Grab rail on tiled stud wall

[6ply]

Mum is getting increasingly weak and wobbly with Parkinson's. The council "installed" an electrically operated bath seat FOC but no grab rail to make her feel safe. Dad passed away during the week and she's on her own. She used it once and not tried it since. I contacted the council and they agreed to fit a grab rail in about a month. I declined and will fit one myself.

Anyway, the wall is half tiled, timber stud and plasterboard construction. She needs a 450mm grab rail. Most appear to have 3 screw holes at each end. I will try to find a stud for at least one end. The other end may have to be secured with rawl plugs into the tile and plasterboard sandwich. Mum has lost a lot of weight and I don't think she'll pull it out.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Agroshield]

What's on the other side of the wall?

Cut a double socket-sized hole and feed in a piece of ply into which the rail can be screwed. Install drywall box and double blanking plate.

You can drill through from the bathroom side with a smal diameter long drill to locate the position of the hole.

If the tiles do not go all the way up, and you cannot get to the other side, you could install an access panel at high level and feed the plywood backer in through that (https://www.screwfix.com/p/manthorpe-access-panel-white-243mm-x-193mm-x-16mm/20924).

 

[zzr1200]

What's on the other side of the wall?

 

[6ply]

Other side of the wall... A tiled ensuite.

 

[BrokenBiker]

sorry for your loss

stainless strip long enough to catch 4 studs then attach to the stainless? some counter suck holes on the back for some stainless bolts, fit the handle then fit the strip to the wall?

 

[MetalMonkey]

You could mount it to a spreader plate as BrokenBiker suggests, or if you can get one end on a stud, then use either toggle or hollow wall anchors at the other end.

One decent toggle/anchor fixing backed up with a couple of plastic plugs (fisher are good) would do, trying to fit three in is likely a recipe for disaster.
If using hollow wall anchors be sure to flatten the tangs first and always use the installation tool. Carefully check the size, as you'll need one that copes with the added thickness of plasterboard+tile

 

[Blobber]

Can you make or get something like this, you could fit the brackets to suit the studs?

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Agroshield]

...use either toggle or hollow wall anchors at the other end.

And some judicious use of silicone to seal the holes through the tiles. You do not want water tracking into the plasterboard.

 

[bricol]

And some judicious use of silicone to seal the holes through the tiles. You do not want water tracking into the plasterboard.

This indeed - council fitted a couple of grab rails to my mums bathroom. A "professional" installed a bath lift through a tiled wall - long bolts all the way through the stud wall to a backing plate on the other side in the bedroom. When I removed it, I discovered lots of holes (from a previous "professional" intallation of a different lift), none of which had any form of sealant.

Luckily not much use of the shower, so little damage to the wall.

 

[bricol]

Mum is getting increasingly weak and wobbly with Parkinson's. The council "installed" an electrically operated bath seat FOC but no grab rail to make her feel safe. Dad passed away during the week and she's on her own. She used it once and not tried it since. I contacted the council and they agreed to fit a grab rail in about a month. I declined and will fit one myself.

Anyway, the wall is half tiled, timber stud and plasterboard construction. She needs a 450mm grab rail. Most appear to have 3 screw holes at each end. I will try to find a stud for at least one end. The other end may have to be secured with rawl plugs into the tile and plasterboard sandwich. Mum has lost a lot of weight and I don't think she'll pull it out.

Any other suggestions?

Other suggestions - I'll take that literally.

My mum was finally persuaded to have an alarm system from the council at the vast expense of four quid a month - she felt it was a waste of time - which it is, until you need it. A fob pendant, or even a watch style, some of which can be triggered if you fall, as well as simply pressed (although, if you go down "gracefully", they won't necessarily trigger automatically). Problem was, she would forget she had it, or simply not put it on. Getting it earlier might have helped to engrain it as something to be down, the same as buttoning up her blouse. It saved her a good number of times, including when she tripped over the back door frame, carrying a bowl of water as she had taken it into her head to wash the wheelie bin out at 5pm on a cold winter Friday . . . her fall triggered the alarm, but as she was so far from the base station, they couldn't hear her properly, so visited anyway. Broken nose, eye socket . . .

