S/o furniture anchors

[orriskitten]

I tried posting this yesterday but pb crashed. Trying again.

In the thread about that traffic story, someone mentioned a type of furniture anchor to avoid. I believe it was plastic sleeve ones? I don't know what that means and dh and I are going to home depot tomorrow. Can someone in the know link our pip which ones are best and which to avoid? I don't want to get something that won't work.

Also, if there is a type with minimal drilling into the wall that is safe, (perhaps one hole as opposed to 3? We rent and don't want to add too many holes in the walls if it can be avoided, but will do what we have to do) that would be great.

TIA!!

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[Deleted]

I think i am going to order these - they are for earthquake zones...probably better than the plastic brackets.

Maybe this is overdoing it, but I'd rather rely on a steel cable than a plastic strap. The weakest point is still probably the wall installation - unless you anchor to a stud, it would just pull out.

www.amazon.com/Quakehold-2830-7-Inch-Steel-Furniture/dp/B000FJQQKO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1357311899&sr=8-5&keywords=furniture+anchors

[Deleted]

Bumped

[mscatra]

Yeah, it was me that mentioned the anchors. The kind that we try to avoid are the kind that generally come included with giant kits and look like this:



They're the style you would tap into the wall to help hold a screw in place in the wall when you're not screwing into the stud. So, if you have furniture that you can add a metal bracket to, you can screw into the wall to anchor the furniture, hopefully into a stud or a nice metal anchor. Like softskate said (and I think she said she's an engineer, so she'd definitely know!), unless you're drilling into a stud, the plastic ones can just pull right out of the wall pretty easily. I've had it happen with relatively light items, recently with a towel hook that held two towels. My house is old though, and my walls are crumbly, lol.

DH likes these:

[mscatra]

LOL. I was typing out a reply when it got bumped.

[orriskitten]

Ok, I have concrete walls and have only ever used the plastic., would the metal ones work in concrete?

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[Deleted]

Jan 4, 2013 16:46:28 GMT -5 orriskitten said:

Ok, I have concrete walls and have only ever used the plastic., would the metal ones work in concrete?

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Oh boy...I'm not sure about household concrete anchoring.

The connection to the wall should be made with a special concrete screw or a drilled hole filled with an epoxied (glued) anchor.

The strap that goes from wall to furniture could be plastic and would probably work fine, but the attachment to the concrete or brick walls is the tricky part.

Another option is to anchor to the floor in the back.

(I will do some reading on what is practical for a homeowner as far as concrete walls - I know about commercial/bridge applications...)

[Deleted]

Ok, so for attaching to a concrete or brick wall, your best bet is probably a "wedge anchor". It requires pre-drilling a hole, and then putting this special screw-like thing into the wall. When you tighten it down, the shell expands and grabs the sides of the hole. Trouble is that there will be a decent size hole left to fill when you move.

There are concrete screws - but the ratings I have read for some are only 200 pound pullout strength (assuming they are installed correctly) and a kid climbing a heavy bookshelf or dresser could possibly create more force than that - though it would be difficult. If you had more than one screw per strap and they were installed correctly (read package for screw spacing) it might work ok.

The biggest thing would be to read the package, follow the instructions, and give it a tug to see that it does hold.

I would go to a local hardware store and talk to the resident old guy in the hardware department and have him help you pick out an anchor.

Gneerally speaking you could use any furniture anchor device - this is just what you would use to screw it to the wall instead of the little wood screws included in the kit.

See this link for more info: www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/ContentView?pn=Masonry_Concrete_Anchors&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053

[orriskitten]

Jan 4, 2013 16:54:14 GMT -5 @softskate31 said:

Jan 4, 2013 16:46:28 GMT -5 orriskitten said:

Ok, I have concrete walls and have only ever used the plastic., would the metal ones work in concrete?

Sent from my SGH-T959V using proboards

Oh boy...I'm not sure about household concrete anchoring.

The connection to the wall should be made with a special concrete screw or a drilled hole filled with an epoxied (glued) anchor.

The strap that goes from wall to furniture could be plastic and would probably work fine, but the attachment to the concrete or brick walls is the tricky part.

Another option is to anchor to the floor in the back.

(I will do some reading on what is practical for a homeowner as far as concrete walls - I know about commercial/bridge applications...)

Thanks., the floors are not much better... Floating laminate and under that/in the other rooms, you guessed it, concrete.

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[Deleted]

www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=205&cm_ven=RKG_GoogleBase&cm_cat=OSA_Non-Brand&cm_pla=GoogleBase&cm_ite=GoogleBase&orderType=2&utm_source=RKG_GoogleProducts&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=product&utm_term=GoogleBase

What do y'all think of these?

[orriskitten]

Jan 4, 2013 17:21:58 GMT -5 orriskitten said:

Jan 4, 2013 16:54:14 GMT -5 @softskate31 said:

Oh boy...I'm not sure about household concrete anchoring.

The connection to the wall should be made with a special concrete screw or a drilled hole filled with an epoxied (glued) anchor.

The strap that goes from wall to furniture could be plastic and would probably work fine, but the attachment to the concrete or brick walls is the tricky part.

Another option is to anchor to the floor in the back.

(I will do some reading on what is practical for a homeowner as far as concrete walls - I know about commercial/bridge applications...)

Thanks., the floors are not much better... Floating laminate and under that/in the other rooms, you guessed it, concrete.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using proboards

Thanks! I am going to enlist my dad in helping us out as we start this project. For now all furniture/bookcases/dressers are off limits (ahh baby gates) and she is closely supervised so we have some time before it is urgent.