[NHCOLL-L:2798] Re: bolting down museum cases

[Gretchen Anderson]

In our old facility we had cabinets that were bolted together -- back to 
back and side to side. These were mostly double height cabinets. The few 
singles that we had were also bolted together - Upper to lower. This 
increased the stability significantly. We are in an area of very low 
seismic activity. The new cabinets are locked into the compactor 
system.  -- Check with your local building codes and authorities 
yourself.You know more than the architects about the use of your space. Do 
not depend on the architects to get it right. Having been through a 
building program, that is the best advice I can give!

Gretchen Anderson
Conservator
Science Museum of Minnesota
ganderson at smm.org

At 03:55 PM 8/23/2005, Janet Waddington wrote:
>Building codes are a fairly local phenomenon, so it is wise to check
>with your local authority.  I am not aware of a builkding code requiring
>bolting cabinets to the floor, although there are safety guidelines that
>recommend securing cases to the wall if they are above a certain height
>to wxd ratio. We do bolt our wooden cabinets to our compact storage
>carriages.  We also screw them together back to back, side to side, and,
>when they are double stacked, top to bottom. This gives them a broad
>effective footprint relative to height, and they are very stable.
>
>Janet Waddington
>Assistant Curator and Collection Manager
>Managing Editor, Collection Forum
>Department of Natural History - Palaeobiology
>Royal Ontario Museum
>100 Queen's Park
>Toronto, ON
>Canada M5S 2C6
>Phone  (416) 586-5593  Fax  (416) 586-5553
>Email  janetw at rom.on.ca
>
> >>> "Gary Shugart" <gwshugart at hotmail.com> 8/22/2005 10:34 PM >>>
>Hi all:  Architects are telling us that our museum cases, stacked two
>high
>(VACs and wooden 2x4x4 ft), need to be bolted to the floor as per
>building
>code.  Just wondering if anyone has been required to bolt cases to the
>
>floor?  And if not, did you have to deal with building  codes?  This is
>in
>new construction.
>
>Gary Shugart
>Collections Manager
>Slater Museum of Natural History
>University of Puget Sound
>Tacoma, WA 98416
>253 879-3356 (museum)
>gshugart at ups.edu, gwshugart at hotmail.com
>
>
>
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