Fixing into brickwork via plasterboard and a big gap

[paul2004]

I hope this is the right forum. This seems to be a pretty standard requirement but i'd love to get some sage advice!

i am fixing some floating shelves and bracket shelves that i want to have books on, so im concerned about the load and quality of fixing.

I have plasterboard, a variable void (around 4-5cm) then brick (outside wall). I cannot for the life of me find studs in this particular wall. I have a stud detector and i've gone and drilled test holes across a whole length looking for vertical studs. (I have found and used studs on other walls so the detector works!). Perhaps when they put the board up they did it cheaply with horizontal noggins without a full underlying frame.

I'm not really in a position to cut chunks of plasterboard out.

So far i've used long nylon fixings that are around 100-130mm long 8mm. My idea is that so long as the bulk of the fixing is in the brick then the load on the plaster board is reduced. It seems to work but the shelf does flex a bit (and i cannot tell whether that this the metal fixing for the shelf (an ikea LACK job) or whether it's the plasterboard fixing.

So i thought i'd ask on here to see if anyone can offer other ideas for fixing. or tell me that this probably is the best way to go?

cheers
paul

 

[Softus]

If the load is going to be heavy and you fix it that way then I think you're heading for disaster.

I know that it's a bitter pill to have to swallow, but you should really screw timber to the brick/blockwork, behind the plasterboard, and then screw into that.

Have you considered free-standing shelving? This would just need steadying at the top, which you can provide using the fixings that you're using now because the force on the screw and its hole would be tension instead of shear.

 

[supernelly]

It sounds like the wall is dry lined which means the boards are stuck to the wall with adhesive. If you tap all over the wall you will hear non hollow parts thats where the blobs of adhesive are, if you get your screws into these you will have no problem its really tough stuff, you need a hand grenade to get it off

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