Our Canned Food is way too Heavy | a Pantry Update

A few years ago we built a new pantry shelving system down in our basement, so store all of our canned food. We work long and hard to grow all of this, process, and preserve it all - so when I start to see the shelves bending from all the weight, I knew I needed to do something to fix things. The fix will be pretty simple. I'm going to cut up some 1" wooden dowel and place them between the shelves to act as an extra layer of support. But this begs a much deeper question - how much does all this food actually weigh? In today's video we'll find out ♥
Want to see how we built our pantry shelves, here's links to all the videos in the series:
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That 1870's Homestead
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[s]

Want to see how we built our pantry shelves, here's links to all the videos in the series:

[nojuice]

i am a structural engineer. when you put load on one of those shelves, you are essentially putting a triangle of load from the ends to the middle of the shelf across each "beam". the way you solved it, you added all those loads to the weakest point in each beam [edit: the center of each beam], consecutively. as in- added together all the way down to the bottom beam which is now carrying that triangle worth of load from all beams above it. you will now see more deflection (bending) in the bottom beam, and each successive beam moving up as each is carrying less load.

the simple fix is to shim it up to the hgt of the feet on your system.

i would have shimmed the bottom first, using some sort of jack or wedge to get it to the correct hgt. then cut equal pieces of column (dowell) to size, and add them moving from the bottom to the top using a jack or manpower to get each to the correct hgt. but, shimming the bottom should at least limit your deflection as it allows the load to flow into the ground.

i normally dont comment, and i hate armchair quaterbacking a grown dude from my home office in texas, but i do have a unique perspective, and decided i could help. im sure someone out there could teach me how to use my shift key better. seriously though, shim the bottom, and be sure and do the rear asap.

[iartistdotme]

I just had three shelves of canned goods fall down on top of each other.What a mess. I would definitely put that back brace in!

[painchaud]

Wow! I'm looking to build myself such a shelf....and I didn't think all this could weigh so much! Good to know, I'll build it strong.

[LENNY]

Thank heavens. We just finished an inventory and reorganization of our canned and dehydrated goods, and our freezer and I was embarassed at how much food we have. But from the looks of your shelves, we have about half as much. I don't feel like such a hoarder any more. And we do have one set of shelves, filled with tomato product, that is starting to sag. It was the first shelving unit my husband built. That was in 1976, so it's stood up well.

[marthaadams]

WOW! Lots of canning! Glad I bought the steel shelves that hold 2000 lbs in 5 shelves 36" wide and 63" high. Shelves and legs are all double and steel and adjustable. Now they are $99 each
I do love the space you have for storage and am jealous. But, yes, have modernize the structure. Imagine if you had put that on the first floor or higher in a building that old. YIKES!
Looking at you old structure for the first floor. You have added a lot of weight in the kitchen. I remember the water bed days when you had to shore up under the house to hold the weight of the bed. We did not have all of these heavy appliances and cabinets when these houses were built.
I think many people underestimate A LOT the amount of food we need to live. There is a metric on the web that tells you like how much water one person needs for 2 weeks. You will be shocked if you go and look at that. We are so disconnected from our past. Furniture wasn't built in in the Victorian days like we have today with cabinets and islands and huge stoves and sinks and dishwashers and refrigerators and freezers.
Have you had your ground tested for water and movement too??? The University might do it for you. Oh, and don't get me started on trees - they can reek havoc with those roots. I have many 100 year old oaks. You can't even imagine what happened when we had an historical ice storm and some went over how big the base was. I also discovered when I put a ground spring fed pond in that taking down trees changes your whole water flow on the surface (grass).

[chelleelmer]

We just redid our pantry so I weighed my jars and the heaviest was a quart of spaghetti sauce at 2 lbs 13 oz...so to be conservative I said 3 lbs per jar. Times the number of jars and you've got a solid idea! Happy honey do-listing, Todd. Can't wait to see both your and Rachel's faces together on camera soon. Prayers from MN.

[aliceagoddard]

Wow. Those shelves have done great. Good thing y'all caught it.

[VicShoup-ecjb]

We put in 2 x 4 spacers and toe nailed them in so they wouldn't move. Still strong after 24 years!

[chesterscott]

Nice looking shelves. A big reason why you have deflection is a) the weight and b) the orientation of your 2x4 for the shelf framing. Dimensional lumber flexes on the flat edge. If you would have build the shelves on edge, crown up, they would most likely not budge an inch. Or supports like you’ve done does the trick as well.

[reneecasey]

my husband builds cabinets/ pantries so he beefed up ours by putting a trim like piece of wood on all 3 sides/ and back nailed against the walls / feel free to message me for photos/ yes our canning jars hold ALOT OF WEIGHT- and when you multiply each jar and the force it carries by all those shelves it could be a POWERFUL force if it breaks- and sadly a waste of food etc/. ours began to buckle so that is how he came up with the design/ and the dowel in the front is GOOD you've put in because of the span of space you have on your awesome shelves

[leahtruckenbrod]

Can't figure out how to insert a picture of shelves my husband made that have been incredible. Basically (2) 2 x 4s nailed back to back as uprights with 6" spaced notches for 3/4inch thick plywood shelves that can be slid in and out to fit items. The top and bottom shelves are fixed obviously for sturdiness. What's nice is that I can flip the shelves if start to bow, which over 12 years has been negligible.

[ginaeaton]

Another thing to think about... If you have a conventional floor, you might want to add some additional support. Like myself, I've seen many people repurpose a bedroom for a pantry. Food can add a few thousand pounds before you know it.

[thistledewfarm]

We did get lucky and found a farm up the road selling 6” x 2” x 12’ painters scaffolding used in the construction industry. It was A LOT of scaffolding for 250$ about 20 years ago. We got enough to re-floor the entire barn and enough to build the canning room shelves. Todd we did the same and had them fitted to canning jars. I have no idea how many jars are canned. I kind of just go by a 2-3 year supply of food myself. Good for you taking a fix on this. They look fabulous anyhow. PS.; I painted chalkboard paint on the edges so I could just write what was in the jars above for my poor DH that has to go down and find stuff for me on the fly.

[mrswobbles]

'You're nice and safe now carrot' 💓

[Greens]

Great video, I can't help it, I love when a man fixes things and takes care of stuff. Rachel will really appreciate it!! U both have built quite the stock pile of food!

[tomplater]

I know you live in Michigan which is not earthquake country. But here in Oregon where they say the big one is coming I added eye hooks and bungee cords, I don't want things falling off the shelves.
I enjoy your cooking, canning and construction videos. Thank you for all the time spent so people can watch them. Have a great day. Tom, Grants Pass Or.

[sitsngigglesful]

This is exactly what I needed to see. Been trying to figure out how to support mine! Thanks for this!

[AndreasCreations]

Excellent information for all of us! I appreciate that both you, and Rachel, share the good and "bad." Your video started a needed discussion in our household ♥️

[sandyoklahomatransient]

Y'all did an amazing job canning, and storing all your garden foods. I'd hate to see something jappen to those shelves. Good thing your supporting them!!

Ha, your floor is doing what ours did. Ours had major sag, learned the floor wasn't supported properly down our hallway which runs through part of the kitchen. We don't have a basement to stand up in to fix the floor. We had to hire out because you literally have to inch worm on your belly through the crawl space to fix the floor. My husband is a disabled Veteran, so there was no way I'd let him get under the house in the crawl space. We found an excellent team, with reasonable rates fix the floor and warranty it for 10 years. These guys had it fixed properly in a couple of hours. Were amazed on the difference, it was a 2 inch difference.