Thread: Fitting grab rails into plasterboard

Let me bounce a couple of things off of you.

Plaster board / wall board / sheet rock is strong but. ? ? ?

Pardon the imperial measurements.
Somebody like me 245 pounds could probably pull out the Secure Mount over time in 5/8 inch wall board. With 3/4 inch wall board it might take a bit longer. But that is not really the problem. If that little old lady of 120 pounds slips and grabs the rail it just might tear loose.

The suggestion here is to get a grab rail a bit longer than needed and adjust the ends to hit the studs.

You can cut a slot in the plasterboard 70 high by the distance BETWEEN the next stud and where your already fixed to, insert a noggin 70x45, skew 2 screws at an angle (after pre drilling noggin only) into the adjacent studs, patch and paint wall, fix hand rail. Problem with this method is there could be plumbing, electrical wires or structural metal brace in the way.
Simple cheats way, 90x18 DAR screwed to wall first into studs, paint to match wall then mount grab rail to that. The DAR will be longer than the grab rail to allow fixing to 2 studs

Originally Posted by rwbuild

Simple cheats way, 90x18 DAR screwed to wall first into studs, paint to match wall then mount grab rail to that. The DAR will be longer than the grab rail to allow fixing to 2 studs

That's how I did one for mum when she was living by herself except I used a piece of 6 mm Al strap so it sat closer up against the wall.
The hand rail came from bunnings. I think it was this one https://www.bunnings.com.au/caroma-h...hrome_p4823205 but there are plenty of other sizes.
Probably find it cheaper on line

Thanks Ray and Rich, yep have already though about using a piece of the hardwood veranda decking timber as a backing to support the rail but would prefer to mount the rail direct to the plasterboard and to Rich did you check out the YouTube clip, me to concerned about the wall taking 70kgs but their testing shows the system is very capable of taking 10 times mum's weight.
Wondering what products did you guys use to mount your grab rails. Bob we already have the rails and only need a safe mounting system.

I have installed a number of these is a couple of different ways....

MOST IMPORTANT

DO NOT USE TOGGLES IN PLASTERBOARD TO FIX THESE......ALWAYS FIX TO SOLID TIMBER


1) If you want it to be horizontal and as rwbuild recommended you can run a timber board along the length of the wall from corner to corner and screw the board to the studs. I utilised white screw caps to hide the screws.

2) When I installed grab rails in the ensuite I placed a grab rail vertically in the shower so I fixed the rail straight down the stud alignment.

3) As rrich suggested.....for the grab rail (600mm long) I tilted the rail so that at least 2 holes in the mounting pates lined up with the 450mm spaced studs. The mounting plates are welded to the rail ends and have 4 holes spaced around the plate.

I purchased the Stainless Steel Grab Rails from Bunnings...the components include Stainless Steel screws for mounting.


GR 1.jpg GR 2.jpg

I put a grab rail in my bathroom 15 years ago. It was screwed through 15 mm chipboard directly into Tas oak wall stud. Still no sign of damage.


Cheers

Graeme
IMG_1438.JPG

PS: Not sure why the computer wanted to repaint the bathroom blue - its actually white.

Originally Posted by Specialized29er

the uprights are too far forward of the toilet

The uprights are called studs.

Originally Posted by Specialized29er

theirs plenty on ebay but I'd have to buy out of America and I'm extremely uncomfortable about doing that.

Why are you uncomfortable about buying from the US?

Originally Posted by skot

DO NOT USE TOGGLES IN PLASTERBOARD TO FIX THESE......ALWAYS FIX TO SOLID TIMBER

Absolutely. Plasterboard is nowhere near strong enough to support the weight of a person. I had a towel rail pull out of the wall in a new house I was renting because it was screwed into the plasterboard.

I agree with rrich. Get an adjustable grab rail that is longer than the distance between three studs (900 or 1200 depending on your stud spacing) and cut/adjust it to length.

I've installed several of those using that style anchor within tiled shower enclosures. They are rated to work on drywall but I'm sure that you won't be able to apply full force to them without pulling them through the wall.

If you want more strength slot the wall and install stringers between the wall studs and mount the bar with screws or put a metal plate on the outside that spans the studs.

Originally Posted by rob streeper

I've installed several of those using that style anchor within tiled shower enclosures. They are rated to work on drywall but I'm sure that you won't be able to apply full force to them without pulling them through the wall.

If you want more strength slot the wall and install stringers between the wall studs and mount the bar with screws or put a metal plate on the outside that spans the studs.

Stringers are what stair treads and risers are housed into, you are referring to noggins or trimmers

Stringers is one of the terms of local parlance. I've also heard them referred to as cross braces, girts (wall), purlins (roof) or blocking.

I use the terms 'spring' and the 'step' for stair planks, most locals know 'tread' but don't know what the vertical bit is called.

I would advise against using any style of fixing that goes into the plasterboard only for a grab rail, can you imagine the potential consequences to the user if it failed when they were relying on it?
Your best choices are
- to cut the wall and add a trimmer which is probably undesirable
- add a bigger backing board that attaches to the stud or noggins and fix your grab rails to that
- or fix some individual handrail brackets to the studs and install a piece of handrail on them


The last east option I think is the easiest and neatest solution

What is a noggin?

Originally Posted by rob streeper

What is a noggin?

You guys use different terminology to us, it is the horizontal trimmer piece that is cut between the studs

You could do something like I did for this pot-rack. The horizontals are 3/16" X 2.5" hot rolled 1018. I had to use them to span the very unevenly spaced wall studs as the Ikea pot racks are set up for 24" stud spacing.

pot rack.JPG