Mentioned this in another thread - get power of attorney if you haven't already. You don't need to use it yet if she's still doing okay, but when you need it, you will then have to wait for it to be returned so you can use it - and that delay cost my mum a bust hip in a crap respite care home and loss of her mobility.

Don't underestimate the time and emotional load of trying to assist elderly parents - took pretty much all my spare time for three years, exhausted me. With too late hindsight, persuading her to move into sheltered, care, accomodation earlier may well have extended her life, certainly her mental ability.

 

[Cobbler]

My mother had one of those pendants that connects to an autodialer. Used several times successfully, except once she fell in the middle of the night & couldn’t get up, pressed the button & the control didn’t contact us, said they thought it was a false alarm! Luckily she was still compost memphis at that stage, pulled the duvet off the bed & wrapped herself up until morning.

 

[knighty]

can you fit a longer grab rail, so it can span between two studs?

or a rail as posted above where the brackets don't have to be on the end

 

[TEO]

Lots of good advice above, hope you're both doing ok.
Re, the hand rail, you'd be amazed at the strength of plasterboard. Having looked at the lafarge website ages ago I decided that with decent rawlplugs the rails I was putting up for my parents would be ok. Lovely to get a stud but not essential.
The only thing I didn't leave to plasterboard strength was the additional bannister rail. For that I mounted a board on the wall, picking up each stud & then the rail brackets to the board. That way the bracket positioning was easier & the whole thing way stronger.

 

[Dapph2]

Mum is getting increasingly weak and wobbly with Parkinson's. The council "installed" an electrically operated bath seat FOC but no grab rail to make her feel safe. Dad passed away during the week and she's on her own. She used it once and not tried it since. I contacted the council and they agreed to fit a grab rail in about a month. I declined and will fit one myself.

Anyway, the wall is half tiled, timber stud and plasterboard construction. She needs a 450mm grab rail. Most appear to have 3 screw holes at each end. I will try to find a stud for at least one end. The other end may have to be secured with rawl plugs into the tile and plasterboard sandwich. Mum has lost a lot of weight and I don't think she'll pull it out.

Any other suggestions?

Rawlnuts might be a better option as the strain is spread gently and evenly . At our GP surgery a foot square of 19mm water proof HDF well painted too has been glued on the wall towards the ends of the grab rails ( stud wall ) and the ends of the rail screwed into that as well , using Rawlnuts by the look of things .
Another alternative is to glue and Rawlnut a well water proofed yacht varnished board to the wall in several places , screwing into the studding if you can locate it. then screw the grab rail to that , again using Rawlnuts if you can get them long enough .... I used different screws that were longer than the supplied ones on a stud wall .

 

[6ply]

can you fit a longer grab rail, so it can span between two studs?

or a rail as posted above where the brackets don't have to be on the end

I just arrived so will take a look in a moment. I know mum didn't want a massive rail.

 

[6ply]

Lots of good advice above, hope you're both doing ok.
Re, the hand rail, you'd be amazed at the strength of plasterboard. Having looked at the lafarge website ages ago I decided that with decent rawlplugs the rails I was putting up for my parents would be ok. Lovely to get a stud but not essential.
The only thing I didn't leave to plasterboard strength was the additional bannister rail. For that I mounted a board on the wall, picking up each stud & then the rail brackets to the board. That way the bracket positioning was easier & the whole thing way stronger.

Yes, I was hoping to get away with one stud and some plugs into the plasterboard. I know from experience it's quite difficult to bring a tiled wall down.

Regarding bannister rails, we've got loads of those so at least that's one job sorted.

 

[6ply]

 

[6ply]

And the other side of the wall

 

[zzr1200]

Other side of the wall... A tiled ensuite.

Any spare tiles kept, either side???

 

[6ply]

Any spare tiles kept, either side???

Good question. I'm not sure, but hopefully I won't need any. I'm trying to keep the fixings discreet as we don't know how much longer mum will be staying here.