Question from gloria g
Hi, I am looking for toxic free closet solutions regarding shelving. I understand that solid wood comes only in 11 1/2″ widths which is not wide enough for me and, shelving wider than that has glues which are toxic. Perhaps there are closet storage companies that use non toxic wood solutions but I have not found them. Do you have any thoughts about this? Thanks very much!
Debra’s Answer
I don’t know of any offhand, and I’ve looked.
I just have shelves built for me.
I have a couple of ideas.
At Lowe’s there is a department where they sell boards made of various woods that can be used for shelving, building furniture, etc. In my local Lowe’s it’s near the wall molding. It seems to me they have 16″ wide shelving.
And also they have tabletops made of strips of wood glued together. Wood glue actually is not toxic, so if real wood glue is used, it’s OK. I’ve used these before with no problem.
Or you could contact someplace like tablelegs.com and see if they can put together something for you of the right width. Just use yellow woodworkers glue and you’ll be fine.
Glass shelving is always an option… you could go to a window & glass shop to get custom sizes cut.
i went to home depot and got some melamine shelving; they cut it for me.
don’t know about the toxicity of melamine..just know i haven’t had any
problems or odors whatsoever
We’ve had really good luck putting shellac over finishes on shelves, furniture, etc. Two coats seem to seal in all the smells. The shellac itself outgasses in 2-3 days. The only drawback to shellac is the finish gets wrecked if it gets a little puddle of water on it.
do you recall which shellac you use(d) by chance.
i once used zissner bullseye and took like a month to offgas.
thank you for info
I have just been researching closet inserts myself.
ELFA, sold by The Container Store has several kinds that apparently to not have formaldehyde. They have wire shelving of course. Or you can get wire with a real wood fronts. Or they have “decor” shelving, which is not particle board, but a honeycomb structure inside. I found the store personel to be fabulous for design, but didn’t know much about materials. I emailed from their website and got more info. Brad from customer service says, “Yes, that’s correct, the honeycomb construction that is inside our decor shelving has no formaldehyde.” and “… there is no particle board and the stain is a clear, water-based lacquer. We do not have the ppm emission as there is nothing in the manufacturing process that would add any formaldehyde.”
California Closets also has a line which is formaldehyde free, but quite expensive.
I have not installed either of these yet, so will have to update with real world experience.
Good luck!
Dear Debra, what do you think of this product?
http://www.solidwoodclosets.com/
COMMENT FROM DEBRA:
I called them up and asked them what type of finish. They said, “Polyurethane.” I asked “Oil-based or water-based?” “Oil-based.” So DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. Oil-based polyurethane finish contains some extremely toxic solvents that outgass for very long time (years). I asked if I could have them use another finish or get the pieces unfinished and they said, “No, they come prefinished,: which means that this is a retail outlet and they are not making the items there.
If you want to buy them anyway, you could “bake” them in a heated room until the solvents from the finish bake out, but it would require at least two weeks to do this, and they still may not be fully outgassed at the end of this time. It would be better to build your own and use whatever finish you want (or none). I have the good fortune to have someone who can build anything I want, and I just leave my closet shelves unfinished.