Expert: Jamie Yocono - 12/16/2008

Question
Hi Jamie.  I'm thinking of purchasing an MDF bookshelf with louvered doors offered by Home Decorators. The most I can make of it, the doors and trim are the only things that are made of wood.  My question is whether or not the shelves are strong enough to hold a line of books without bowing.  Here is the website for the item:  

http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Savannah_Five-Shelf_Bookcase_with_Drawer_and_Woo...

Thanks for your help.

Answer
Richard,

When I'm designing a piece of furniture, and have questions about whether or not a shelf will hold a certain load, I check out this website:

http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm

It's (humorously) called the Sagulator, and will allow you to enter all the information about your piece of furniture, like material, span of shelf, and the type of load the shelf will carry. It then calculates how much the shelf will sag, or deflect. It's a pretty cool tool for a designer like me.

I looked at the piece in which you are interested, even though they list the width at 31", it's likely the shelf is only about 28" or so. It's important to enter the correct information about the shelf. Also, they list the depth of the cabinet at 13", I'm sure the shelf sits back a bit, so the shelf might only be 11" or 12". All these variables will affect the sag of your shelf, so try to enter the dimensions as closely as possible.

Good luck, write back if you need more information. Just off the top of my head, I think you'll be fine with a load on these shelves, especially if it's equally loaded along the length of a shelf. Obviously, books placed just in the middle of a shelf will make it sag more than ones places equidistantly along the length. So spread them out, even the load out.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com