On May 9, 8:38 am, "giga" wrote:

I'm builing a cherry mantle for some friends, the floating type, made to be
fastened directly to the wall above the fireplace. There are no sides, so no
support from the floor. It weighs about 25 lbs or so. I had planned to use
French cleats to hang it from the wall, but they just found out from the
builder that the house is built with metal studs, and not wood as we had
expected.
Can you hang that much weight from metal studs, and if so, what sort of
fastening system would be best? There are basically 4 studs along the length
of the mantle.

That shouldn't be a problem - then again, it depends on how much crap
the owners put on the mantle. The weight of their stuff could easily
exceed the weight of the mantel if there's a reasonable size shelf
top.

You should use expanding metal anchors into the studs such as a Molly
anchor or toggle bolt, and you might want to consider making the
french cleat on the wall taller so you could get a couple of fasteners
in each stud. You could also use some construction adhesive, but
that's belt and suspenders and probably not necessary.

R