Any tips - fitting shelves to lath and plaster walls?

Scam

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Soldato
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We flippantly bought some Ikea Mosslanda picture ledge shelves to put up in the office, forgetting the complete travesty that is the wall situation. House built 1903, when we refitted the bathroom (on the other side of the wall), we could see all the lath and plaster. On the bathroom side it is now plasterboarded and re-plastered, but I guess where we want to fit the shelves it is old plaster and lath :(

Borrowed a multi-detector and having a bit of success. Trying to find a magnet to 100% know where we're aiming, but quite worried we're gong to bring all the plaster down when we start drilling. The shelves are purely decorative so won't hold any weight apart from a pot plant and a picture etc. :o

So err, once we've found the studs what sort of fixings should we be using etc.?
 
Scam said:
We flippantly bought some Ikea Mosslanda picture ledge shelves to put up in the office, forgetting the complete travesty that is the wall situation. House built 1903, when we refitted the bathroom (on the other side of the wall), we could see all the lath and plaster. On the bathroom side it is now plasterboarded and re-plastered, but I guess where we want to fit the shelves it is old plaster and lath :(

Borrowed a multi-detector and having a bit of success. Trying to find a magnet to 100% know where we're aiming, but quite worried we're gong to bring all the plaster down when we start drilling. The shelves are purely decorative so won't hold any weight apart from a pot plant and a picture etc. :o

So err, once we've found the studs what sort of fixings should we be using etc.?
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If you’re just going into studs - then screws will suffice. If you end up in the lath and plaster - assuming it’s boarded - then bog standard uno plugs / rawl4all will be fine.

If you have a cavity of some type then you can use gripfix, or butterfly fixings.

If the load is so low - lash some no more nails / ct1 on the back (once you’ve drilled and made sure the shelf is level!)

The wall will probably fall down before the ct1 fails!
 
itsallaboutyou said:
If you end up in the lath and plaster - assuming it’s boarded - then bog standard uno plugs / rawl4all will be fine.
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Is the plaster actually going to hold though? I’m worried it’s going to fall down/off when I get the drill more than a few cm in :confused:

We fitted the same shelves on an adjoining wall (terraced house) and no real issues. But there’s brick there. Unsure if I got into the brick mind..

Just reconsidering if it’s worth the stress :o I don’t need the shelves, they’re purely for aesthetics..
 
Just drill and use fischer plugs. Plasterboard is way stronger than you think, and will distribute any load on it.
 
Have to say plaster board in my house is of poor quality. No matter what I've used using special heavy weight plugs eventually means a bigger hole to repair. I like to get into batten or brick. Failing that I've fixed a wooden board to the wall to spread the load. Then fix to the board.
 
Scam said:
We flippantly bought some Ikea Mosslanda picture ledge shelves to put up in the office, forgetting the complete travesty that is the wall situation. House built 1903, when we refitted the bathroom (on the other side of the wall), we could see all the lath and plaster. On the bathroom side it is now plasterboarded and re-plastered, but I guess where we want to fit the shelves it is old plaster and lath :(

Borrowed a multi-detector and having a bit of success. Trying to find a magnet to 100% know where we're aiming, but quite worried we're gong to bring all the plaster down when we start drilling. The shelves are purely decorative so won't hold any weight apart from a pot plant and a picture etc. :o

So err, once we've found the studs what sort of fixings should we be using etc.?
Click to expand...

As you state "Won't hold any weight" then usual fixings should be fine (I have same walls)
If you want to go OTT then try these Wall Anchor or These which I have used to hang two bike racks to the wall and a 2m shelf (Wall Anchor) that I totally trust.

Be wary of distance between plaster and the actual brick.
 
I have loads hanging from plasterboard, including some kitchen shelving. Didn't use any fancy rawl plugs (well I did at first but they were more hassle than they were worth) , just your bog standard with 5mm screws.

Absolute worse case scenario you plaster the holes and repaint.

I have my TV hanging from it.
 
As you've got a detector, it should show up the rows of nails holding the laths to the joists. Drill through only the plaster/laths, (so a wood bit may be needed) to reduce cracking, and then long enough wood screws to fix the shelves to the joists.
 
