Ways to support the weight of your flower box
BY TIM CARTER Tribune Media Services
DEAR TIM: My wife wants me to install a window box or flower box, depending on what you call them. I’m pretty sure that if I’m successful, I’ll be installing a few more. The boxes, when full of potting soil, plants and watered are pretty heavy. I’m very concerned that the box is going to fall and crash to the ground. What have you found to work best when installing these decorative items? I need your help, as I don’t want to upset my bride. — Don B.
DEAR DON: Oh, I’m quite aware of the wrath you might feel if your window box plummets to the earth, scattering the plants and flowers. My wife treats her plants like they are her children, and if I ever step on one or otherwise mistakenly cut one off with the weed trimmer, I’m in the dog house for quite some time.
You do want to succeed at this task for any number of reasons. First and foremost is the safety of anyone who might walk under the window. You sure don’t want a flower box to detach from a wall and fall on someone’s head. It’s happened before and surely will happen again.
There are several ways to support a flower box, the most common being metal brackets that are screwed to the wall. The challenge when using a bracket is to make sure the screws go into solid lumber. The only problem with this approach is that the placement of the brackets might not be centered under the flower box. Centering brackets on a masonry wall is easy, and it’s easy to anchor them for solid support. However, many houses have wood or vinyl siding with the wall studs undoubtedly off center.
This is why I usually don’t use brackets but choose instead to use hidden French cleats. A French cleat is a time-tested method to secure pictures, mirrors, mantles — and even window boxes — to a wall surface.
The French cleat is a two-piece connection system where the piece of wood or metal that’s attached to the window box interlocks with the mating piece that’s attached to the wall. The best part is that once it is installed, the window box will appear to be floating in mid-air with no visible means of support.
It’s easiest to use lumber to create a French cleat. I highly recommend using treated lumber in your case, since the wood will be subjected to water. You don’t want the French cleat to rot over time and fail causing the window box to crash to the ground.
The French cleat can be made from 3/4-inch-thick material. You need a piece of lumber that’s about 3-inches wide and as long as the window box.
The magic happens when you cut the single piece of lumber into two pieces along its length. You need either a circular hand saw or, better yet, a table saw with the blade set at a 45 degree angle.
By splitting the piece of wood down the middle with the saw set at the angle, you create two pieces of lumber that look identical, but one actually interlocks with the other when mated together. This is what’s going to hold the window box to the wall.
The piece of lumber that attaches to the window box is screwed to the window box so that the angled cut points to the ground and the long tip of the cut is not touching the back of the window box. The flat or square edge of this piece is usually flush with the top of the rear of the window box.
The other piece of lumber gets screwed to the wall of the house with the angled cut pointing up to the sky and the long point not touching the wall.
When you bring the window box over to the wall and allow the two pieces of lumber to interlock, the box will be securely attached
See BUILDER, page C42
