Just used some today for the first time - they are fantastic! Some clown had attached a power socket to a plasterboard wall with a couple of ordinary screws directly into the plaster. The result was predictable - the socket was hanging off the wall. So I screwed a couple of those spiral plugs into the existing holes and the socket is now very firmly attached to the wall. I'm very impressed with them!
Yes, there are some great fixings for plasterboard these days. The range never ceases to amaze me. Sadly, neither does the actions of clowns :-( I'm in the middle of boarding out a couple of old cupboards to turn them into wardrobes. One had a socket on the outside wall. Got inside & the clown had just ripped up a couple of boards, brought the ring through the gap and drilled a hole through the wall to feed the socket. Quality cable routing!
-- Rob
Now for a moment there I thought you lived outside Guildford. I agree with you, I've used these fixings for some time and they work well. The only problem that can occur from to to time is that the "spike" that initiates the screw into the wall can break off. It's only happened a couple of times out of many boxes of plugs, and in each case it seemed to be a manufacturing fault.
They don't work as well screwed upwards into a plasterboard ceiling with the weight carried on that coarse tapered thread.
Trust me.
DG
I'll bear that in mind. Perhaps it's safer to do a small pilot hole first of 1 or 2 mm?
I'm replacing cabling horrors as I go. Yesterday I came across a 15 amp spur connected to a 5 amp cable feeding an electric room heater. I suppose the cable would have added to the warmth of the room too :-)
I haven't found the need with the metal versions, even screwing into double layered 12mm plaster board. I wouldn't use the plastic ones again though - they have a high failure rate in 9mm single plaster board.
Colin Bignell
I just get on with it, the breakage rate is so low that it doesn't matter if it happens. Well unless you're down to your last one and the shops are shut.
If it's for heavy lighting, I try to install battens above the ceiling to spread the weight.
They (the metal ones) are my standard method of fixing lights to ceilings - never had one come down yet!
I have used these in the past. Come the time to remove the screws to get the fixture off, the plug has unscrewed as well, leaving a hole that a new plug will not grip. These days, I put some contact adhesive on the the plug when first fitted.
Dave
For stuff with higher tension loads (as opposed to shear) I find the plasterboard anchors work a bit better:
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:
They'd be fine for a pendant fitting, trouble is you never know what's going to be hung on that pendant fitting in the future so I always screw into a joist.
When I say 'fixing lights' I mean fixing a light that Mrs Customer has just purchased - so I know exactly how heavy it is & what fixing to use. Rather than fixing a pendant lampholder thingy.
Well worth a £5 if you use the anchors regularly.
I have had that happen when trying to fix onto a double thickness of plasterboard. Right PITA it is!
I'll third that. Far better than the sprung anchors that need 14mm holes, and fall into the cavity if the screw is unscrewed. Unfortunately, I discovered the type shown in the link after using the ones that needed 14 mm holes. As a result, after moving some free- standing shelves I had anchored to the wall so climbing toddlers would not get buried under a wall of books, I now have a very religious wall!
(Some friends of mine came downstairs in their house one morning to find the younger of their sons already up (which was not unusual), and watching a video. The only problem with this was that the video had come from the top shelf of the bookcase, and the only way he could have got it was by climbing the bookcase. This demonstrated quite eloquently that small children are capable of quite surprising feats.)
Sid
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