Hi all,
Does anyone have any experience building stand-alone loft beds (without attaching to a stud in the wall)?
Something along the lines of the loft bed in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCr6IOpThMU&list=PLkB9R9qAQy1o3Iz67X8DsdFS9hg-fdVTw&index=62&t=22s
Do you know a good source in Vancouver for kee klamps and pipe?
Is it possible to do the same thing with wood?
Thanks for your time.
La
Awesome! I didn’t know they carried them. I’ll be sure to check it out.
My co-renter built himself a wooden loft bed platform which he used for 4 years. We took it apart last year after the 2nd episode of bedbugs. They loved hiding in the bolted joints. While the heat treatment ($500) after chemical treatment worked in 2018, it did not work so well in 2020, possibly because there were too many bins stacked under there to allow the hot air to get everywhere.
So if you can swing it, I do recommend building it out of metal. However, if you are still interested, I can ask Neil for his free-standing, Sketchup design and cut list.
Unfortunately I agree,
Metal is much better if there is a possibility of bed bugs.
With metal I must warn you that your mattress will sink into the metal frame. Have lots of cross members. You just need to weld up the outer portion of the frame. The cross members can be relatively light weight with hooks to go over the frame. If you don’t make the cross members detachable, expect a metal frame with sufficient cross members will be too heavy.
An alternative is to use light pieces of plywood to prevent the mattress from sinking into the frame. And when you have bed bugs, just lift the mattress and remove it.
If you have any wood that the flat bed bugs can squeeze between, it needs to be taken apart.
Poring boiling water over the dissembled frame will kill the bedbugs.
Could you please ask Neil for his Sketchup design? I’m still in the initial stages of designing, figuring out costs, etc but I would like to see plans from another person if possible 
I was planning on using plywood over the slats (either wood or metal depending on the material I’m using to build it). So far we haven’t had any problems with bedbugs in my building (knock on wood).
Minor suggestion, if for some reason you end up going with metal, ikea has nice sets of bed slats (which is what I think they used on the video)
All right. He has to find it. He’s not sure he kept the design (of course 
) so he has to look for it.
Alas, Neil cannot find the design on his current, working drives. It might be lurking on the dead drive, but that would require data recovery skills. The motor on that drive is kaput. He needs a clean box to even attempt transferring the platens to another drive box with working motor. And that’s a pretty dicey operation.
Sorry about getting your hopes up only to dash them. 
No worries! Thanks for asking on my behalf, I appreciate it!
Two other systems (similar to maker pipe) that I’ve used to build structures like this in the past are Flex Pipe and Tinktube. They’re the same company, but the Tinktube brand has nicer colours and some slightly different fixtures for home use. The Flex Pipe stuff is a bit more industrial. They also calculate shipping differently, as Flex Pipe is meant to be purchased in bulk. In Canada, they ship out of Montreal.
This looks promising. Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. What did you use this systems to build if you don’t mind me asking.
Is there a way to attach sliding drawer and sliding door hardware?
A sliding drawer can be turned into a slid out desk, within movable room divider.
The Flex Pipe folks sell slides and brackets. It probably wouldn’t take too much to rig up a custom system. I used mostly Flex Pipe, but I also ordered some brackets from Tinktube. For some reason, they don’t carry exactly the same stuff, but it’s all interchangeable.
Here’s a pic of my standing electronics bench and storage.
Thanks for sharing – how heavy are their pipes? Thinking about using this for mounting assistive technoloby solutions for people with disabilities, mounting arms are expensive.
very tidy. i like the plywood attached right to the shelving.
It’s pretty light. I just went to weigh a small piece, but the batteries in my scale are dead. I’ll grab some in the next day or two and let you know precisely.
Ok, I just weighed a 22cm piece and it was 150 grams. Hope that helps!
So the solution is to kill it with fire but make sure it’s enough fire?