Putting up shelves with only small gap behing plasterboard

[jbilson]

Hi everyone, I hope you can help.

I'm a novice DIY-er and I'm trying to put an Ikea shelving unit up on a plasterboard wall. I bought the type of metal wall fixings that bend out behind the plasterboard as you tighten the screw. However, after drilling the holes I found that the gap behind the plasterboard is only about 10mm before concrete/breeze block/brick (not sure which - it's the ajoining wall to the apartment next door). This gap is not deep enough to fit the fixings I bought.

What advice do you have for hanging the shelf unit? What fixings/plugs should I use? Is it possible to drill into the brick and would that make for a stronger hold for the shelves?

Any help would be great.
Thanks.

 

[cantaloup63]

Fixing into brickwork is going to be far stronger than into plasterboard. Drill the hole through the board and into the wall, then squirt some no nails into it and push a rawlpug into place, and leave overnight for the glue to set.

You want to make sure that you use enough glue so that when it sets it will pack out the gap between the brickwork and the plaster so that when you tighten the screw it doesn't bend the plasteeboard backwards and create a crack.

 

[jbilson]

Great! Thanks for your reply.

Just so that I am clear, is it just a regular plastic rawl plug that you reccomend?

Any idea on what weight that would support?

Thanks

 

[happyhippydad]

I would also defenitely drill into the brick/breezeblock. You are not going to be able to get anything to fix well into 10mm of plasterboard, at least not anything you can put much/if any weight on and it will fall down.

I would use a standard 6mm drill bit (for concrete/bricks etc) which is very common and cheap to buy. Use the right size rawl plug (will say on it which size screws you can use and what diameter hole it fits (make sure 6mm). I would push the rawl plug right into the brick, past the plasterboard and use a size 8 screw (possibly 10 but these can be quite a bit harder to get fully in) and make sure I have quite a bit of the screw in the wall (usually about 4cm, but add 1cm to that in your case as you have the 10mm plasterboard that will not be doing anything).

I dont think you have to use glue, I never have and nothing has ever fallen down and has always stayed very firm. I'd also be worried that it may be harder to get the screw out if I ever wanted to (which we always do at some point in the future)

Hope that helps.

 

[happyhippydad]

Oops missed your last question..

Yes just normal plastic rawl plugs as you are ignoring the plasterboard. As for weight that depends a little on the quality/shape of the brackets, how many you are using and how many screws you are using and how deep you have screwed into the wall. However most shelving put up well can take alot of weight (perhaps an example would be big heavy books all the way along it - sorry cant think of a better example)

 

[happyhippydad]

Oops again... The glue would obviously be set so would not make it any harder to get the screw out! Silly me. I still dont think you need it though in this case.

 

[big-all]

for information you have a "dot and dab" plasterboard wall

make sure the plugs are fully into the wall this will require you to drill 70mm hole [12mm plasterboard 10mm gap then 40mm for the plug then 5mm clearence]
turn the screw into the plug a couple off turns then knock it through 25mm into the solid wall

your screw will need to be 62mm plus the distance from the face off the plasterboard
so iff you brackets are 20mm in the countersunk holes then 20+62= 72mm so a 70 or 75mm screw or imperial 2 3/4" or 3"

are they floating shelves ??

 

[cantaloup63]

The glue is there really as a spacer between the back of the plasterboard and the brickwork. Happened to me once where tightening the screw causted the plasterboard to bend back since there was no dab of pb adhesive between it and the brickwork to support it. For the sake of 30 seconds extra work I use no-nails now as a matter of course.

 

[big-all]

The glue is there really as a spacer between the back of the plasterboard and the brickwork. Happened to me once where tightening the screw causted the plasterboard to bend back since there was no dab of pb adhesive between it and the brickwork to support it. For the sake of 30 seconds extra work I use no-nails now as a matter of course.

yep fully agree
just leave a 12mm thick blob between 2 bits off wood/board/thick card to check that it has solidified as some can take days to fully harden in large blobs

other ways are to use 18mm ply /wood/board the same thickness as the plasterboard and gap
make it a few mm smaller than the area the bracket/shelve will cover use tis as a spacer with or without a mm or two off no nails to pack out to the correct depth

 

[misterhelpful]

20+62= 72mm

Ahem! When I was in school, this sort af maths would have resulted in the dreaded - SEE ME!

I trust it was a typo, big-all.

 

[big-all]

20+62= 72mm

Ahem! When I was in school, this sort af maths would have resulted in the dreaded - SEE ME!

I trust it was a typo, big-all.

a 8alls up yes 82 lol