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Handy Sauder Shelf Repair

April 4, 2011

If you’re like us, you’ve probably gone ahead and purchased inexpensive furniture (shelves, bedside tables, TV stands) from Sauder to save a buck or two. If you’re like us, you’ve probably experienced your share of Sauder breakdowns too.

It’s not the highest quality and some would argue not even worthy of saving. This shelf almost went straight into the trash when we moved it from Pete’s apartment, because after being used for two years to store lots of (really heavy) books, it had become a little wonky. OK, a lot wonky.

Ummm... This Sauder shelf is... broken.

Pete said he tried to lift it up once and ripped off the top. Busted fiberboard is basically equivalent to death in the Sauder world. Frankly, I’m surprised he was able to continue to use it even in this state for as long as he did.

The top isn't actually attached to the bookshelf legs anymore. Whoops.

Call me crazy, but since I thought it would be complementary to the IKEA EXPEDIT shelf that’s already in my living room, I decided I wanted to try and make it work (with as little financial investment as possible, because let’s face it, you don’t usually put money into fixing this type of furniture). Pete suggested reinforcing the structure similarly to how we upgraded the built in shelving with added, unobtrusive support to prevent bowing. The boards I found to use were free… salvaged from a past project. Remember when Pete tore apart the basement bathroom and used the lumber to make a workbench and gardening table? (Read about it here and here and, oh, here too).

Salvaged wood scraps are a perfect fit for this shelving fix.

Really, he probably suggested adding supporting pieces to the back of the shelf so he could bring out his nail gun again. Even though the pancake compressor freaks out the dog, it’s amazing to have. If you haven’t caught on by now, we really like this tool and want you to have one too (these are unsponsored good words in support all nail gun brands).

He might love the nail gun more than me. It's OK.

First things first, I wanted to put a little glue in the exposed wounds. We considered Gorilla Glue, but couldn’t find it in the mess of the move; we also considered that the expansion of the Gorilla Glue might even warp the shelf a little more (or would have to be clamped more securely than we could have managed with the tools we had on hand) so in the end we resolved to test out plain old Elmer’s wood glue.

Glue and screw (er, nail) it. Basic old wood glue does the trick.

After the glue was spread liberally on the exposed fiberboard, we stuck the original top back into place. A few wooden pegs were left on the middle-most post to help secure it from slipping around, but I still brought in lots of books to add weight to the surface and create a strong bond between the boards and the glue (just like what I did when I was fixing the IKEA RIBBA drawers).

Once the salvaged boards were cut to length, we squared off the structure and nail-gunned the top most panel to the back of the shelf. The board overlapped all legs and the back of the shelf top as well so we could make sure we were nailing into as many pieces as possible.

Squared off the shelf to make sure it was going to be reinforced correctly (avoided making it permanently wonky).

Hey, here I am looking very serious while I nail gun. I was enjoying myself, I swear.

Nailing the hidden support boards into place on the backside of the shelf.

Oh, well I was enjoying myself until I screwed up, nail gunning a little too close to the top edge (and at an angle), which made the nail blast through the top panel of the shelf.

Oops, made a nail angle up through the otherwise perfect shelf top. Tore off the veneer finish.

We couldn’t even get it back out the same way it came in, so Pete came to the rescue with the cutting wheel on the Dremel and corrected that little snafu. Thanks dude.

Cutting wheel to the rescue since we couldn't reverse the nail back out of the shelf surface the same way it had gone in.

Just like the top, we secured the bottom with a reinforcing beam to add to the keep-it-square plan. If you really wanted to go all-out, you might want to consider adding boards the entire length of the shelf, top to bottom. Seriously, how sturdy would THAT be?

Attached the additional support to the bottom of the unit as well.

Oh yeah – one other thing I did while the glue was drying? Took some stain to the edges of those new support boards. I had some dark brown stain on hand (an “oops paint” find from Home Depot, priced at $1) which wasn’t exactly the same color but was close enough to get the job done, particularly along the edge of the top board where the non-stained edge would have stood out loudly if left untreated. Yes, sometimes the DIY response is “close enough”. See the before/after comparison in this photo:

Staining the new exposed edge of the top supporting beam. Close enough - not obviously a different color from a distance. I let the glue dry overnight before removing the DIY weights, although it probably would have been fine with just a few hours – the new supporting boards on the back added loads of reinforcement to the previously wobbly shelf.

Upright, rejuvenated Sauder shelving unit.

And that’s how you can fix a broken shelf. It’s basically been brought it back to life.

I bet there’s a biblical Easter story in there for you if you look really hard.

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Decor  / DIY  / Living Room

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

12 Comments


Ashley @ DesignBuildLove.co
April 4, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Reply

what a GREAT fix! I hate to throw stuff away that can be fixed and put back to use, so this is wonderful!



    Emily
    April 4, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    Ha, yes. I’ve somehow become a hoarder of scrap materials since I never know what I’ll need for a new projects… hence why I had so many random pieces of wood available from the basement demo that was months ago.

Irene
April 4, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Reply

Great job!



Cait @ Hernando House
April 4, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Reply

Great fix! I have no idea what a Sauder is, so at first I was really confused. Then I realized it wasn’t some kind of hacked/squished Expedit and it made a LOT more sense, haha.

Also, a legitimate laugh out loud at “I bet there’s a biblical Easter story in there for you if you look really hard”!



    Emily
    April 5, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    Cait – I may have been really tired when I finished this post, because that Easter “joke” is really pathetic now that I read it again.

Emily
April 4, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Reply

Ahhh, I didn’t realize the brand/make wasn’t widely known! There are a few furniture stores up here that sell only Sauder furniture – less expensive, doesn’t last too long, veneered… definitely a hack that would work on any failing shelving unit, but this one was specifically Sauder-made.



    Cait @ Hernando House
    April 4, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    Haha no worries! I figured it was Ikea-esque furniture after I continued reading (also, I Googled it to be sure, is that cheating?)

    Besides, I’m sure there are lots of people going “what the hell is Publix?” when I post (ok, maybe that is more widely known, and I don’t talk about grocery shopping much… but I can’t think of any other southern-only specific stores.)

    Emily
    April 4, 2011 at 10:28 pm

    If Googling is cheating, I cheat every single day. And there aren’t many Home Goods up in my area and I only hear great things about that place… so it’s on my list. Harris Teeter? Wegmans? I guess I didn’t realize that Sauder was regionalized!

Cait @ Hernando House
April 4, 2011 at 10:56 pm
Reply

We had a Harris Teeter for a few years but it closed/turned into a Publix because Harris Teeter was way too expensive. I Googled Wegmans to see what it was and we definitely don’t have those down here. We also don’t have Kroger (which I guess is more popular down south, though not in Florida). We didn’t get a Target in our city until the early 90s, so maybe we’re a bad judge.

Not positive that its regional, their site says they are the largest American ready-to-build furniture distributor (or something like that) but not WHERE they distribute products to. Strange.



    Cait @ Hernando House
    April 4, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    Also, HomeGoods is amazing. Their Facebook seems to mention mire and more of them opening up north at least? Do you have TJMaxx/Marshalls? Apparently they are the same parent company.

    Emily
    April 4, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    Yes – we’ve got those stores. My impression has been that Home Goods has way MORE stuff though. Hopefully I’ll make my way to one soon.

Cait @ Hernando House
April 5, 2011 at 8:31 am
Reply

Oh yes, there is definitely more at HomeGoods!



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