That moment the drywall anchor spun out on a finished ceiling

I was up on the scaffold in a condo in Oak Park, about 30 minutes into hanging a ceiling speaker mount. The anchor grabbed at first, then just started spinning and tearing the paper. I ended up cutting a 4x4 patch out of a scrap piece, gluing it behind the hole with some construction adhesive, and screwing into that instead. Took an extra 45 minutes and I still had to mud and texture the next day. Anyone else keep a stash of random plywood scraps for situations like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_chen6210d ago

Plywood scraps are good but you really should be using something like a chunk of 5/8 drywall or a metal retrofit brace for ceilings. The wood can wick moisture and eventually cause the mud to crack around the patch. I keep a box of old drywall cutoffs for exactly this. Saves the extra trip for mud work.

henryt189d ago

Yeah but honestly even drywall scraps can be a pain if they're not cut straight or the edges are crumbly from being banged around in the truck. I started keeping a few metal braces around just for ceilings since they don't need backing and you can screw right into them without worrying about hitting anything. Saves me from having to dig through my pile of cutoffs trying to find a piece that's the right size and not all bent up.

grant1559d ago

Why would you waste time cutting and fitting a plywood patch when you could have just used a toggle bolt and been done in 5 minutes? Those metal braces the other guys mentioned work fine too, but honestly half the time you're just adding more work for yourself with a patch that's gonna fail anyway. I've seen those wood scraps swell up and pop the mud right off the ceiling within a year. The real trick is to stop overthinking it and use hardware that doesn't rely on the drywall at all. If you're already on scaffold, a quick toggle or zip anchor is way less mess than playing carpenter on a finished ceiling.