mountingwalls
So my house and garage have been built with Insulating Concrete Forms (Perform wall to be exact) and I want to attach shelves and cabinets in my garage. Pictures and other lighter stuff have been easy to do with some special plugs and standard picture hangers. But I am unclear about how to attach heavy items. There are no studs to attach to.
Anyone have some ideas on this?
Metal studs are great for framing walls. They are super light, easy to work with, straight. But you've discovered one drawback...they don't have nearly the strength of a wooden 2x4 for mounting things to it.
Metal studs do come in different gauges though. The heavier, the better. But it sounds like yours are fairly lightweight.
Some options:
From my research, it seems like snap toggles are highly recommended, and for your situation with metal studs, I think they would work since the approximate weight you are estimating is 60 lbs. Snaptoggles (aka toggle straps aka toggler bolts) claim to hold over 200 lbs in 1/2" drywall.
I have yet to use them myself, so it would be cool if another member here can comment on them.
How did your project work out? Did you mount your cabinets? I am looking for similar info as I also just moved into a high-rise building and my apartment wall has metal studs, so I researching solutions to mount my tv.
Best Answer
For heavy loads you can use masonry screws (Tapcon). It is imperative that you drill to the proper depth and clear the dust from the drill hole. I highly recommend the hex head Tapcon over the Phillips.
ICF usually has these layers from inside to out: 1. Drywall 2. ICF polystyrene foam form with composite anchor strips at 8" centers for drywall and lightweight mounting 3. Concrete wall 4. ICF polystyrene foam form with composite anchor strips at 8" centers for stucco lath and lightweight mounting 5. Stucco
The strips can be used for light mounts using multiple anchor points but loads should anchor to concrete. You will have to know the depth from your anchor point to the concrete and then add at least 1" to drill and embed the Tapcon. In my application: 1/2" drywall + 3" foam = 3 1/2" to concrete + 1 1/2" Tapcon embed = 5" Tapcon using 6" Tapcon drill bit on cordless hammer drill.
Again it is imperative to clear the borehole of concrete dust or you will snap the head off the anchor. If you do it right these anchors have 10X the load capacity of studs.