If the wall breaks more than I need and I need to fix it, the dry plaster repair mix works fine. Many of these fasteners assume a wall is no thicker than standard 5/8' drywall, while my plaster walls are up to about 1' thick. If you use any type of moly bolt or electrical old work box that has tabs or wings behind the wall, you need to adjust for the extra thickeness of plaster. I have also been installing new outlets and I always make the first cuts about 1/2' inside the final cut line just in case the plaster cracks around the cut. If I don't predrill I will get cracks around the hole that go farther than I want. I have plaster over rock lathe and I've found that predrilling for anchors helps prevent cracks in the hard plaster final coat. There are also houses that used wire mesh as backing for the plaster. Plaster over wood lathe has a wood strips as backing, while plaster over rock lathe has an early version of gypsum board (drywall) as backing for the plaster. Note that if you use two anchors for a heavy item that is also using wire the anchors do NOT have to be centered correctly behind the object.Īll plaster walls are not constructed the same way, so it helps to figure out exactly what you have. Mirrors and other heavy objects may require a ledger strip (1x2) fastened to the studs and then hanging fasteners into the wood if the studs are not aligned at the correct location. Heavier pictures get a pair of molly bolts (be sure to get some long enough for plaster), while mirrors get fasteners into the studs. I have used plain old common nails (8d works well) in a drilled hole (drill slightly downward) for many years for typical light weight pictures (anything up to about 10-15 pounds). Having a 1/4 inch masonry bit for molly bolts and plastic anchors might be worth the trouble. They are so cheap it is almost not worth buying the carbide unless you have a number of holes to drill. The problem is they are often difficult to find in sizes below about 1/8 inch.Ī plain old steel twist bit (even the cruddy soft Chinese drill bits) will for a while before the edge is shot. Very heavy items should be fastened into the stud using at least 3 inch screws (since there is around 3/4 to 1 inch of plaster before you even get to the stud).Īny carbide tipped masonry bit will go through plaster like butter and last a long time. Molly bolts can help spread the load out for more moderate weights. It has a rather nasty habit of suddenly cracking and letting things fall. I would never rely on just plaster to hold any significant load.

for the little hangers you could use a 5/64ths bit.įor deep holes that go through the plaster and lathing, you may need one type of bit to get through the plaster and another to get through the wood lathe. Oh, and for drill bits, you need a specialized plaster bit. Still, for anything over 10 lbs., I'd use an anchor. There's a special kind (perhaps the Oooks mentione above) that has coated nails with knurled heads to (in theory) avoid cracking. I've never been able to accurately locate the studs.įor pictures and lighter things, I've had pretty good luck just tapping the hangers in. Plaster is incredibly strong our utility room shelves probably have 500 pounds of stuff on them and they're suspended from 6 lag bolts.įor things like pot racks etc., i used smaller plaster anchors. I've hung huge elfa shelving with plaster anchors and 2' screws, and even lag bolts that go into the space behind the lathe.

Best wall anchors for plaster and lath