Wall anchors - how much weight

[tm4525]

I have a wall cabinet for my bathroom that came with 6 plastic anchors. But the thing weighs like 40 lbs. Are anchors in sheetrock going to be able to support it?

Steve

[Percival P. Cassidy]

It's a reasonable but not infallible assumption that the provided anchors are sufficient to support the weight of the item with which they were supplied -- unless the anchors were intended for use in a brick or block wall, in which case you probably need to substitute anchors intended for use in sheetrock.

But if you can locate the studs to which the sheetrock is attached, you can use the screws without the plastic anchors.

Perce

On 11/05/05 11:16 am [e-mail] tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

[Gazoo]

should be fine

[Christian Fox]

I don't like the idea of supporting a cabinet with nothing but drywall anchors. If possible, locate the studs and screw the cabinet to the studs. The anchors will probably hold the cabinet itself, but what if somebody puts extra weight on the cabinet?

[tm4525]

It would be nice if the holes lined up with the studs, but I doubt that will be the case. No instructions of course. I was thinking that I might get some stronger mollys.

[SQLit]

Molly's are not going to be much better. The wings give slightly more surface area.

One side of the cabinet should be able to be aligned to a stud, or add framing until it does. One side into the structure and the other with dry wall anchors your ready for almost anything.

[George E. Cawthon]

The sheetrock will easily hold it with the correct anchors. The plastic thingys that are a lousy choice and will likely just pull out. You need the metal kind that you install in a hole and tighten the screw which makes the long center strips bend tightly against the back side of the wall board. (Called molly bolts). Most of the force will be directly down, but some will be out and will pull the plastic thingys out of the wall.

Throw the 6 plastic thinks away and get four molly bolts sized for 1/2 sheet rock with a #10 screws. It will never come loose even when someone does something stupid.

[George E. Cawthon]

Have you used molly and the plastic thingys? It doesn't take much effort to pull the plastic things out of the wall. If you pull a molly out you will take a 3-4 inch chunk of wall. There is no comparison of mollys with the plastic thingys for holding power.

I have an approximately 2 foot square cabinet I built of 3/4 maple plywood with three shelves in my bathroom. The top holds a mess of bottles, alcohol, peroxides etc. in addition to soap bars and other stuff. Yeah I know it is a mess, but most is my wife mess. Don't know how much it weighs but the cabinet itself probably weight

15-20 pounds. Studs were just not in the right place. #10 screw mollys hold it very securely and it has been removed twice for painting. You do have to drill the holes the correct size for the molly (and don't use the stupid pointed type meant to be drive in) and tighten the screw carefully to get the correct tension so that the bolt is tight but the paper layers on the wallboard are not pierced and center isn't crushed.

[Colbyt]

The company I buy my supplies from rates hollow wall fasters on the following 1-10 scale: plastic plugs 1-2 drill plugs 3 (those really coarse threaded things) mollies 7-8 toggles 9-10

And of course a screw into a stud would be about a 15-20.

Based on 20+ years of experience with these products I would agree with the above.

Colbyt

[tm4525]

By "something stupid", you mean like actually put something into the cabinet? :)

[George E. Cawthon]

No it means like having a 90 pound kid doing pull ups or trying to climb up and lie on the top. I'm not going to test mine for the maximum it will support, but it know it will support a pull down of an additional 40-50 pounds on just one end without moving.