Holding weight on a wall

Find out what is behind the paint

Plasterboard, lath, brick and timber all take a fixing differently, and three of the four will let a screw pull straight back out if you treat them like the fourth. Knock along the wall: a hollow note means board with a cavity behind, a dull flat note means something solid. A magnet dragged slowly along board will stop over the screws that hold it to a stud.

A cast iron coat hook on a stud will take a wet winter coat all day. The same hook on bare plasterboard with the screws that came in the bag will not.

Match the fixing to the pull

Weight hanging straight down is the easy case. A curtain rod bracket is the hard one, because a pulled curtain levers the bracket away from the wall rather than down it. That sideways lever is what strips a hole.

• Downward load: a plug sized to the screw is usually enough.
• Lever load: go into timber, or use an anchor that opens behind the board.
• Three screws beat two whenever the plate has three holes.
• Never finish tightening a screw with the bracket already loaded.

Where a clip beats a screw

Not everything on a wall needs a hole. Steel magnetic clips hold notes, lists and light cloth on any steel surface, and a bench or a shelf edge often has more steel on it than people notice. On a workshop bench they move around with the job, which a screwed hook never does.

Junction boxes are not decoration

A hinged box closes square or it does not close at all, and a box that does not sit flat against its surface will let water track along the cable and in. Fix through the mounting points the box gives you rather than through the back panel, and leave the clearance above the lid that the lid needs to open.