How to anchor heavy shelves or curtain rods in old plaster and lath walls
Older walls often combine unpredictable plaster sections with studs spaced too far apart for standard mounting. This makes it difficult to secure fixtures safely without hitting empty drywall or crumbling material.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using electronic stud finders
- 2Drilling small pilot holes to check for wood dust
- 3Screwing directly into wood lath
- 4Using anchor bolts sized to clear plaster keys
- 5Using drywall anchors for the unsupported edges
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Some of the walls are plaster while others are drywall, but I can't always tell which.”source ↗
june-blossom · r/HomeImprovement · 3 upvotes
“I am running into an issue where the studs are too far apart. If I line the 2 boards side by side, at least one edge of each will mount onto a stud (the far edges) while the center edges (where they meet) will be directly into dry wall.”source ↗
NumerousVariation323 · r/HomeImprovement · 1 upvotes