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Orchid
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 Sun, Aug 24 2014, 10:26 pm
Please share your Ikea Billy bookcase experiences, particularly for seforim!
Also - how well will this piece endure a move?
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amother
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Sun, Aug 24 2014, 10:29 pm
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dont know about moving but we have had them for years!
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Ema of 5
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Sun, Aug 24 2014, 10:30 pm
| Orchid wrote: | Please share your Ikea Billy bookcase experiences, particularly for seforim!
Also - how well will this piece endure a move? |
We have been married 8+ years, and have moved once. We have had 2 billy bookshelves almost since day 1, and they are still in great condition. One is used for sforim and one is used for books and college text books and notebooks.
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boysrus
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Sun, Aug 24 2014, 11:04 pm
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no sagging . billys are the best, we have had ours for over ten years, never any problems wiht heavy seforim on them. go for it!
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LittleDucky
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Sun, Aug 24 2014, 11:29 pm
I've had these before. IKEA furniture in general does not hold up well after being taken apart. But just carrying the entire bookcase around to your new place might work. They don't take abuse too too well.
There are some shelves that are reinforced, the bottom one and typically the middle one (these are ones that are screwed in and cannot be adjusted). They can hold more weight. Other shelves should be rotated-flipped around and upside down if possible. These bookcases are made of pressed cardboard so they do warp-flipping them around helps to counteract that.
I loved my Billy bookcases and plan to get more eventually. (They didn't survive a move in bad weather).
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seeker
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Sun, Aug 24 2014, 11:59 pm
We have heavy seforim in a Billy. So far so good. It looks great, the price was right, and it's adjustable to the size of the seforim. If you play around with color and door options it gets a bit more expensive but can almost imitate the look of "Jewish" wall units that would cost in the thousands.
Agree with above that Ikea furniture does not transport very well, especially if you take it apart. If you're gentle and move it without taking it apart, it should do OK. Always reinforce bookshelves by bracketing it to the wall. The suggestion to flip the non-reinforced shelves to counteract warping sounds like a good idea. I haven't done that in the past and haven't noticed any warping, but I've only had Billy a few years so should probably do it preemptively.
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SacN
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 2:19 am
| Quote: | | Always reinforce bookshelves by bracketing it to the wall |
Not just to reinforce bookshelves!
Doing this (with a proper anchor, not just a screw in the wall with the brackets Ikea gives you) protects your kids.
You really should do it with almost all furniture--dressers, closets, desks, etc, even if they seem sturdy enough to not fall over. A dresser with all the drawers pulled out is front heavy, and could chas v shalom crush a small child. Sefarim, obviously, have the same horrible potential.
I'm constantly shocked at how few people do this.
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seeker
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 2:24 am
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True point, we were just talking about bookshelves here...
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SacN
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 2:26 am
Sorry, my main point was that you aren't just doing it to reinforce the bookshelves themselves, for their sake (to make them hold up better, be longer lasting, etc). It's to protect your family.
I guess that wasn't clear…
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cbsmommy
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 3:11 am
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We have 4 billy bookshelves that were 6 shelf units, and one that was a 3 shelf. All of our units were purchased in the last 5 years. We recently moved. The 3 shelf broke completely during the move. The 6 shelves are fine. No sagging even with super heavy sefarim and college books on them.
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Frumdoc
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 5:56 am
Yes, everyone I know pretty much has billy bookcases for seforim and all other stuff too. They don't warp easily, even for those who aren't good at flipping them upsidedown every 6 months, and transport well if you leave them intact, have had no issues moving them several times, obviously emptying them first?!
We also use ikea standard chests of drawers, which are so sturdy the oldest ones we have are at least 20 years old and dh had them in his bedroom as a child. They are amazingly strong and hold so much stuff.
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JAWSCIENCE
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 8:39 am
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Our Billy bookcases just survived their second move intact. We move them by taking out the shelves that are not nailed in and then just moving the whole unit. You cannot take it completely apart. We love them and we got a few of the doors too for a nicer look at a fraction of the cost. You can even get glass shelves and doors if you want to mimic a breakfront.
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Clarissa
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 9:07 am
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I've had our Billy bookcases for over 20 years and they've held up beautifully and still look great. Lots of heavy books, including seforim, on them.
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JoyInTheMorning
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 2:07 pm
An IKEA fan here. I have Billy bookcases and they hold seforim very well. I haven't noticed any sagging. We do sometimes switch around books. This may help because we don't always have the heaviest seforim on the same shelves.
Many seforim, like my Shteinsaltz gemaras and my shulchan aruch set, are too deep for Billy: it's 11 inches deep and those seforim need 12 inches. The IKEA Hemnes bookcases are 13 or so inches deep and do a better job of holding them. So we have a few Hemnes bookcases. As an added bonus, Hemnes is made of solid pine, which can hold roughly double the weight of pressed particleboard without noticeable (> 1/4 inch) sagging.
The problem with Hemnes is that you can't add a 7th shelf, the way you can with Billy. Also, there's not as much flexibility in shelf placement as there is with Billy. So overall, if space in your house/apartment is tight, you do better with Billy.
The combination Hemnes and Billy serves us very well. My parents had lots of sold-in-Boro-Park bookcases that cost the earth, overtook our living and dining rooms, and didn't even hold that many books. The IKEA bookcases are inexpensive, even when you have them assemble it for you (for roughly 30% of the purchase cost), have a low profile, and look great.
I've moved with some IKEA pieces twice, and so far, so good, except for one piece which the movers insisted on taking apart and which did not recover. I'd gladly rebuy it, but they don't make it now.
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freidasima
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 2:46 pm
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We have lots of IKEA bookcases, all billy, the 6 shelves with the extra 7th one on top and they are holding up well. We only move them from room to room but I heard from friends who have them, and moved with them, that they held up fine if they were moved gently. I second the idea of turning the shelves as they warp and if you are putting in heavy sforim, I'm told that there are deeper ones these days than the 27 cm. shelves and that they can hold a heavy shas just fine.
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JoyInTheMorning
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 2:51 pm
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I didn't think Billy comes deeper in US IKEA stores, but Kallax does, if you want that look. Or there's Hemnes, as I've said. I'd be very interested to hear whether there's a deeper version of Billy outside of the U.S.
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Orchid
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 7:08 pm
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Thank you all for your replies!
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kb
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Mon, Aug 25 2014, 7:21 pm
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Ikea includes a description of how many pounds each shelf can hold. Keep that in mind when picking out bookcases there.
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