Double feature Part I: If you install a closet organizer system, don�t skimp on that last screw.

(Haven't posted in a while, so this month you get a double feature.)

How many of you have closets that look like this (Figure A)?  These are closet organizing systems, a big business, with companies like California Closets and the Container Store (Elfa brand) making it possible for a small space to accommodate lots of shoes, slacks, shoes, sweaters, shoes, suits, shoes, and if you are like some people I know, shoes.  You install these yourself, or the company will come out and install them for you, and they can make a huge difference.  They work by installing shelves and clothes-hanging rods that are all cantilevered from vertical rails on your wall (Figure B), which themselves are hanging from a horizontal strip of metal fastened to the wall at the top (Figure C).  I installed one of these Elfa systems in our closet a couple of years ago.  It�s pretty impressive, and can hold a couple of hundred pounds in the configuration that I used. 

The amazing thing about this popular system is that it is only attached at the top to that thin horizontal strip of metal that is fastened to the wall by one small bolt every 16 inches (wall stud spacing).  The rails have hooks at the top with which you literally hang them from a groove in the strip (Figure D).  That means that the rails and everything else attached to them can swing out as a single unit from the wall attached only at the top--but they don�t, I�ve been told, because all that weight is pulling the rails down against the wall and it�s remarkably stable.  The heavier the junk is that you put on the shelves, the more it presses against the wall, and those handful of bolts at the top are sufficient to keep the whole thing in place.   In fact, if wall studs are not handy in the right positions, you can even go right into the dry wall with the appropriate anchors because (they say) there will never be a force outward, just downward.

They do sell little fasteners that you hook onto the bottom of the rails and screw into the wall just to ensure that the rails don�t swing out if you have pull-out drawers in your system (Figure E).  That�s supposedly the only time you�d need such things.

Well, what�s missing from this picture?  The San Andreas and Hayward faults, of course, or your favorite other local earthquake source.  I would never DREAM of having a system like this without fastening the bottom ends in any city that experiences decently-sized earthquakes.  The right kind of back-and-forth shaking could start that whole unit swinging away from the wall and back again, and now you�ve got force at the top pulling straight out from the wall with some twisting, torqueing, and shearing thrown in for good measure.  That�s NOT what you want for bolts in drywall, and even with bolts in wall studs, it�s not a great situation, especially when the rails are just hooked on.

Bottom line:  I think any such system should use rails fastened on the bottom if your closet is the kind that shakes.  I highly recommend spending the extra few bucks on one fastener for the bottom of each rail, and if attaching it into dry wall, I recommend using an anchor that spreads on the other side of the wall like a toggle or molly bolt.  That last screw could be the straw that saved the camel�s back.

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Double feature Part II: Can I get a fire hose to use after a quake if my house is burning down and the fire department is not coming?

(Haven't posted in a while, so this month you get a double feature.)

I got this question at the end of one of my recent talks and said I�d look into it and post an answer.  The question went something like this:  �I was around in the 1989 quake and in parts of the city, it was impossible to find a firefighter or policeman.  There�s a fire hydrant across the street from my house.  Can I purchase and keep my own fire hose to hook up to that hydrant if my house is burning down and the fire department can�t make it due to other emergencies?�

Of course, after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the firefighters were busy dealing with too many emergencies, which is what gave rise to the SF Fire Department Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (SFFD NERT) program.  But regardless of the good reason, it�s certainly understandable to want to be self-sufficient in the absence of the firefighters.

I had never really thought about the fire hose issue, and on one level, it makes sense because the fire is there, the water is there, the person who wants to bring the water to the fire is there, and the Fire Department isn�t coming.  But on other levels, there could be concerns about legality, liability, safety, and feasibility.  So I checked with the SF Fire Department.

The official answer is: no.  The unofficial answer is: no.  The water that comes out of a fire hose is extremely pressurized.  In the SFFD, it takes two trained fire fighters to wield one of those things; we are not talking garden hose here.  If the average Joe or Josephine hooks up a hose to a hydrant and turns it on, they probably are not going to have much effect on the burning house, but could injure themselves and cause other damage.  And then if there�s nobody able to turn it off again, now you are losing the precious water from that local bank of hydrants.

I could add one suggestion, which is that if enough of us join the NERT program (or CERT programs in other cities) and take care of the smaller problems after an earthquake, then the firefighters will be available to save that house.

By the way though, did you know that in the City of San Francisco, there are 67 special low-pressure hydrants that actually dispense potable water that you can drink if the normal water supply is interrupted?  There is a map of these special hydrants at http://sfist.com/2014/07/29/map_where_to_find_emergency_drinkin.php.  Nice to know, although I�d still want to have my own emergency water.

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