How To Fix A Pulled Out Or Damaged Drywall Anchor | Toggle Bolts

hey what's up you guys it's scott with everyday home repairs and i want to show you how to solve a problem that you're probably facing and that is when you have a loose drywall anchor you're trying to hang something on drywall you followed all the directions but you just can't really get it tight in this instance i'm in a bathroom and i'm hanging an 18 inch tall rod i've been able to secure this guy back here on a stud which is always our preference when we're hanging something on drywall if you can attach it to a stud do attach it to the side but because this is 18 inches it's gonna hit a a wall cavity for the left hand side of the tall rod so i'm going to have to use some form of anchor and these kits always come with the anchors the problem is usually because it's a standard part of the kit it's usually on the cheaper end and you can have some issues with this in this instance we drilled 3 16 of an inch hole as outlined in the instructions then we inserted in the plugs the drywall anchor plugs themselves and we started to tighten the bracket the issue with this style of plug is often when you get towards the end and you start to secure it you you continue to have to spin the screw you're not able to tighten down the actual screw and sometimes there's a little bit of play in that bracket now the problem is this is a new install if there's play already once you put the towel rod put any weight on it you're gonna have it pulling away from the wall and it's just not gonna hold up for weeks let alone months or years also a very common anchor that comes in is a self-tapping anchor these also can be very cheap so the issue is when you're when you're screwing these in they're self-tapping right so you don't drill a hole you screw them in and they are supposed to tap a hole for themselves and then thread into the drywall to secure but often these will actually not hold up to just the torque applied by the screwdriver and they become damaged before they're even in the wall so the question is how do we solve this well we've already made some holes in our walls so let's use those holes and we're going to use those holes and insert in what's called a toggle bolt this is an oldie but a goodie when it comes to securing to a wall cavity now the toggle bolt has been around for a long time but there's a reason it's still around and because it works very effectively and the ones i have here are around 20 cents each so it's a pretty cost effective solution if you go to your home improvement store you're going to see a bounty of different options these days the problem is most of the companies are kind of chasing some profit so some of these individual per piece anchors can get up into the 75 cents dollar dollar 50 ranges so it really starts getting expensive all the while the classic toggle bolt is gonna solve your problem so let me show you how to take this bracket right here that is loose currently and use two toggle bolts to get that secure and to get your problem solved you'll remove the loose anchors hopefully by just unscrewing the screw from the actual anchor now if the anchor is attached to the screw and the anchor the plastic part is just spinning you can also from the back side take some needle nose pliers and hold on to the plastic part and then use your phillips head and back that screw out so you want to minimize the amount of drywall damage that you're doing while you remove the loose hardware now here's where i will actually just take a pair of side cutters and i will snip off the head of this anchor and that again is because we want to minimize the amount of drywall damage that we cause and that'll just drop the back part down into the wall cavity now for this instance i'm going to be using 1 8 of an inch by 3 inch toggle bolts so we'll pass those through the bracket and then we'll thread on the spring nut on the end of each of the two toggle bolts and then you can just start to thread that through but not too far down the hole now sometimes the holes and the damage that you have is large enough just to pass the spring nut compressed down through the hole if not like in this case you'll see on the packages for the toggle bowl it'll call out a drill bit size for 1 8 of an inch you use a 3 8 of an inch drill to get these holes large enough to pass that spring nut through then you'll compress both of the spring nuts and pass them both into the wall cavity you can do this one at a time if it's easier for you you'll pass them in and wait for the click and the click will mean that the spring nut actually flared out behind the drywall then you'll do the bottom one okay so now we have them in the wall cavity and you can do a test to make sure that they are spread out and they don't pull back through if that is the case then we're going to start to tighten these up i use a compact nut driver to tighten them at least until they're snug against the wall to do that you can apply pressure with the bracket and then go back and forth snugging up the top and bottom bolts now watch your fingers at the end so you don't pinch them against the wall now before you get it too tight with the toggle bolts you are going to have a little bit more play up and down just because the holes are bigger so you do want to check your level to make sure with the other bracket if you are doing something like a tall rod that is in the correct spot and then once you confirm that i do recommend to do the final tightening with a head screwdriver just so you can get a feel and you'll start to feel the spring on the backside really dig into the drywall and provide that secure hold because if you use the compact nut driver often you'll strip out these bolts with a phillips head and there we go she is snug so now i'm able to secure my towel rod to the wall and i can actually deflect the rod itself without moving either of the bases that's a very secure hold and this is what i do for my rental properties that's because i have sunk into the wall studs back here and then two toggle bolts eighth inch toggle bolts uh on this end and each of those can hold 40 pounds of piece in half inch drywall if you want to know exactly what toggle bolts those are check down in the description you'll see a link to the ones i used here now before you take off one let me know if you have specific questions on your scenario down in the comments i'll jump down there and help you as much as i can and also don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already as we have weekly videos coming out to help you with your repairs and improvements around the house and we'll catch you on the next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 26,239

Rating: 4.9518719 out of 5

Keywords: drywall plug repair, drywall anchor repair, drywall anchor hole too big, loose towel bar fix, loose curtain bracket, loose toilet paper holder, loose hand towel ring

Id: vjScnIzVJbs

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021