Best way to fix shelves to dry lined wall.

tomstickland

I've spent the last two weeks working on my first time buy flat. It's coming on pretty well (another thread here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=217476).
I've sorted most of the bodges. For example, tonight I did screw the toilet to the floor properly.

I also did a classic. The bathroom fan was screwed to air, so I filled the void either side of the pipe with mortar. I was using a trowel to smooth it all of when I received a massive electric shock. Er, that'll be the live wires I left sticking out then. Took me about 10 minutes of trowelling before I managed to touch the wires. LOL. Tiredness is not good.

Anyway, one of the bodges was that they'd used regular plastic plugs for screws that held modular shelving to the wall. I went down Wickes and bought a load of plasterboard plastic plugs to replace them with. I drilled out 6mm holes and found that about 2/3rds of these pulled pretty tight, but the original holes were a bit larger and on average I'm not that impressed with the level of grip.

I don't think the shelves will fall off, but I like screws to pull nice and tight.

On the way home I was thinking about maybe drilling much deeper holes and screwing into the underlying blockwork, which is probably some tosh like breeze blocks. Then again, isn't there then a risk that I'll pull the plasterboard towards the blockwork, so mayeb I should just live with what I've got?

Poser

Try the metal wall plugs which work as the same as plasterboard plugs they open out the same you'll find them in wickes near the plastic ones

windym_2

Try these - http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=11923&ts=61545

p4u1_2

When using the plasterboard plugs it is important to use screws with a thread right up to the head. I've found in the past that using the normal (old fashioned) wood screws with a shank don't work so well as the plugs rely on all of the portion of the screw that goes into the plug being threaded.

What I've done in the past when fitting book shelves is exactly what you suggested, use a longer screw with a standard wall plug into the brick behind the plasterboard. Works well but be careful not to tighten the screws too much. I've done the same when fitting radiators with great success.

cheekymole

I would personally use THESE for heavy loads. Everything in my house which is fixed to a wall is fixed with these or something very similar after one of my kitchen cupboards fell off the wall!!!

p4u1_2

cheekymole wrote:

I would personally use THESE for heavy loads. Everything in my house which is fixed to a wall is fixed with these or something very similar after one of my kitchen cupboards fell off the wall!!!

They look very good, but you are still relying on the strength of the plasterboard, which after all is not all that strong. I suppose if they work for kitchen cabinets, then maybe I'm over engineering things a little, and should give them a go.

tomstickland

Thanks for the suggestions.

gadjet

When you've got problems with previous holes or when the plasterboard's a bit dodgy I usually squirt some high strength high grab no nails adhesive (not the relly runny white stuff) into the space between the board and the wall, enough to reach a couple of inches all round the hole.
When it's set it will be hard enough to drill into and it will hold the board against the breeze block to spread the load.

plumb1_2

i use these all the time, hold up any Dp rad.

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=100067&ts=16434&id=11143

tomstickland

Whatever way you look at it, dry lined walls are a load of !!!!!! compared to proper plastering.

save-a-lot

Hi

If possible use a stud sensor to find where the battons are and screw directly into these, that is if you are lucky enough for the positioning to be convenient with the job you want to do. I have this one - click here and it works a treat.