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dlockers said:
Just drill and use fischer plugs. Plasterboard is way stronger than you think, and will distribute any load on it.
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OspreyO said:
Have to say plaster board in my house is of poor quality.
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aVdub said:
Be wary of distance between plaster and the actual brick.
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As far as I know it's not plasterboard. It's lath and plaster, we saw it all in the bathroom next door (adjoining wall). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lath_and_plaster In fact when they were fitting the loft stairs a part of the ceiling all fell down on them which was.. hilarious.
Begbie said:
I have loads hanging from plasterboard, including some kitchen shelving. Didn't use any fancy rawl plugs (well I did at first but they were more hassle than they were worth) , just your bog standard with 5mm screws.

Absolute worse case scenario you plaster the holes and repaint.
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I'd say worse case scenario I bring the whole plaster wall down, no? :(
 
Scam said:
As far as I know it's not plasterboard. It's lath and plaster, we saw it all in the bathroom next door (adjoining wall). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lath_and_plaster In fact when they were fitting the loft stairs a part of the ceiling all fell down on them which was.. hilarious.

I'd say worse case scenario I bring the whole plaster wall down, no? :(
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Yes, I was aware that it was lath & plaster, unlike a few that didn't read the post correctly and just cut lath & plaster to brick, down to plaster to brick for ease of convo :)

You can hang a reasonable amount on L&P as long as the fixings are good and solid.
The plugs I linked to above are really good anchors and will hold a lot of weight on L&P
If there is only a small gap to brick, it maybe possible to use the brick as a good fixing point through the L&P
 
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aVdub said:
Yes, I was aware that it was lath & plaster, unlike a few that didn't read the post correctly and just cut lath & plaster to brick, down to plaster to brick :)
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Sorry, I quoted your post as well because I meant to point out that there is no brick. It's an internal wall. The wall on the other side of the room is adjoining to our neighbours so is brick, hence we were fine putting the same shelves up there. On this internal wall I'm expecting a crumbly layer of plaster, then lath(s?), then a cavity? :confused:

So would you recommend plasterboard fixing as you posted on lath and plaster/cavity? :confused:
 
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Don’t drill on hammer, just normal mode and it won’t crumble. Whether it will crumble with a PB fixing and a load, not sure.

Studs are your best bet.
 
A sharp drill bit and high speed drill. Don’t put too much pressure as you don’t want to split or break the lath away from the plaster. Then the correct size rawplug for the hole and the correct size screw so you don’t blow the hole out.

This house is 1904 so I know your issue with hanging stuff on old walls.
 
Scam said:
Sorry, I quoted your post as well because I meant to point out that there is no brick. It's an internal wall. The wall on the other side of the room is adjoining to our neighbours so is brick, hence we were fine putting the same shelves up there. On this internal wall I'm expecting a crumbly layer of plaster, then lath(s?), then a cavity? :confused:

So would you recommend plasterboard fixing as you posted on lath and plaster/cavity? :confused:
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I see.

Yes I would still highly recommend both types of fixings I linked to above, with my choice being with the crimp type.

Edit: And as others have stated above. A good fixing into studs would be an absolute bonus.
 
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I've had bad experience plugging lath - it made the wood expand which knocked the plaster off in another area. I'd chance just screwing into the wood tbh.
 
My experience with IKEA Mosslanda suggests the poor adhesive they use to construct them will give way before any kind of wall fixing will.

I'd suggest focusing on getting a secure fixing to the wall regardless of fancy plug/toggle weight capacity.
 
aVdub said:
Yes, I was aware that it was lath & plaster, unlike a few that didn't read the post correctly and just cut lath & plaster to brick, down to plaster to brick for ease of convo :)

You can hang a reasonable amount on L&P as long as the fixings are good and solid.
The plugs I linked to above are really good anchors and will hold a lot of weight on L&P
If there is only a small gap to brick, it maybe possible to use the brick as a good fixing point through the L&P
Click to expand...

I read what it was. But never fixed to that. Only to plaster board.

I assume the plaster is thicker on laths. I've only seen it in old houses.
 
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