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I have a closet/cabinet that hangs on rails - the outside walls hang on the top rail and the middle section hangs on its own smaller rail. Since the middle rail was not attached to the wood studs, the entire middle section sagged and came out of the wall. There are grooves on the back of the side walls where the rail fits into the grooves. Since parts of the rail were cut out, only part of the rail was inserted and "touching" the grooves. Essentially, the middle walls of the closet were not fully hanging on the rail. I want to secure the rail to the wood studs and move it left/right to fit it fully into the grooves. But I can't move left/right to secure the middle rail to the studs as is because part of the track was cut out as can be seen in the collage image below.

Since I can't secure it properly to the stud (due to the cut off parts), I plan to cut the rail into two or even four pieces and hang each side wall of the middle section on two/four "sub-rails" as shown in the third picture. Each sub-rail will be secured with two screws into the stud. I just have one question: is there any structural advantage to securing the middle section on a whole rail versus two or four separate sub-rails? I don't think so, but wanted to ask here just in case. Please, let me know if it's not clear what I'm trying to ask/do. cabinet/closet middle rail collage of middle section on rail hanging middle section on two sub-rails idea hanging middle section on four sub-rails idea

Update1

Instead of splitting the rail into sub-rail I can leave the rail continuous and buy a plain flat metal bar from Home Depot and put it in front of the upper part of the rail that goes into the grooves as shown in the picture (rod is red) which will "fill in" the two gaps. Will this work? enter image description here

UPDATE2

The screws came out of the wall and the cabinet sagged enter image description here

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  • I doubt I'm the only one who is confused by some of this, e.g.. "...entire middle section sagged and came out of the wall" Does this mean it started to lean forward, pull away from the wall at the top, or something else? If so, was this by pulling the screws out of their anchors, pulling the anchors out of the drywall, something else? The first two don't indicate how it was attached previously was poor, but instead some failure of implementation — the screws were the wrong size, too short, the plugs (if used) were crap, the drilled holes were too big, the screws were torqued too high etc.
    – Graphus
    Commented Dec 4 at 5:40
  • @Graphus, there were no anchors at all (!) and it was not secured to the studs either. I attached a picture (under UPDATE2 section) where the screw pulled away and the groove was damaged.
    – theateist
    Commented Dec 4 at 7:14
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    Ah. As the saying goes "Well there's your problem right there!" Individual screws, with suitable anchors, are capable of withstanding 40, 60, even >80 lb. Without anchors I don't even know how low the number is :-\
    – Graphus
    Commented Dec 5 at 9:07
  • It was the "handyman" that the landlord hired to install the closet for previous tenants. Apparently he did a bad job and I'm trying to fix it.
    – theateist
    Commented Dec 6 at 7:09
  • Yup, "handyman" indeed! Sadly far too many of these cowboys out there doing sub-par work....
    – Graphus
    Commented Dec 7 at 8:05

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The use of separate rails as you propose will generate rotational force on the rails allowing the center cabinet to begin shifting down. The primary advantage to one continuous rail is that it prevents the rail from rotating. Using two screws at each stud is the right strategy to prevent the shorter rails from rotating. How well they work is partially dependent on the weight of the middle cabinet. Since the screws are close together there is increased force on the screws (think of a lever). It will be important to securely fasten the screws in the wood stud. Using four supports instead of two will help a lot.

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  • Good point. What if I keep it continuous rail but put a bar as shown in my UPDATED1 section?
    – theateist
    Commented Dec 3 at 22:32
  • This should work if the new bar is adequately supported and/or secured to the other. You show the new bar on the bottom angled face, but could put it above. As long as the original bar is properly secured to studs this should work.
    – Ashlar ♦
    Commented Dec 4 at 15:30

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