"ash" walls / getting a decent fixing

[Colin Wilson]

I`m in a 1930s built ex-council house, and the walls upstairs are made of some horrendously soft material (compressed ash I think) - short of using chemical anchors as mentioned in another current thread, are there any simple ways of getting a fixing into the cr@p my walls are made out of ?

Even the smallest of jobs like fixing socket back-boxes is damn near impossible ! Its so soft you can almost jam a screwdriver in to the hilt with very little effort, and i`m not sure how small the chemical anchors come !

TIA :-}

[Bob Minchin]

You could try gripfil for the smaller socket box type problems but make sure you have remove as much loose dust as poss.

In my 1925 house I have interior walls of fairly weak 3 inch cinder blocks. Standard rawl plugs or plastic plugs are useless for heavy loads. I tend to make my own plugs from 2" lengths of 1/2" dowels with a small central pilot hold and a lengthwise cruciform cut for about 1.5". The idea being to get greater load bearing from extra surface area without increased pressure which just splits the blocks and lifts off the lime mortar render and plaster.

Bob

[BigWallop]

You can use these:

you drill a hole just smaller than the diameter of the fixing and then screw the anchor into the hole. These are meant for plasterboard fixing but are great on soft thermal block and ash block like you have, as well.

The DIY Sheds have them, so grab a couple to try them out before you buy in quantity.

[Colin Wilson]

Sounds promising - thanks for the replies guys :-)