Canning Room #1: Redoing the canning room.

Well, I’ve finally set my mind to redoing the canning room to give.. Well.. More room… We’ve got a storm cellar off on the other side of the basement that’s block construction and a concrete ceiling that is the space under the front porch. It stays nice and cool in there at all times of the year (but not freezing) and is a larger space.

For those who have not seen the canning room:
http://gardentenders.com/topics/457 (scroll)

Or what is inside:
http://gardentenders.com/members/DarkWolf/blog/1197

The new room measures around 14’ by 9’. My plan is to anchor studs to the wall sideways at 24” OC and to attach KV standards to those. Once those are in place I’ll be putting up shelving on KV #180 12” brackets, which I have 90 of them laying around doing nothing. The shelves will be 14” deep, so there will be a slight overhang past the bracket ends.

This is a basic mockup of what I have planned.

It’s a dated one with studs on the long wall at 32” OC.. I’ve changed that plan to help make sure I don’t overload the brackets.

My weight calculations are as follows and are theoretical at best:

• 120 quart jars per shelf on the long wall.
• 3# weight per jar over estimation.
• 360# total weight per shelf on the long (14’) wall….
• 7 shelves total.
• 2520# total weight across all 7 shelves, loaded down with 840 quart sized jars.
• @ 16” OC, that’s 230# per 2×4 of shearing force.
• @ 24” OC, that’s 280# per 2×4 of shearing force.
• @ 32” OC, that’s 360# per 2×4 of shearing force.
• Brackets are KV 180 12”, rated at 180#(?) per pair.
• At 9 brackets per shelf on 24” OC, that’s 40# weight per bracket load, not counting shelf weight.
• Estimating 2# per foot on shelf weight, the shelf will weigh 28#.
• That makes 44# of weight per bracket, shelf included, at 24” OC studs.

Now…. I don’t EVER think we’ll have 120 quart jars jammed from right to left on a single shelf run. That’s unlikely at best.. Though we DO have around 200-300 quarts of stuff? Rough guess.. It’s been a while since I took tally.

Regardless, will be a bit of work to get it all done.. I’d like to clean up the walls before installing the 2×4 studs and get any iffy spots sealed up so I don’t have to worry about moisture seeping. Really, it’s fairly dry in there besides the DRIP from the ceiling near the inside wall. The top slab does NOT have a grade high enough to shed water well. I’ll be washing, etching and painting it this spring.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b