I think I need a putty knife...

May 25, 2008 7:27 AM

I need to hang things from my walls and ceilings, but can't. Help!

I've just moved into an old apartment building in SW Portland. The walls and ceilings are made of some kind of plaster, and in places are very thin. For instance, part of our kitchen / living room area is divided by a wall about 2" thick. The maintenance guys haven't been a ton of help figuring out what exactly this is, but they think it's plaster over a wire lattice.

My issue: I can't hang a thing from the stuff. I've tried drywall screws (the little inserts) in predrilled holes, but those pull out. I can't use the anchor-type ones, because there are no gaps within the wall for the anchor to expand into. There are no studs (to my knowledge) and in places I hit metal (assumedly the lattice) and cannot drill or nail anything in.

My roommates and I are keen on mounting a few shelves (Ikea) to the wall, and hanging a bike or two from the ceiling. Please, help us!

posted by roygbv to home & garden (7 comments total)

Maybe some long 4x4 wood posts, cut to length, running from floor to ceiling? I've seen a few setups, usually with some form of threaded mechanism to tighten it in place, like this. Two flush against the wall where you want to mount the shelves, and another two where you'd like the bike(s) with some hooks at the top to hang the top-tube from. Painted, they should blend-in. I'd have two concerns, apparently they can loosen over time, especially with carpet, and should be checked occasionally to avoid everything falling down, and whether the plaster ceiling can support the pressure from the tightening. At the very least, think outside the box, if you can't hang things from the walls and ceiling, rig some other way to support them.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 8:06 AM on May 25

"... There are no studs (to my knowledge) ..."

There have to be "studs," even though they may only be 2 X 2, or metal work. If they're angled metal studs, getting sheet metal screws to bite into them can be a real pain, because the thin metal of the stud can flex enough to make getting a pilot hole drilled next to impossible. If they are only 2 X 2 wood studs, hanging any kind of shelves on that wall is a really bad idea, because more than 5 pounds of weight can cause enough flex to start cracks in the plaster.

Your best bet might be to get some freestanding shelves with their own support frame and put those up against that wall, perhaps with an anti-tip wire fished completely through the wall to a large surface anchor on the other side.

Likewise, success in sinking lag bolts or heavy hooks into structural members above the ceiling, for hanging bikes, depends on the construction. If the building has normal floor joists above you, you may be able to use a stud finder or an inexpensive borescope to find the structure you need. However, some buildings have floor joists above you, but the interfloor spacing is greater than the joist thickness, so the ceiling board is hung from purlins that span load bearing walls; purlins are not load bearing, so you never want to hang additional weight from them. If the building has engineered joists or trusses, forget it. You don't want to be drilling or driving screws randomly into any engineered structural members (because you can seriously damage them in strength), and fishing strapping through or around them is an incredible pain in the a**.
posted by paulsc at 8:29 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]

I don't know how high your ceilings are, but one way around this problem is to run a post from the ceiling to the floor. There are a multitude of options here, from wood to pipe, and with and without holes.

Here is one example.

I just saw a similar set-up for bikes, but with pipe and hooks, but can't track down the link (i think it was on treehugger though).

-NJ
posted by NormandyJack at 8:32 AM on May 25

Weird. There must be studs somewhere in the wall. Find those (electronic stud finders are cheap), tack a strip of wood horizontally at each stud, and hang shelves and cabinets and whatever from that French cleat style.

These might work for you, too: Skinny metal French cleats (Z Clips).

Good Luck!
posted by notyou at 8:40 AM on May 25

Drill straight through the wall near the top and run 4" bolts through the wall and a piece of plywood on either side, then hang Elfa shelving from top tracks screwed to the plywood. (Maybe the tracks should be bolted to the plywood before it's bolted to the wall, or you chould run 3½" deck screws right through to the plywood on the other side.)
posted by nicwolff at 11:19 AM on May 25

Have you considered a bike rack like this for bike storage? No drilling required.
posted by sararah at 1:59 PM on May 25

I have walls exactly like this (my house is turning 100 soon) and it sucks. Stud finders are not especially useful -- they beep and I drill and then the nails fall out and I have a little pile of plaster on the floor.

I managed some light artwork and even a coat rack, but when we purchased a ginormous piece of art we sat it on a table and actually velcro'ed it to the wall (the table supports the weight but the velcro keeps it from tipping forward).

Of course this doesn't address your two needs unless you wrapped your bike frame in velcro, which comes to think of it could be pretty awesome.
posted by nev at 5:48 PM on May 25