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Plasterboards have became standard way of interior finish to such extent that probably no one even remembers how it was done before. Luckily, because it’s probably also the easiest way.
Nonetheless, we have to learn how to work with and around that. One of the many struggles people might get with plasterboards and dry walls in general is whether they can or cannot fix to it anything heavier than a picture frame…
The standard answer to that immortal question is “it depends”. Obviously.
Although it seems fragile, plasterboards are indeed pretty resilient, but we should not put too much faith into it.
In order to establish the requirements the series of questions could go like that: How heavy the object is? Can you locate the studs? What is the thickness of the wall? Plus few more on top of that.
The general answer to that question is yes, you can, but I would insist you should locate at least one stud to make it your base to fix anything heavier. Especially if it’s going to be a cupboard filled with cutlery.
I have presented below several ways to give you an idea on how you can proceed with that challenge to make it work and make sure it will not fall off on first occasion.
Fixing heavy cabinets on #drywall is possible, but locate at least one stud to make it your base to fix anything heavier #diy #kitchen
It’s pretty obvious that you would like to fix cabinets to your walls, but you simply cannot fix it straight to the plasterboard. At the end of the day it’s not a solid wall of bricks.
We should all welcome with great relief a fact that there are multiple solutions available. And some are really, really good ones which I would like to discuss in a little bit more details below.
In ideal world the wall should have been prepared to install even heavy cabinets.
You do that by fixing also horizontal battens between the vertical studs. This gives you a perfect base to hang any sort of cabinets. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world, but if you are doing a complete kitchen renovation think about it in advance.
It costs almost nothing and can save you a huge headache after the job is done. You really don’t want to do that again or cut holes once you finally have your new, perfectly done wall, do you?
You can still do that once you have plasterboards already fixed.
Just unscrew one or two and fix the batten in a position where you would like to have your cabinets installed. The put the plasterboards back again. Job done.
If, however, for whatever reason you cannot do it or it’s not an option anymore there is another great solution you might want to use. First you need to locate the studs.
They should be placed every 60 cm (23-24 inches). The keyword here is “should”. Unfortunately, way too often it is not done with proper accuracy.
And I don’t mean fractions of an inch, sometimes it’s completely random.
If you do not know how it has been done you can give a go with stud locator. Just please bear in mind they are not 100% accurate either.
So make a small whole on both side of potential stud just to be sure. Then, the next step would be to add an extra piece of 12 mm plywood on top of your wall, attached to the studs.
From there you can hang even very heavy cabinets with properly selected hangers.
Fix to studs an extra piece of 12 mm plywood on top of your wall, it will allow you to hang almost everything #heavycabinets #kitchen #diy
If also the above solution is not good enough for your kitchen situation, you have a range of great fixing products available online and in regular walk-in stores, like Screwfix, B&Q or your local shop.
And we recommend to use the latter.
Below you can find few of them briefly explained with pictures for better understanding how they work. If you would like more in-depth presentation you can find it here, in the article from DIY Doctor by Mike Edwards.
The idea behind presented fixings is to spread the weight pressure on bigger surface than just few points where the cabinet would be screwed in.
Probably the best solution of all fixings commonly available, since it covers the largest area behind the plasterboard spreading the pressure from cabinet more evenly and not only on single point where it’s screwed in.
For a 1/2 inch gypsum wallboard a 1/8 inch anchor can hold around 100 pounds.
In my opinion second best widely available solution and also very popular. For a very good reason – it will take the form of four-pointed star.
It also spreads the weight nicely and it’s very easy to use on thicker walls too. A 1/8 inch toggle can hold 20-30 pounds on 1/2 inch drywall.
The plastic version of hollow wall anchor. Does the job and can work really well, being able to hold similar weight as the above one.
It’s recommended on slightly lighter cabinets, due to the material it has been made of.
Whatever you do just DO NOT go with an idea of using longer screws and plugs.
Just don’t! First and foremost it will not work. Second of all it will destroy your drywall once loaded with cutlery. Going further it can damage your kitchen furniture or even hurt someone.
No matter what you’ve been told, it’s really, really bad idea and we recommend you to stay away from people advising such solutions.
If you need more details on how to install your kitchen check out this article, written by us as well.
Fitting Kitchen Units on Uneven Walls Has Never Been Easier If you haven’t moved into a completely new place I am 100% positive you are
Pro-tip: At the beginning of this article I have formulated a potential question “What is the thickness of the wall?”. It is important mainly due to the fact that you have to choose the correct length of plugs, but also because thicker walls are simply more resilient.
You can do it by making a small hole in the wall and placing a wire with slightly flattened and curved end. It should look like a small hook.
Then place it inside the hole and hook it behind the wall, this will allow you to easily measure its thickness.
Hanging a cabinet in bathroom is probably even easier that in the kitchen, because very often you will have solid brick walls. If that’s the case you just have to drill two holes, insert the plugs and fix the cabinet.
Of course, making sure with spirit level beforehand if it’s all level as it should. In case you have a plasterboard wall it is not much different than doing the same in the kitchen, so you can doubtlessly use all the tips and solution presented above.
With one exception: speaking from personal experience it’s much more likely to hit the pipe in the bathroom than in the kitchen so you need to be extra careful with this one.
You can use the cable and pipe detector to locate them or simply avoid obvious places.
A little bit different story is when you have to put up a bathroom cabinet or anything else on tiles. This is very common when people mistakenly use regular plugs and screws to plain plasterboard walls.
These are not the right choice.
Mainly because it’s the easiest way to crack your newly laid tiles. Regular plugs are based on screws which are expanding the plug and as a result can cause a crack.
The right way to do it is by using one of the anchors presented above, but remember to choose the right length. In this case it’s not only the plasterboard, but you have to include the thickness of a tile as well.
You can measure the thickness of entire wall by using the pro-tip with little hook I have left above. Other than that you have to be very careful with drilling the holes. Here is a really good video on this topic by Ultimate Handyman.
Having all the (hopefully) valuable information I have brought you in this article I believe a task to hang a bathroom cabinet over the toilet should be fairly easy.
Nonetheless, what is different in this scenario hanging it over the toilet. In order to do it properly you should follow the following steps:
Safety note: please bear in mind that different weights might require more heavy duty solutions. Polda Builders do not hold any responsibility for misjudgment of what is sufficient for specific cabinet or quality of fixings.
The above solutions are proven to work, but in this shape are purely informative and greatly dependent on how it’s being implemented.
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5 Responses
Really amazing and informative content! Thank you for making the effort! Look forward to more.
Thank you very much! I am glad and humbled you liked it 🙂 that gives us the inspiration to create more posts like this.
Really amazing insight and content! Appreciate you for sharing! Look forward to more.
Thank you Tim! It means a world to us 🙂
GeeFix uses standard screws rather than bolts for its final fixing so you can use any suitable screw in a finish either to match your decor or whatever you’re fixing