frame would make things even more cramped. It's an old house, and none of the walls seem to be particularly plumb either, which I imagine would complicate things if trying to build in a frame.
The span would be just under 1.5m, and the platform would be just under 1.5m in depth also. The depth might end up being slightly increased (~1.75m), let me know if this changes things at all.
What timber / fixings should I be looking to use for this?
I've found this article, but not sure how reliable it is.
https://www.bhg.com.au/homes/diy/build-a-mezzanine-garage-storage/
A lot of the designs I've encountered are based off a stud wall - I've got masonry all around so want to make sure I'm doing things right.
Cheers 👍
Hi All,
Finished this project and thought I'd make a post to wrap up. Overall, I'm happy with how the project went. Shelves are up and plenty fit for purpose. They are super solid and I have zero concerns with their ability to hold weight - I wouldn't even be close to stressing the limits with what I've got up there currently. They free up a lot of floor space in the shed (that I'm sure I'll manage to take up again soon). Mission accomplished.
Will expand below on what went right, what I'd change / do better next time, and some details / gotchas for those looking to do something similar. Will also include a parts list.
What Went Right:
- The overall design. Thanks to the advice of @MitchellMc and @JacobZ I moved away from the original plan, which was to be more of a mezzanine style floor. This would have been considerably harder to engineer / build, more expensive, and would've resulted in storage that was harder to access for only a small increase in overall capacity. Perimeter shelving approach is much better for the space.
- Materials. The brackets and ply I used are both super solid. Happy with them for the price. Stayed brackets also have the added bonus of acting as further storage, as you can see in photos I can store long items such as brooms through between the wall and the bracing. The Dynabolts I used are strong and are doing the job, but are difficult to work with, more on that later.
- With the tools I had on hand (one 900mm spirit level), I'm happy with how level everything is. The span of the long shelves is just over 1900mm, so minor variances make a difference. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.
What I'd do differently next time:
- Just buy a laser level. The area I was working in was tight, not very well lit, I was up on a ladder the whole time, and was doing the install on my own. All this to say, I spent a lot of time awkwardly balancing my spirit level on brackets and scribing pencil lines on brick trying to ensure the shelves were level. It would've been so much easier to just get a laser line up on the wall once and be done with it.
- Handle the dust better. When you drill one 6mm hole in brick, it doesn't seem to make that much dust, especially when you're just in a shed. By the time you've drilled another 35 holes, it's a different story. I had to spend a lot of time cleaning up afterwards. I would probably use a project like this as an excuse to buy a mini rotary hammer with dust collection - it would make things easier and cleaner.
- The flat head Dynabolts I used - while they fit the small fixing holes on the brackets (there's no 6mm hex head dynabolt variant as far as I can tell) and look nice - are a bit of a pain to work with. They seem to use a different design from the hex head Dynabolts I've used previously. This is fine (they still work), until you need to remove one. Whereas you can generally remove a whole hex head bolt by tapping the threaded rod part all the way in and wiggling the whole thing out, with these, there's no threaded rod. Instead, the top part of the fixing screws into the bottom part - the part that expands out. This means that in removing them, you can only really unscrew the top half, essentially leaving the expanded part stuck in the wall. Takeaway here is make sure you get your fixings in the right spot the first time unless you want to spend a lot of time wrestling with these bolts to get them out.
Some further comments, somewhat specific to my situation but may be of use.
Do not underestimate how much variance there may be to your walls. My house is old, none of the walls are plumb / square to the floor, and even the bricks protrude out at slightly different depths. This can easily mean that even if your brackets are completely level in terms of their height, they may not sit plumb / evenly against the wall, which will throw the shelf level out. I did my best to sort this out with washers, but I should've planned for this more in advance.
And a really pedantic one - if you're getting your finished panels cut down at Bunnings, ask the staff member to cut them in such a way that leaves at least one finished edge, if possible. I have no complaints and the staff were great, but I didn't specify this and have one shelf with no finished edge. If I can be bothered I might paint this at some stage so it matches the others.
Thanks again to those mentioned already and to @EricL, @Nailbag and @Dave-1 for your help.
Photos of the finished project below.
Parts List:
Brackets: Carinya 400 x 350 x 30 x 4mm White Heavy Duty Stayed Twisted Bracket - Bunnings Australia & Carinya 600 x 300 x 40mm White Heavy Duty Twisted Stayed Bracket - Bunnings Australia
Shelves: SpecRite 2400 x 1200 x 17mm Film Faced Non Structural Plywood - Bunnings Australia + another smaller panel of the same stuff
Wall Anchors: Ramset 6 x 75mm DynaBolt Plus Flat Head Bolt - 2 Pack - Bunnings Australia
Shelf Fixings: Zenith 12G x 18mm Zinc Plated Self Tapper Pan Head Sheet Metal Screws - 20 Pack - Bunnings Australia
+ Assorted washers for spacers as necessary
Evening @postie101
Nice, so nice 
Welcome back space! Looks like a nice job and definently a learning curve Thats the best type of job I think when you have something that is already good and you figure how to improve on good!
Bet you stand there looking at it come Christmas time and you take down the tree
Smiling all the way to the bank!
Dave
