I installed shelves in a closet with unevenly spaced studs. The shelves are mounted to the studs and they are level and secure. The shelve mounts can support a clothes hanging bar. The bar has holes where you can screw it into the wall. However, there is no stud where the rod hits the wall. When I try to screw the rod to the wall and the rod to the mount, the rod comes loose from the wall. There is a drywall stud very close to the place where the rod hits the wall. My thought is to screw a piece of wood into the drywall stud that will extend over the inch or so to where the rod hits the wall. Then screw the rod into the wood. Is this a good idea? Is there a better way?
Drywall – Can you “extend” a drywall stud
anchordrywalldrywall-anchorshelving
Related Solutions
If you're hanging curtains I'm going to assume that you are drilling above the window. In that case you've probably hit the lintel.
This will be either a piece of concrete or wood (depending on the construction of the house) designed to spread the load of the wall above the window around the window.
If it's concrete you'll need to use regular rawlplugs in the holes.
If it's wood you can just drill a pilot hole and screw directly into that through the plasterboard.
the thickness of a single sheet of drywall
Did they happen to specify how thick that single sheet should be? I bet that they didn't and are being over protective, because they sell drywall in varying thicknesses from 1/8" up to 5/8".
But I don't think they're being TOO over protective, because I think that's the exact same mount I used, and it mounts using lag bolts. Lag bolts are very heavy duty bolts that are driven into the wood and bite into it to create a very strong anchor.
Their strength, however, is in the depth to which they sink in the underlying wood - the deeper they sink the more thread length is biting into the wood holding on tight. So - if you get too shallow of an installation, you don't get the strength you might need.
I read another answer where someone claimed they had a 50" TV mount just in drywall, no studs!
Not for long, I bet...
The other option I considered (although am loathe to attempt) is to cut away the extra drywall, attach some more wood onto the stud (enough to make up why width of the drywall I removed) and attach the mount to that.
You could do that - I thought about doing the same thing - and the way I would do that is to use a multi-tool (below) to cut out the drywall in the same shape as the back plate of the mount, affix that to the studs very securely, mark the stud location on it and drill through the plate into the studs and mount the panel.
HOWEVER - I suspect there's an even simpler solution.
Get longer lags.
They come in a wide assortment of depths and diameters. Just take the lag bolts they supplied with the mount, go to Lowes/Home Depot - and find one that's the same diameter as what they supplied and about 1" longer than what they gave you, and use those instead.
Related Topic
- Drywall – Will wall anchors work when screwed into a stud
- Drywall – hang a TV with one stud and drywall anchors
- How to avoid nailheads in stud behind plaster
- Drywall – Hanging Shelf With 79lb Drywall Anchor
- Drywall – How to anchor to a 1″ thick hollow wall with a very shallow cavity
- Drywall – Hanging IKEA Kungsfors on drywall
- Drywall – Safe mounting of decorative hook with small holes
- Drywall – Can these walls support bookshelves
Best Answer
The best way to handle this situation is to span two studs at the end of the closet with a smallish plank, screwing it into both studs. Then you can screw the rod end mount to that plank and rest assured that it's as sturdy as you can get it.
The "far" end of that plank will very probably screw to the stud at the far rear corner of the closet's end wall, which is kind of nice because that hides almost the entire plank.
An alternative, but one that's only suitable if you're definitely never going to hang a lot of clothing from that rod (clothing weight accumulates shockingly quickly), would be to use drywall anchors to attach the rod end mount to the drywall.