Strongest plasterboard fixing?

[Participant]

Hi all

I need to hang 4 x floating shelves on a stud wall in a room. There is no way to fix into a stud (without destroying the wall) because of the width of the shelf bracket vs. the width of the studs.

They will mainly have books on them, so a reasonable load.

I've looked at fixing review videos on YouTube and it seems that the two best are Bullfix and Geefix. Does anyone have any experience of heavy-duty plasterboard fixings? Or are these overkill for books and I can get away with some Fischer DuoPowers?

 

[Participant]

Don't forget, if it's an external wall (plasterboard --> cavity --> external brick) then you can just drill straight through the cavity and into the external brick.

Get a long screw, loosely put a red plug on it, then tap it back to the hole in the brick.

Thanks but it's one of the few walls in my house that is plasterboard to void to more plasterboard.

Really struggling to see how you can't hit at least one stud? Unless the bookshelf is less than the width of your stud spacing and there is a very specific spot you want it to be which is in between the studs. Surely you can get at least one of the brackets to hit a stud?

It's a 600mm wide alcove (same as the floating shelves) and the studs are at ~500mm, whereas the shelf brackets are 400mm wide.

 

[Participant]

Why not just do one side of the fixing into the stud

It's not possible to mount into the stud and fix a 600mm floating shelf because the mounting bracket is narrower than the shelf and the alcove is 600mm wide.

Perhaps if I post a pic of the area and the shelf...

 

[Participant]

Hi all, just following up on this.

I've had some fun this afternoon installing the shelving but I think it's a good result in the end. Obviously time will tell if the setup is manly enough, but it seems pretty strong.

I went with the GeeFix kit in the end as lots of people reckoned this was the strongest. I ended up using a combination of the GeeFix, Fischer DuoPowers, and actually managed to reach a stud for two of the shelves, as there was a stud I didn't realise was in a reachable position (anticipating told ya so's ).

The GeeFix looks like this:

You stick the long bit through the 25mm (I used 24mm which was good) hole in the plasterboard and keep the round cap on your side, then pull the red cord to align the fitting horizontally. Then while pulling tight, you screw through the centre. Then you remove the red cord and screw the fitting into the plastic etc. (terrible instructions but there are YT vids).

Stud found! One side only but still...

This bracket has, from left to right, wood screw to stud to the left of hole (hence wonky), Fischer DuoPower into plasterboard, and GeeFix fitting! Three different types in one bracket

End result: