Electrician fitted chandelier to plasterboard

[sealtt]

Hi PH,

I noticed that the electrician has fitted one of our chandeliers directly to the plasterboard, not a joist.

The plasterboard is fairly thick as you may be able to see from the photo, but the chandelier whilst fairly thin of design still weighs around 14kg and so I am concerned if this is a good idea.

He has just used some generic wall plugs from what I can see. Does anyone know of vertical load limits for plasterboard, I’m sure it is much less than horizontal fixings.

Thanks for any advice.

[KAgantua]

Cowboy job, but did you plan for the chanelier when the ceiling was plasterboarded? (Assuming it is a new room/ refurb)?

MNormally a noggin or such is added where the light is going

[mickyh7]

"Now brace yourself Rodney,Brace yourself" !

[Mr Pointy]

If it's too disruptive to fit a noggin then maybe look at replacing the fixings with these:

https://www.geefix.com/heavy-duty-plasterboard-fix...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/GeeFix-Plasterboard-Cavit...

[dhutch]

KAgantua said:

Cowboy job, but did you plan for the chandelier when the ceiling was plasterboarded?

This.

Who spec'ed where it was going? Can it be moved over to the nearest joist? Access from above?

I would say 14kg is a hell of a thing to hang of pb, we have a pair of reasonable size glass chandeliers, and they are only 6kg each and secured to a joint at one side and noggin the other. Fortuartly fitted when the house was built in 1902.


Daniel

[mcg_]

Was there a joist he could have knowingly fitted it too?

The plasterboard is probably strong enough, it's just whether over time it'll pull the plasterboard down?

When I fitted our chandelier on the landing, I put in 3 hardwood noggins and then cross braced the joists with wood so that the load was spread. That was only 16kg but felt heavier!

[sunbeam alpine]

If you can enlarge the hole in the plasterboard slightly, you may be able to get a couple of short lengths of wood up in there to spread the load. I had to bodge something in the same way at my mum's last year.

[Bumblebee7]

Having seen what happens to plasterboard when it gets wet I would definitely reinforce that with a noggin.

I have double boarded my entire upstairs (upside down house so living/kitchen/dining upstairs) in plywood and then plasterboard so I can screw whatever I want anywhere.

[RobXjcoupe]

Looks like a previous hole used for a gu10 fitting. Personally I wouldn’t hang 14kg from the ceiling just screwed into plasterboard. Lots of ways to do it properly as already been mentioned on the above posts

[sealtt]

KAgantua said:

Cowboy job, but did you plan for the chanelier when the ceiling was plasterboarded? (Assuming it is a new room/ refurb)?

MNormally a noggin or such is added where the light is going

It was a new build property but we bought it after it had already been finished so couldn’t spec things like light positions.

So we are now adding lighting fixtures throughout the key rooms. For the 2 other heavier chandeliers he lined one up with a joist and for the other he added a noggin. But for this fitting he thought it was ok to just fix to plasterboard, but I was a little concerned as the fittings he uses are pretty basic and I don’t know how much weight can / should be hung from plasterboard.

[sealtt]

RobXjcoupe said:

Looks like a previous hole used for a gu10 fitting. Personally I wouldn’t hang 14kg from the ceiling just screwed into plasterboard. Lots of ways to do it properly as already been mentioned on the above posts

Electrician did the hole himself as previously nothing there. Had to feed wires around the ceiling space from other spots, which to be fair he did very well.

[dhutch]

Just move it to the nearest joist?

[Foliage]

It'll be fine

[Mr Pointy]

It could be better but you can make it ok if you use the right fixings. Here's a video of a pull test using properly set expanding wall anchors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OUqyMPX-As

The plaster board failed at 42kg load: you're only putting 7kg on it. If you really want strength, look at using spring toggles (jump to 4:20):
https://youtu.be/ECDysfNhx_E?t=260

An alternative is to get two pieces of wood as large as you can get through the hole & position them over the fixings & screw through into the wood. All you need to do is spread the load a bit.

[Dogwatch]

mickyh7 said:

"Now brace yourself Rodney,Brace yourself" !

14Kg/30lb is the weight of a small child!

[sealtt]

Listed weight is 14kg but imo it seems a lot lighter. I’ll measure it later to check that also.

[Deathmole]

mickyh7 said:

"Now brace yourself Rodney,Brace yourself" !

classic! To YouTube I go!

[mickyh7]

Mr Pointy said:

It could be better but you can make it ok if you use the right fixings. Here's a video of a pull test using properly set expanding wall anchors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OUqyMPX-As

The plaster board failed at 42kg load: you're only putting 7kg on it. If you really want strength, look at using spring toggles (jump to 4:20):
https://youtu.be/ECDysfNhx_E?t=260

An alternative is to get two pieces of wood as large as you can get through the hole & position them over the fixings & screw through into the wood. All you need to do is spread the load a bit.

Until it gets wet?
7 kg on someone's head and 'Goodnight Vienna ' !

[mickyh7]

Deathmole said:

classic! To YouTube I go!

Couldn't resist it!

[Uggers]

sealtt said:

Listed weight is 14kg but imo it seems a lot lighter. I’ll measure it later to check that also.

I was thinking that is a hell of a weight for a chandelier unless it's something for a stately home