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wrote:
I would like hang three 60cm wide IKEA kitchen cabinets on a
plasterboard wall but find that there is very little wood behind the
plasterboard. There are two vertical battens, 30mm wide and 38mm deep
at 3 feet and 6 feet from an external wall that I wish to start the
cabinets at. The wall consists of two sheets of 12.5 mm plasterboard
separated 38 mm apart by the vertical wood. When the base units were
removed, the vertical battens were identified at the bottom of the
wall where the plasterboard doesn't reach the (concrete) floor. Also
visible at the bottom is a horizontal batten nailed to the plasterboard
with a gap of about 6 cm between the ends of the horizontal wood and
the verticals. Skirting boards are nailed to this - with no skirting
behind the base units. I currently have one wall cabinet flanked by two
floor standing cabinets, By poking the plasterboard there appers to be
hioizontal battens at the top and bottom of the wall cabinet but these
horzontal pieces of wood do not span to the verticals. The total width
of the wall is 63mm. I suspect that the wall is constructed of cellular
wallboard.

As the angle brackets for the three wall cabinets can't all be fixed to
the secure(??) vertical pieces of wood, does anyone have any sugestions
on the best way to hang the cabinets such that they won't fall off?

What I might be tempted to do is to cut a long thin slot in the
plasterboard 180cm long (or just under) to line up with the fixings
on the cabinets, and set a piece of 2x1 timber into this flush with
the surface of the wall (cutting half an inch back into the battens),
and screwing this timber into the battens. Then you'll have a good
firm support to screw the cupboards to. You could also fix a small
piece of 180cm long timer to the wall (through into the battens) for
the cupboards to sit on, which won't notice if you are fitting pelmets.

--
Andrew Gabriel