Hi there,

I've moved to a new flat and I'm having some trouble to fix things on plasterboard. I've tried the self drill screw like this one below:


On walls that are facing other flats or the external corridor that gives access to the flat, it drills 1/3 of its length then it turns itself away from the hole and breaks. Looks like these areas use a very thick or perhaps double plasterboard as I used a long screw(50mm) and I could still feel plasterboard in the end. On the walls dividing the inner side of the flat, these self drill fixing works fine as the plasterboard doesn't have any wood behind I think.

Now I'm planning to fix a TV to the wall that probably has brick behind or double pasteboard. This wall faces the outer side of the building.
I'm afraid that again the self drill fixing won't be able to get through and will make a mess. Also I'm not sure if it will be strong enough to hold a 23Kg TV.

Could you guys please advise me on what is best do to in this case? I need to find out what the interior of the wall is made of and a way to fix things on thick plasterboard.

thanks for your time helping me on this :)

Hi and BTW, your internal walls will be hollow stud walls and these fixings will work fine unless there is a stud in the way, your external walls will probably be plasterboard stuck onto brickwork, by the sound of it so you need to drill until you find a solid background, probably about 1 or 1 1/2" behind the surface, then use a normal screw and plug MIND THE CABLES !!

Baza

in a way you are lucky this didn't work for you because it would definitely have cost you a TV or worse. you must not fix heavy items to plasterboard, you need to fix to the wall behind it or on a stud, you need to find the studwork.

not to disagree with you Baza but i would not use normal screws on the wall, the TV will stand a good chance of falling off.

i have fixed 100's of TV brackets on walls, studded/dry-lined or plaster.

for the type of wall you mention, i would suggest you have breeze block wall with dry-lining on. flats tend to have solid walls with dabbed boards throughout not studding.

to fix a TV bracket to this type of wall you require "anchor fixings". once fitted, you could hang off the bracket. i just put a £250 bracket on the wall last Friday. the wall was exactly as you described and i used 10 anchor fixings. i weight about 17st 7lbs and i showed the customer i could hang on the bracket before i put his 52" TV on the wall.

you will need the correct drill bit for them but for heavy duty go for the metal ones and for lighter weight the plastic window fixings will do.

There are three types of wall common in newbuild flat.

1 The stud walls which are hollow and easy to drill into. Use hollow wall anchors or screw directly into the stud (wall support.)

2 The outside walls which are lined with plasterboard and probably have cement based blockwork behind Use a ling fixing and a hammer action drill to fix into the cement blockwork.

3 The wall separating your flat from the neighbours may contain something like Gypframe Security Sheeting. Unlike plasterboard, this provides a proper barrier to prevent entry from one flat to another which would be easy if it were just plasterboard because you could get through the wall using a bread knife. This would be behind the surface plasterboard and should not be tampered with.

Much appreciated, I'll use a very thin drilbit to find how far is the concrete from the plasterboard and drill from there. My wall is slightly rounded and I can see the pasterboard in 3 different angles to for the whole curve of my living room. Do you think the bricks are in the same way? The building is completely rounded outside, so I think the brickwork was done rounded too.

I'm planning to use one of these brackets:



or



I'm more inclined to use the second one as I can leave the TV closer to the wall when not is use. As the wall is in an angle of 30-40 degrees to the kitchen (open plan) my desire is to turn the TV around to face the kitchen. The sofa will stay in parallel with the wall, so most of the time it will be folded all the way back.

Any thoughts about those 2 brackets?

Thanks again for your help

I believe for what you guys have told me so far there is brickwork behind the wall I want to fix the TV, but the other fixings I'm doing on the flat mostly have hollow walls. Some of the walls facing other flats and corridor are strange, I could not find the Gypframe drilling, it looks like a very deep plasterboard. The farthest I've drilled was 50mm.

I'm not sure how to proceed with the fixings on these walls. I want to build some shelving on a storage area, one of the side is hollow wall but the other side is that thick plasterboard, what should I do there?

Also, to fix cabinets on hollow walls, should I only fix them on studs? Is there a any easy way to find the studs? I've tried knocking the wall all the way but it is difficult for me to differ where the stud is, if there is any.

Thanks!

Will borrow a hammer drill to do this, thanks