Sleeve anchors / wardrobe

[larkim]

I'm in a pickle of my own making (lesson learned, think everything through before you start....) but was hoping for possibly some advice to help me out.

I have a 2m35 wardrobe with sliding doors in a childs bedroom. Given their propensity to climb in or on anything, I'd like to make sure it is secured to the wall. Its an Ikea wardrobe, and their design incorporates some brackets inside the wardrobe which can be screwed through in order to secure to the wall.

My first error was to try to drill through these into the wall whilst the wardrobe was still a little off balance - the back of the wardrobe is on carpet which has grippers underneath, so the back is slightly higher than the front. I had thouught I'd straightened it, but obviously it had tipped slightly over night. This meant that between the back of the wardrobe and the wall there was a gap approaching

70mm. Not appreciating this, I drilled through and realised I could only get a few mm into the brick wall behind. I then bought a longer (160mm x 7mm) masonry bit and continued the hole. Upshot was a hole which was deep enough, but probably no longer only 7mm wide, and when I tried to fix with a screw and brown plug it didn't provide any grip.

I've now straightened the wardrobe and am thinking about getting this right. I'll be able to reuse the existing hole, but a rawlplug just isn't going to cut it. So instead I'm thinking about sleeve anchors. There will be a gap between the wardrobe and the wall because of the skirting board, so lets assume this is 25mm. I'm thinking of either

10 x 75mm or 10 x 100mm sleeve anchors.

Is it OK to leave the "sleeve" sticking out from the wall? And if so, how far / what proportion must be in the wall itself? Should I brace the top of the wardrobe against the wall so that the bolt has something to tighten against? Am I going about this in completely the wrong way?

Any help gratefully received, as ever!

Thanks

Matt

[George]

The popes offer to biggoted Anglicans. Can anyone tell me why The Pope would go out of His way to attract such a sorry bunch of fascist bastards? Who in their right minds would want more Misogynists and Homophobes? One would have thought that He would already have more than enough of His own sexually damaged priests.

[Bill Wright]

I'd be inclined to fix a horisontal batten to the wall. This could be almost the full width of the wardrobe and perhaps 1.5" x 5". The fixing could be 4" No 10 woodsrews into blue plugs. You could have as many fixings as you like, and it wouldn't matter if some of them failed. Once that's fixed securely you can simply fix the wardrobe to it with woodscrews.

As for anchor bolts, I'd say that was making hard work of it, but the bottom part of the sleeve should be at least an inch into good brick, so if the mortar is half an inch there will need to be at the very least 2" of anchor in the wall. 3" would be far better. It doesn't matter if the sleeve protrudes as long as it doesn't deform. It will deform though, if the bolt is really tight.

Have you checked for hidden cables?

Bill

[larkim]

Fancy coming across you over in DIY as well as digital-tv.....

Batten was my first thought actually, but I think I discounted it as I was concerned about moving the wardrobe (its tall, I'm only 5'8" and SWBMO isn't one for moving furniture). However, since then I've relieved the cabinet of some of the excess weight (shelves, drawers, sliding doors etc) so that might be feasible - certainly simpler.

Thanks for the hint about the sleeves - that sort of depth was my way of thinking. They may well be overkill, but three of them securing the wardrobe will certainly protect against the little darlings....

As for cables, that's fine - is actually an old exterior wall which has been plastered over when we added a bedroom to the side of the house. No cables / pipes in there.

Cheers!

Matt

[Tim Decker]

I have found it makes sense to put a little bit of ply or hardboard under the front of furninture to take care of the fact that you have the gripper under the carpet at the back. Ideally you want the furniture to slope back towards the wall. Hope this helps. Tim

[Stuart Noble]

I'd fill the hole(s) with car body filler and start again. Pack it out at the front with scraps of whatever to keep it against the wall and re-drill

[larkim]

Agreed. To sort the slope I'm using adjustable spacers such as you'd use to maintain gaps around the wall when you're laying laminate flooring. Shame is that this leaves a small gap between the carpet and the bottom of the wardrobe, but I can live with that to make sure that 80+kg of wardrobe doesn't get pulled over onto my kids!

Matt

[The Medway Handyman]

(Hello Tim)

I use these purpose made wedges

handy for all sorts of things.

[Bill Wright]

They seek him here, they seek him there . . .

of thinking. They may well be overkill, but three of them securing the wardrobe will certainly protect against the little darlings....

When our twins were 13 months old we heard a crash from upstairs. The boy had stood up and somehow rocked backwards and forwards and tipped his cot over! We couldn't believe how he'd done it. He was a small baby for his age, but very active. The accident didn't hurt him. I fixed both cots back to the wall with TV aerial wall brackets! It looked delightful!

Bill

[auctions]

You could batten without moving the wardrobe if you have reasonable clearance to the ceiling - use something like 4 x 1 (or maybe some skirting to be the same thickness as the gap). Stick it down behind the wardrobe with enough sticking up above the top of the wardrobe to get the fixings in. Probably worth a bead of gripfill on the bottom edge too to make sure it can't be levered away from the wall by the wardrobe.

A

[larkim]

When I was about 8 years old I had a rocking horse which my sister and I used to rest on its side and turn into a spaceship (!). We had the bright idea of tying the "spaceship" to a "caravan" (wardrobe) by using our dressing gown cords to tie to the handles of the wardrobe. We set off across the universe, sliding the spaceship this way and that.

My parents were woken that Sunday morning by a loud crash to discover myself and my sister underneath a large wardrobe (fortunately unhurt) tied bizarrely to a rocking horse.

Kids, eh!?

Matt

[Bill Wright]

I used to rest on its side and turn into a spaceship (!). We had the bright idea of tying the "spaceship" to a "caravan" (wardrobe) by using our dressing gown cords to tie to the handles of the wardrobe. We set off across the universe, sliding the spaceship this way and that.

myself and my sister underneath a large wardrobe (fortunately unhurt) tied bizarrely to a rocking horse.

When I was nine I went into hospital because the top of my legs swelled up like balloons. In the middle of the ward was a large traditional rocking horse. There was a boy in the next bed who was very frail, and was told that he must stay in bed, or if he did get up he had to be very careful. So I got him on the rocking horse when no-one was around, and somehow he ended up going over the horse's head and landing on the floor. There was a fuss, and Matron came and told me off.

Bill

[Andy Burns]

Just a little pinprick. There'll be no more ... aaaaaahhhhh! But you may feel a little sick.