Hello,

I'm hanging a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Do not know the weight but imagine it's no more than 40lbs when filled. Probably a conservative estimate. The walls are drywall over plaster. So basically I can't use an anchor meant for a hollow wall, but the first layer is not as strong as more solid materials.

One more issue, the medicine cabinet is the surface mount type, so instead of putting the screws directly through the cabinets, I need to leave the screws out of the wall a small amounts, then hang the cabinet on them. This also prevents me from using studs, because the placement of the holes are predetermined on the cabinet, and if I use studs, the cabinet won't be lined up with the sink. Lastly, the surface mount hardware will only accommodate #6 screw heads.

Any ideas what type of anchor I should use. I have the metal drive-in type (see number 3 at the following link):

TrueValue.com (http://www.truevalue.com/content/projects/ContentView.aspx?con_id=1567)

I've never used these before, so have no idea how strong they are. I also have the regular plastic anchors (the kind where you drill a hole, not self screwing) and the slightly heavier knotting anchors. My other thought was to use the self screwing metal anchors, but didn't know if they would penetrate the plaster behind the drywall.

Any thoughts?

-Dave

You need a mushroom ancor, you drill a hole in the wall and insert your ancor and as you tighten the screw the ancor mushrooms from the inside securing it to the wall and you have the screw to hang things on. I've used them for very heavy items without incident

There Are Some Anchos The You Put In Your Drill And Screw Them In, There White You Can Get Them In Metal And Hard Plastic, They'll Also Receive Your #6 Or #8 Pan Head Screws.

There Are Some Anchos The You Put In Your Drill And Screw Them In, There White You Can Get Them In Metal And Hard Plastic, Theyll Also Recieve Your #6 Or #8 Pan Head Screws.
Not if there is plaster & lath behind the rock,

There Shouldn't Be Lath Behind The Plaster, This Is When The Transition Between Drywall And Plaster Was Going On. And Yes These Anchors Will Go Right Through The Plaster, (there Pointy)

What is the name of these wonder screw anchors that will work in plaster, where do you get them?

Hi DM

I think Glavine was talking about the self-drilling dry wall anchor... come in plastic and metal (see imgae). I strongly recommend the metal ones for most applications... ;)

Exactly what are you hanging? There are many different anchor systems we use nowadays and we're happy to make a more individualized recommendation if you like.

Mark