Vent: People keep using drywall anchors for heavy shelves

I see it all the time in these forums. Someone hangs a shelf with those little plastic drywall anchors and then acts surprised when it crashes down three months later. My brother did this last spring with a 40 pound bookcase in his living room. The anchor pulled right out of the wall and took a chunk of drywall with it. Have you all found a better way to anchor stuff without having to locate a stud every time?

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2 Comments

hernandez.ben4mo ago

Used to think those anchors were fine until I put up a shelf for my tools in the garage. Came home one day and it was on the floor with a big hole in the drywall. Now I just use toggle bolts for anything over 15 pounds. Way more solid and you don't need a stud.

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lisa_murray4mo ago

My buddy lost a 60 inch TV last year because he used those cheap screw-in drywall anchors. The thing came down at 2am and scared the crap out of his whole family. I've been using those metal snap toggles lately, they spread the load across the back of the drywall instead of just gripping the edge. Took me like 5 minutes to install my garage shelving and it's held up to 50 pounds of storage bins for over a year now.

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