Fixings to a replastered kitchen wall

[HugeWesty]

Ive bought a bit of a fixer upper and when the electrician was doing work, he noticed some of the walls weren't as solid as expected - speaker to a builder, its effectively like using breeze blocks in some of the construction and quite normal.

The thing is, for this wall, it is going to be supporting kitchen cabinets and obviously I want to be reassured of the wall being solid.

Is bonding and skimming going to be enough, or do I need to fix batons and plasterboard/thermal plasterboard for more heat retention?

Also assuming if I plasterboard I will need to get a plumber in to move some of the pipes etc as I'll be eating into quite a bit of the wall with the baton thickness + plasterboard?

 

[KenGMac]

HugeWesty, good evening.

Sorry but I am confused [not unusual for me]?

Is that wall in the images posted Artex / plasterboard [with a thin skim?] small void ?

Are the horizontals shown in the image cardboard?

As an aside? if the surface finish is indeed Artex?? has it been tested for Asbestos Content??

Ken.

 

[HugeWesty]

HugeWesty, good evening.

Sorry but I am confused [not unusual for me]?

Is that wall in the images posted Artex / plasterboard [with a thin skim?] small void ?

Are the horizontals shown in the image cardboard?

As an aside? if the surface finish is indeed Artex?? has it been tested for Asbestos Content??

Ken.

The pictures are all of the same wall. Yes its Artex and tested for asbestos and it has all the all clear.

Yes believe plasterboard and then in that gap a void. However when the electrician done most of the chasing, about 90% revealed a solid cavity wall, but say 10% had a void (obviously I don't know if this ratio is consistent across the entire wall.

If you are talking about the horizontal lines across the bricks, then I don't know what it is - havent pulled at it too much etc, but stronger than cardboard.

 

[JohnD]

If it's strength for cabinets you want, screw cabinet hanging rail to the wall with plenty of plugs and screws that penetrate into the brick or block by at least 40mm

The thickness of your plaster is additional to that since it has no strength.

The rail is very strong because it is one piece steel and spreads the load along the wall using multiple screws. You can position the screws to avoid pipes and cables. I use screws at about 500mm intervals but like to see one close to each point where a cabinet will hook on.

You can hook on the cabs at any point you wish, and reposition them at whim. You can paint the rail to match the wall. Prime it before fixing. At high level run it all the way along the entire wall.

 

[noseall]

That wall looks like it was built out of clay pot to me
Horrendous to fix to.

 

[Nige F]

That wall looks like it was built out of clay pot to me
Horrendous to fix to.

+1

 

[JohnD]

That wall looks like it was built out of clay pot to me
Horrendous to fix to.

never had them in UK.

Very common in Italy and parts of Switzerland (UK brick clay usually contains traces of shale oil, so once fired up in the kiln they fuel themselves, so our solid bricks are cheaper to make than clays without oil as found in Italy)

 

[noseall]

never had them in UK.
)

Popular in the late 60s early 70s amongst stingy UK developers. I've seen plenty.

 

[JohnD]

"I have never had them in UK...." I should have said.

 

[HugeWesty]

If it's strength for cabinets you want, screw cabinet hanging rail to the wall with plenty of plugs and screws that penetrate into the brick or block by at least 40mm

The thickness of your plaster is additional to that since it has no strength.

The rail is very strong because it is one piece steel and spreads the load along the wall using multiple screws. You can position the screws to avoid pipes and cables. I use screws at about 500mm intervals but like to see one close to each point where a cabinet will hook on.

You can hook on the cabs at any point you wish, and reposition them at whim. You can paint the rail to match the wall. Prime it before fixing. At high level run it all the way along the entire wall.

OK thanks. I like that idea. My problem is the wall seems inconsistent, when the electrician did the chasing (how to do quite a bit), solid brick was mostly behind like 90%, but for 10% as seen, it was patchy - very very weird.

When I'm drilling for the rail, I'm not going to necessarily know whether a piece I am drilling into is really solid or one of the more patchy bits.... Any tips on how to identify the more solid bits, without of course chiseling all the old plaster off and then marking up?

 

[JohnD]

when you drill, if the bit meets firm resistance all the way, that's a good sign. If it just falls into air, that's not. So that you can feel it, I'd use a combi or hammer drill, not an SDS+ which cuts like a hot knife through butter. With rail you can add extra screws to compensate for any unsuccessful ones. I don't know the maximum distance it will bridge. I suppose if you had a screw one foot to each side of a heavy cabinet hanger that would probably do. I don't have experience with hollow pots, though.

In weak or crumbly walls, you can clear out all loose dust with a vac or water jet, then dry it and inject builders adhesive to fill the hole (start with the nozzle at the back) then insert a plasplug (with a screw lightly turned into the end as a handle) so that the plug is entirely surrounded by adhesive with no air gaps. Press the head of the plug slightly below the surface to avoid subsequent cracking or cratering. Let it harden at least overnight before removing the "handle" and screwing in your fixing. This will transmit the expansive load to the substrate without spinning or going loose or crumbling it.

If you have a truly awful kitchen wall, some people like to fix 18mm ply to the entire wall, then plasterboard and skim over that, and screw into the ply. But I would chip off all your old plaster first.

I wouldn't want to try to chase hollow pots.