Heavy mirror onto dry lined wall

[DerbyBorn]

I am visiting an elderly friend on Tues - about 20 miles away. He has moved into a retirement home - stone built old house modernised and dry lined. He has asked me if I will put a mirror on the wall for him. I want to be sure I have the right stuff with me as I don't want to leave the job part done.Not sure it it will be dabs and dots - or battens - but the positioning will be defined by the symmetry.

Any really good proprietry fixings I should make sure I get?

With many PB fixings it seems essential to tighten a screw to make something open. This will mean I need some sort of hanger and not just a screw-head to hang it on. Apparently it has a wire at the back of the mirror.

[Tim Watts]

On Sunday 10 March 2013 09:25 DerbyBorn wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Frame fixing right though into the stone?

[DerbyBorn]

...or not be able to drill it.

[Tim Watts]

On Sunday 10 March 2013 09:54 DerbyBorn wrote in uk.d-i-y:

SDS.

[DerbyBorn]

Tim Watts wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It would be my luck to drill into a void!

[stuart noble]

A normal plasterboard plug will take a hell of a weight in 12.5 mm board (1m x 1m 6mm glass IME). If dot 'n dab, then straight through into the stone with a normal plug and a longer screw. I always think of the old MFI kitchens where the wall units were screwed through 3mm hardboard, and then filled with a complete dinner service. Don't remember any sliding down the wall :-)

[The Medway Handyman]

You can install a hollow wall anchor, then back the screw out a bit to hang the wire on.

Best to hang the wire over 2 fixings to spread the load.

With dot n dab its often possible to use hollow wall anchors if you drill on over length hole

[DerbyBorn]

Tim Watts wrote in news:ji5u0a-hp3.ln1 @squidward.local.dionic.net:

Not got one. Unfortunately my old friend believes me to be some sort of DIY Superman. He would be horrified if I turned up with anything bigger than my old electric drill.

If I was doing the job at home then there would be more options as I could easily change my approach - go to the shop to buy something else and have another go.

I really need a quick fix - adequate but reliable.

[robgraham]

Tues - about 20 miles away. He has moved

The fact that the mirror has a wire to hang it by indicates that this is not a muckle great full length mirror, but one possibly no heavier than a picture, so I would go with MHD on this with the two fixings if any doubt.

Rob

[The Natural Philosopher]

honestly the best way to put a mirror onto plasterboard is to glue it.

If you must hang it via a wire, really do NOT expect the plasterboard to take the strain over the small area of an expanding bolt or whatever.

Experience here shows that with stud-work, the simple and easy way is to carve out a horizontal section of plasterboard carefully with a knife or fine pad saw between some studs, let in a piece of ply, MDF or a noggin that is reasonably securely attached to the studs, (or if there is blockwork behind that, screw it to that) and replace the plasterboard gluing it to what you have inserted. Then a skim of polyfilla and a bit of paint makes the section good.

For dot and dab, drill right into the blockwork behind and get the rawlplug-gy thing into the blockwork and use a long screw. You may mess the plasterboard up a bit round the hole doing this, but simply infill with filler once the screw is in place, or at leasts once the plug is in place.

[Tim Watts]

On Sunday 10 March 2013 11:22 DerbyBorn wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Hehe.

Seriously...

The PB will probably copy with the mirror - but the question is - will the fixings?

Some other solutions:

1) Screw a batten on the wall with 3-4 screws into decent PB anchors. Fix mirror hook to batten.

2) Drill 5mm hole through PB. Use syringe to inject filler behind the edges. Leave to dry. Redrill an inch deep (into the stone if needs be). Use big plug (that needs a 5mm hole). This assumes the gap betwene the PB and stone is a few mm.

3) As 2 but use car body filler. Suitable for big gaps.

[Tim Watts]

On Sunday 10 March 2013 11:25 The Medway Handyman wrote in uk.d-i-y:

+1 for hollow anchors if there's a big enough gap.

This type is really good - as strong as the PB itself:

of-10/11143

Needs a bugger of a big gap behind though.

Failing that, these are not too bad:

of-100/11923

but not as strong.

[GB]

Fixed the links - as I wanted to see what they referred to. :)

[DerbyBorn]

The Natural Philosopher wrote in news:khhr43$5mo$ [e-mail]:

I understand it is a framed mirror - so glueing is not an option. Your ideas are all very good and ones I would use at my house - however - I want this to be a one visit quick hit. No mess - no drying times - no return visits.

[DerbyBorn]

I have some of those and will take them with me.

[rbel]

Agreed. On the recommendation of our local glaziers I fixed a 900x750 mirror to plasterboard using Hodgson Mirror Adhesive which is apparently compatible with all known mirror backing paints (which general purpose adhesives are unlikely to be) and will hold glass up to 1 m2.

[rbel]

I wonder how heavy the mirror and frame are? I have successfully used

3M Command Strips to fix quite large framed and glazed pictures for the last few years without any problems. The largest type that adhere to the frame and wall (velcro) come in packs of 4 which will hold up to 7Kg.

The immediate areas of the frame and walls that the strips are to be fixed to will need cleaning thoroughly before the strips are applied - I use Isopropyl which works well.

[Dave Liquorice]

Hollow wall anchors. Yep that is what I would use and like TMH two if the mirror is heavy or if a single one would be near the center of the gap between studs. A stud finder might be something else worth taking...

If you can match the distance from the flange to the first kink point of the anchor to the thickness of the PB all the better.

[DerbyBorn]

rbel wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I have glued a mirror onto my own wall. In my case with the one in my original note, the mirror was a framed one. Asi it turned out it wasn't too heavy. I tried making a pilot hole with a bradawl and it didn't go into a void or hit masonry - so I used a couple of screws and a small hanger.

[DerbyBorn]

rbel wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I have glued a mirror onto my own wall. In my case with the one in my original note, the mirror was a framed one. Asi it turned out it wasn't too heavy. I tried making a pilot hole with a bradawl and it didn't go into a void or hit masonry - so I used a couple of screws and a small hanger.