Fittings to plasterboard

ankles

I'm fitting a towel holder and loo roll holder to a downstairs toilet. I've had two goes over the last few years. Each time after six months or so I end up with the fittings hanging out of the wall and a large hole arouind the rawlplug. Is there any way of doing this so I don't end up with the fittings being pulled out of the wall. I have small kids so no point asking them to be gentle on the fittings.

ircoha

find the timber uprights and span 2 of them with a piece of timber [varnished or painted, depends on room finish, u might pick up something ready to go in woodies or b/q in the shelving section] , and then fix the fittings to it

ankles

You mean some sort of skinny ply? Ironically I've just painted the room but you think just tacking something up and ten painting over won't be too obvious?

Esel

You can buy special fittings with a spring-loaded back section which opens after insertion and tightens against the back of the plasterboard. Any good hardware store should have them.

Rancid

Ask for Toggle Bolts.

chuckles30

As far as I know the spring-back ones are for heavy weight stuff. Have you been using the normal plugs supplied with the bathroom fittings? If so, then that's your problem. They're only for the bin where plasterboard is concerned. I got bigger plastic ones specifically for plasterboard in my local hardware shop. There's grey ones for lightweight stuff like your bathroom fittings and there's bigger blue ones for heavier weight stuff. I've used the spring back ones for stuff like mirrors etc. My plastic ones have been up for over two years now and there's not a move out of them. I can look up the name on the boxes for you in the morning.......they're out in the shed!!

ART6

ircoha wrote: »

find the timber uprights and span 2 of them with a piece of timber [varnished or painted, depends on room finish, u might pick up something ready to go in woodies or b/q in the shelving section] , and then fix the fittings to it

+1. Use springbacks or expanding fixings for plasterboard by all means if all you are doing is fitting a mirror or something that doesn't get pulled about. But a towel rail is always going to be pulled on by people and by towels. Sooer or later any fixing will pull through the plaster board, and springbacks will just leave a bigger hole.

Martron

rawlplug have a system called "uno" basically they suit everytype of wall. i have used them and found them very effective. they good for like weight stuff. the toggle screws or bolts as they resemble more are great for the heavyweight stuff. but if your kids pulled this one out you would have a bit more than a small hole .

rawlplug uno is about 6 euro for a good tub of them screws included or you can just buy the plugs.

you could also mount the fitting onto a larger back and the glue it to the wall. no more nails is fantastic. it not going anywhere.

again though it is a reall permanent solution.

GreeBo

rawl plugs do a screw in plug that then takes a screw.They are usually grey and either plastic or metal. They are rated at 15KG each so would be fine for a small/average towel rail.

Otherthan that I would open up the plasterboard and span the studs with a noggin that you can then use to fix the radiator to. If you use 9mm ply you can even skim over it and you wont know its there once its painted.

ankles

I've been using springbacks, so yes I now have bigger holes, hence the filler and repaint job. I don't want to glue anything to the walls. The fittings are fancy enough circular with two screw holes in each. Are you suggesting that I bang a relatively large sheet (say 6inches square) up on the wall? I don't fancy opening up the plasterboard and re-skimming. I'm a drill and screwdriver DIY guy.

Martron

GreeBo wrote: »

rawl plugs do a screw in plug that then takes a screw.They are usually grey and either plastic or metal. They are rated at 15KG each so would be fine for a small/average towel rail.

Otherthan that I would open up the plasterboard and span the studs with a noggin that you can then use to fix the radiator to. If you use 9mm ply you can even skim over it and you wont know its there once its painted.

thats a lot of work for a towel rail

GreeBo

Martron wrote: »

thats a lot of work for a towel rail

less work to do that once than repair a falling down towel rail 10 times, especially if it takes some pipes with it...


FYI ankles, you dont need to remove the plasterboard from a large area, 2 strips of 2 inches is fine, you only need timber behind where the fixing point is...
1) mark where you want the towel rail
2) find the studs either side of it
3) you now have two vertical lines (the studs) and two horizontal lines (fixing points for the towel rail)
3) cut out the horizontal lines (about 2 inches wide) until 3 inches past the studs.
4) screw your new batons to the existing studs from the 3 inch gap you made above
5) plaster over
6) drink tea while plaster dries (plaster in two coats, leave undercoat 2-3mm shy of the final surface and when dry use skimcoat. You wont get a nice finish from undercoat no matter how much you sand)
6) paint
7) screw in towel rail (no plugs required as you are fixing to timber)
8) make tea
9) drink tea

FYI Small gaps are pretty easy to plaster/skim no matter how long they are as the float/trowel will span it and give you a nice finish with minimal sanding.

Job done, less than 2 hours work.