Hi, I am from Assam, Guwahati. Yes it is warm humid place with lot of rains (like kerala). The bookcase is gradually drying. Fortunately last few days were very sunny and airy and my room has two big windows. Few mor details of my bookcase. It is 8 feet wide, 6 feet tall and 11 inch deep. It was attached with wall with 6 wall screw and has four pair of legs.I ask the carpenter to divide the bookcase into 3 part (32 inch each) and two door system for each part. Every part has 6 shelve from top to botom. There is no plywood or wood in back. I made it that way because the bookcase is attached in my room's inner wall I understand that the bookcase may have very little gap in between wall and wooden planks and i am ready for it. But I have no idea that beacuse of faulty mesurement, it became 1 inch gap between wall and sheve in the upper side. In lower side it is very minimum gap. I stop the carpenters to put the glass door. But now I see that they also make fault in making the doors. The doors are heavier that the shelf. The wooden planks are 1 inch thick while the door are 1.1/2 inch thick. I actually visit few hardwere shops here, but most have no ideas what to do and few says to apply wall putty to fill the gap. But my back wall is coloured (old wall, that why) and wall putty will not set on old wall and timber. I cannot remove it now from the wall otherwise the wall may destroyed. I really need a step by step guide now that what to do after the heves are dry, how to fil the gap and how to put the door without further damaging the shelf.

Made of timber, plywood and MDF board.

Peeyush, It is extremely difficult to identify a good ply amongst 100 plus brands unless you are a professional and you have the liberty to cut sheets for comparison . As you mentioned, it is a fairly unregulated market and in your case it would be only some 20 manufacturers making these 100 odd local ones and stamping it differently for marketing reasons . Brands do promise a minimum level of assurance and hence the cost. However, to help you narrow down - start with your budget range and the ones that comes with ISI mark/ hologram alongwith genuine invoices . With invoices you get a minimum brand warranty. The warping condition of the top ply usually tells a lot about the built. Try to go to reputed vendors only as they tend to have better ones. From the top five selected ones see if you can get "real samples" of 6"x6". Compare the weight, the cross section built of these and test them for nail/ screw strength and then finally put them in water for 2 days to see their respective performances with respect water absorption. You will need a lot of patience and a trusted carpenter for these. Too much to ask for a new person :) Thanks, Nitin Cornerstone Designs, Bangalore.

I was wondering if any one has ever use either a glulam in a 4×10 or 4×12 configuration for a rim joist and glulams for floor joists. Or What about a double rim joist. I will explain why I was thinking this. First I wanted to build a house to stand for a 100+ years much like a log home. So in thinking of a log home or a timber frame home they all had one thing in common… well two … First they had huge sill logs or sill timbers, and second back in the day they didn’t have indoor plumbing… ( water is the root of all evil in building..lol.) So My thought was this. I could use either a glulam in a 4×10-12 rim joist, glulams in 3×10-12 floor joists ( no bounce or squeak) and have a solid start to a solid foundation. I also thought of running a double engineered rim joist with water repellent properties and standard floor trusses. What are your thoughts, and doing either one would you recommend either a thicker basement wall , thicker than 8x8x16 cinder block walls and a wider 2×8 pressure treated sill plate or something better? Thanks.