Supporting rads on dry lined wall

[JTM]

Hello,

Started doing some wall insulation in bedrooms.

8' x 4' 13mm Plasterboard screwed to metal studwork with 85mm paper covered glass wool behind. Wiring in place for lights and PER (plastic) pipe in place for radiators. Rads are 900mm square, double skin steel and heavy, even while empty.

Question is, what's the best way of supporting them? distance from plasterboard to solid wall is 4 to 6 inches.

I wondered if wooden battens (3x2) from the floor, fixed to back of p/b would do, or should they be anchored to the solid wall behind?

John

[The Natural Philosopher]

plasterboard is strong in general, but it hasnt the localise rupture strength to hold a decent small fixing. Only hope is to either build structure off the studs or glue mounting plates of e.g. MDF behind the board.

When working with plasterboarded stud, I generally mark where I want the fitments, cut away the board till I get sideways to a stud, then bodge in a plate to go between the studs and put some board back, fill sand, skim or whatever, repaint..and THEN put the item up.

The speed of studwork in the build is contra-ed against the time it takes to put in mountings. Ultimately one gets pretty good at hacking out sections and replacing them and making good.

[Dave Liquorice]

Decent "heavy duty" metal fixings seem OK. The type that collapse to form a load spreading metal pyramid behind the board. This sort of thing:

sure I used 4 or maybe 6 of those type to fix a 6' x 3' double rad (2 brackets 2 or 3 screw/bracket) to a plasterboard wall without it falling off or pulling through the board. The length of the plain section below the head of the fixing needs to be a close match to the thickness of board (& skim).

Noggins between the steels is one way but if the boards are on not particularly convient to fit.

A load spreading bit of timber, say 2" wide and 3/4" thick and a bit longer than the brackets and screwed into through the board would work. Small(ish) hole required to thread it into the void and maybe a counter sunk and pilot hole to make finding and starting the screw furthest from the threading hole a bit easier.

Still quite a bit work compared to the metal fixings mentioned above. B-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Securely fixed to the wall. A rad needs not only to support its own weight but to allow for the possibility someone might grab it if losing their balance etc. So needs the best possible fixings. Into brick I always use Rawlbolts.

[Phil L]

They need fixing to something solid - bits of battens here and there are a waste of time. If it were mine, I would cut away everything, PB, insulation etc and affix 4 X 2 to the wall so that it's flush with the plastered surface (you can get

150mm screws) and then affix the steel rad brackets to these

[Mike Clarke]

Yes they should be quite adequate, I've used these for quite substantial loads in the past without problems. I've even seen brown plastic wallplugs used to fix radiators to plasterboard without any problem but I wouldn't want to risk using them.

[Stuart B]

Hmmm.It wouldn't be me especially if there is any chance of someone grabbing the rad in a moment of madness,stupidity or drunkenness or kids swinging on the rad . Timber fixed to the brickwork and rad brackets fixed to the timber .

-------------- Any posting using my name and/or e-mail address but other than by newsindividual.net is not being posted by me and should be disregarded . Remove NOSPAM to reply by e-mail

[Dave Liquorice]

It was brown plastic plugs that were loose that I replaced with the metal fixings...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember JTM saying something like:

I commonly put a sub-rad-sized sheet of 12mm ply behind the rad, screwed onto the battens where they are, on top of the PB. Or, if possible when it's a new build, I put a 12mm sheet of ply right where the PB would be. It works well and none have fallen off or even become loose. Bear in mind the load of the rad on the brackets is downwards and very little force is exerted in a pull-out direction on the screws.

[JTM]

Thanks all for the suggestions

I think I'll go with 1m lengths of 3x2 behind the p board, resting on the floor. Conveniently, one of the supports can also be screwed into the metal stud-work

John