A friend of mine asked if I could assist in hanging two pots on her balcony which sounded like a simple task but it turned out to be more complicated than I expected. The photo below shows the end result but there is more to the story. The balcony is in a new complex of units so there is a lot of concrete. The wall behind is indeed concrete with a rendered finish but the feature the pots are hanging from is not. The concrete wall could have easily gone straight up to the ceiling but this feature was added to cover something. The first question was why was it built this way? It was suspected as being a wooden frame with plasterboard but what was behind it, was it safe to drill into, and would it support the weight? Tapping on the feature revealed it was hollow rather than solid so a hollow wall anchor could possibly be used. Looking at the end of the balcony I saw a small PVC drain pipe disappearing behind the feature. I suspect it is a drain pipe for an air-conditioner on an upper level of the building. Confident there were no electrical cables behind I started to drill a small pilot hole in the position the first pot was to go. Tapping on the feature I could hear the solid edge and the hollow middle into which I thought I was drilling. The external cladding was thicker than expected but instead of then finding hollow space, solid timber was encountered. I discovered the timber frame was made from larger wood than expected, and is perhaps standard building structural pine, although this is clearly not a structural feature. I was confident I would not hit the PVC pipe and kept drilling as deep as the drill would go and encountered only wood. This was a good thing as the solid timber frame would easily hold the weight of the hanging pots, but the hooks I had were for hollow walls. At this point I considered going back to the store to get hooks to screw into wood but arrived at a different solution.
The end result was very pleasing and I must say very solid, even though I technically used the wrong type of fixing. I can tell that if a very heavy weight was applied to either hook, the hook would bend rather than pull out of the wood, or distort the wooden frame and feature on the balcony.
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AuthorAfter spending 22 years in the Telecommunications Industry, I've decided to keep those skills alive and offer my services to people needing assistance with small phone cabling jobs in the home or office. Archives
January 2024
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