Author Topic: Moveable Walls Made of Shelf . . .  (Read 1793 times)

wooljaguar

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Moveable Walls Made of Shelf . . .
« on: February 23, 2018, 06:15:33 PM »
So I'm staring down the gauntlet of needing to move to a different apartment in June, and my city (Los Angeles) is wicked expensive, and I have an ongoing hair-on-fire situation.

I currently pay $808 (rent, trash, water) to split a one-bedroom with my husband, but we're breaking up. There seem to be no studio apartments pretty much anywhere less than $1075, and certainly not within biking distance (I have no car, nor desire one). There seem to be no two-bedrooms under $1900, so moving into a traditional equal-footing roommate situation would be better, but not by much ($950pp). I'm keeping an eye out for cheap room openings, but it's hard with two cats.

One possible solution I thought of would be to find a roommate who would be down for something unconventional (find them in advance and apply together so as not to run afoul of subleasing rules), rent a one-bedroom ($1500–$1600) with a spacious common area, and build a rolling L-shaped wall (something like this, but not quite as deep or fancy and L-shaped, with a simple plywood door in it) that carved a private area out of the common area. I think there could be shelves built into the hollow area to make up for a lack of closet—in fact, the whole inner portion could even be a shelf. I'd offer the other person the "real room" for the equal rent (about $800pp), basically giving them an incentive to save $150/mo over a spot in a real two-bedroom to make up for the lack of large common space.

I, myself, could live in a walk-in closet, and I literally did exactly that between the ages of 13–17, when I needed more privacy than my family living situation could afford me. So the idea of a rolling fake room sounds kinda fun and adventurous. Like a clubhouse within an apartment...

Now, I don't have carpentry experience, so I'd be renting tools and learning from scratch, but I'm pretty handy/crafty. In order to make this all worth it, I'd obviously have to spend less on the construction of the thing than I'd save in 12 months' rent (since I'd like the opportunity to move on when the lease is up if it's not working well). So say it'd have to cost SIGNIFICANTLY less than $1800.

A few questions...

Has anyone here done anything like this?
As long as they roll and don't attach to existing walls/ceiling, they just kinda count as shelves and wouldn't piss a landlord off, right?
What do you suppose a budget would be for a project like that, assuming very bare-bones, painted-plywood kind of construction?

For me, the benefits of something like that over a simple curtain or office partition kind of giggity would be better sound blocking, keeping cats in or out, the ability to decorate the common-area side with art I already have, and the ability to lock it if I wanted to (to the point where it'd be at least more inconvenient to get in—walls would need be rolled, etc.). And it beats just sleeping in the living room because, hypothetically, roomie could still use what was left of the living room rather than be banished to their room when I need rest.

I dunno—is it pie in the sky or an option I should actually consider? All thoughts and ideas welcome! :)

BudgetSlasher

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Re: Moveable Walls Made of Shelf . . .
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2018, 11:40:36 AM »
So I'm staring down the gauntlet of needing to move to a different apartment in June, and my city (Los Angeles)
As long as they roll and don't attach to existing walls/ceiling, they just kinda count as shelves and wouldn't piss a landlord off, right?

What does the California/LA building/residential/fire code say about bedrooms or creating a new one or any other law that applies to landlords state?

It seems like the kind of place where making a bedroom out of of some shelves and plywood could run afoul of the local laws. And if that leave the landlord on the hook for the violation then yes it would probably piss them off.

bacchi

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Re: Moveable Walls Made of Shelf . . .
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2018, 11:44:32 AM »
First question is -- how would you move these walls around? You could build it with bolts but, still, that's a lot of plywood.

In effect, a moveable wall is a giant bookshelf with wheels that can be bolted to another moveable wall/bookshelf. One of these has a door framed in it.

Decent looking plywood is ~$40/4'x8' and you'd need at least 4 sheets for an 8' long x 4' wide area (x <8' tall). Then you'd need some dimensional lumber to connect the plywood and a lot of carriage bolts and wheels and hinges and paint. You could use more plywood for the shelving and even put in a rod for hanging. I'd guess about $600 if you have access to the tools. You might even put some cork in the interior for sound insulation.


GizmoTX

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Re: Moveable Walls Made of Shelf . . .
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2018, 11:45:53 AM »
And, you don't know if you could attract a roommate who would go along with this.

You'd be better off to be the roommate or find a studio apt.

wooljaguar

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Re: Moveable Walls Made of Shelf . . .
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2018, 10:44:29 AM »
Thanks for the replies! :)