On Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:35:20 -0000, "Bert Coules"
wrote:


Dave Plowman (News) wrote:


If you have access to the other side, remove a bit of that plasterboard
and fit a decent noggin between the studs, and fix through the tiles to
that.


This does seem to be a popular suggestion, so thanks.


I've juat had another idea, although a bit ugly.

Basically it increases the size of the rail mountings to spread the
loads. Use sheet metal screws to attach each flange to the underside
of a metal dinner plate. Fix each plate to the wall using three screws
into wallplugs in the plasterboard, two at the top and one at the
bottom.

If the rail is grabbed in a fall, the sudden inertial force could well
make the total force even greater than the person's weight. The total
force will exert a torque tending to pull the top screws out and press
the plate in at the bottom. But because the plates are so much larger
than the original flanges the in-out forces will be proportionally
less. Also each screw has its own area of wall to stress, unlike the
original clustered arrangement.

The plates could either be the same colour as the rail or painted to
match the tiles.
--
Dave W