Hanging stuff on hallow walls

iregk

Lads and ladies,

A little help required here. I've got a new house so plenty of wood frame and plaster board walls throughout. In the master bedroom the wall seperating the bedroom to the en-suite I'm looking to hang a shelf. Nothing heavy it will be holding after shave and the like. The wall in question is wood frame and plaster.

Questions are, can you hang anything on these walls and if so what best to use. B&Q gave me hallow wall wral plugs but they are light weight use, which the chap says woudl be perfect but im not convinced.

Any help is much appreciated.

garyh3

Hi Iregk,

I use plugs throught our new house and have had no problems. Just make sure that the plug is tight in the hole and fits the correct screw. Buy decent plugs rather than those really cheap flimsey plugs its well worth the extra cent or two.

If you dont want to use plugs and want something a bit more secure you could also use butterfly sclips. These have a spring with two wings that pop out when you put in the hole.

Problem is the hole has to be bigger for the wings to be fitted in (folded) and you will loose the wings off the bolt if you take out the unit.

There are prob. other ways to secure into plaster at you DIY shop... Like I said had no probelms with wral plugs.

Also I dont normally use the supplied plugs and screws, usually put in a longer and thincker plug/screw.

Garyh3

iregk

Cheers for that garyh.

Also does anyone recomment easy drives. The big screws you put into plaster then put your screw into these? are they good or would a good wral be a better option.

garyh3

Hi again,

I have used these in my old house and tbh they made a mess of the wall and they leave a big big hole. Stick to plugs...... if its normal stuff to put up.

I have also found with these that if you make a mistake and take them out then you will have to use a new bit of wall to put them back in..

regards

Garyh3

Desmo

iregk wrote:

Lads and ladies,

A little help required here. I've got a new house so plenty of wood frame and plaster board walls throughout. In the master bedroom the wall seperating the bedroom to the en-suite I'm looking to hang a shelf. Nothing heavy it will be holding after shave and the like. The wall in question is wood frame and plaster.

Questions are, can you hang anything on these walls and if so what best to use. B&Q gave me hallow wall wral plugs but they are light weight use, which the chap says woudl be perfect but im not convinced.

Any help is much appreciated.

One "trick" is to try to find one of the vertical bits of wood (studs) and screw directly into that. That will hold a reasonable weight with just a normal wood screw. You do have to be careful to try to avoid wires if any electrics are nearby as the wiring is often run along them. The hard part is to try to locate a stud. They are standard distances apart and you can try to use a metal detector to locate the nails that holds the plasterboard to the stud.
To be honest, I have never managed to do this very well and usually just use the biggest plasterboard plugs and screws that I can fit and use several of them. These can easily hold up a small shelf.

Des

loyatemu

"easy drives" are fine for light weight stuff like bathroom fittings but they do tend to knock out a bit of paint and plaster as they go in - if whatever you are fitting will cover this damage then they are the easiest way to go. Just make sure you get the metal ones, not the plastic ones which are rubbish.

alternative is interset fixings like this
http://www.chard-design.co.uk/images/interset5.gif

these work very well and will hold up heavy stuff like shelves, but you do need to drill a hole first.

For really heavy stuff you should locate the batons behind the plasterboard and screw into them.

lalorm

Look for wall plugs that say they are for plasterboard. I use ones that make a shape of an M agains't the back of the plasterboard once the screw go into them. Once in, the plug can't come back out again. They seem to be the best. You can get them in Woodies, or B&Q. The main point, is not to drill the hole too big. If you do, the plugs just spin! If your not sure what size drill to use, look for a pack of plugs that comes with the drill you need as part of the pack. I've seen them in Woodies DIY by Lucan. A bit more expensive, but it's piece of mind I guess. Can't go wrong.
Had major headaches myself with a set of shelves that have hidden brackets that you don't see once they are up. The problem was that the shelf itself was too heavy with nothing on them, that the plasterboard couldn't support it. Builders should be forced to build houses right! None of the cheap plasterboard! What ever happened to solid inside walls?? And walls thick enough to block out noise from next door!!!

Anyway, hope this helps.
Mike

yop

Mike, grand having solid inside walls if you are building block or have hollow core floor upstairs but people who have standard floor joists have to use studding.

The "M" shapped plugs are the job alright. The metals ones are excellent also especially if u wish to hang anything that may be valuable