Shower Rail disaster!

gnimia

I had one of my occasional cleaning frenzies (very occasional) and vigorous manipulation of the shower rail (ugh) ended up with it coming away, pulling the palseterboard rawlplug-things out and making an unholy (or holy) mess of the celiling.

I'm not sure how to go about fixing it?

Painting and fixing a piece of wood over the shower and then mounting the rail to that seems fraught with problems, but just filling the holes and remounting nearby doesnt seem very good either...

Any advice?

The shower rail is a ceiling mounted, oblong/oval one (and i dont really want to/can't replace with a wall to wall one)

Pic:

Crinkmeister

Patch/reinstate ceiling and fix a noggin between ceiling joists so that you fix the rail to the noggin, not just the plasterboard.

gnimia

Thanks - apologies for probably stupid questions, but that would mean moving the location of the fixings? And how do i find the joists??!

Is a noggin essentially apinted piece of wood to atatched the brackets too - as I'm concerned it will get manky and worse, mouldy?

ilikewatch

gnimia wrote: »

Thanks - apologies for probably stupid questions, but that would mean moving the location of the fixings? And how do i find the joists??!

Is a noggin essentially apinted piece of wood to atatched the brackets too - as I'm concerned it will get manky and worse, mouldy?

The noggin would be a fairly "chunky" piece of wood fixed between the 2 joists above the current plasterboard ceiling - you would still have the ceiling between the noggin and the shower, so there should be no risk of it getting either manky or mouldy.

gnimia

Aha, I see - this would include taking more of the ceiling down, but be a better job??

Thanks

Crinkmeister

No, you do it from above. In the loft - or are you in a flat?

gnimia

Not in a flat, but there is a flat roof above, so no access from there.
Would definitely be more destruction!

Any alternatives?

ilikewatch

gnimia wrote: »

Not in a flat, but there is a flat roof above, so no access from there.
Would definitely be more destruction!

Any alternatives?

Try to figure out where the joists above the ceiling are (using a stud finder) then see if there's any way of refitting the rail so that all the fixings are screwed directly into joists.

Alternatively see if you can bodge it using proper plasterboard fixing through the existing holes, if the holes haven't been enlarged too much.

Chunks

You might try some anchors like these:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/fischer-5-x-37s-bp-hm-metal-plasterboard-anchor-pack-of-20/33559

Much depends on how the screw (in the anchor) would work with the fixing you pulled down but it's an idea. The metal part which when tightened, deforms behind the plasterboard in the void, should spread out and help not only with the load (for the next workout of the shower pole) but also work with the enlarged holes you now have.

Good luck.

gnimia

Ok,. not sure about the anchors, but will definitely have a go at finding the joists.
Is unlikely i guess, but hopefully they will align with where the brackets need to go.
Thanks for all feedback!

PasturesNew

I presume it has to go back on the ceiling...? If not, I'd get an expanding pole, wall to wall, no fixing required