Fixing a Column radiator to tiled wall

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DazJWood

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I have a Column radiator to fit to a porcelain tiled bathroom wall. The wall is breeze block covered (by solid bed of tile adhesive) with 12mm marmox board.


The column radiator has four brackets with two fixing holes on each and come with screws and wall plugs.


My questions are around the fixing of the brackets :


1. When fitting the wall plugs, should I sink them just below the tile, level with the tile, or pushed right in so they clear the marmox board and are fully in the wall? I'm thinking level with the tile may be a problem when tightened the screw and bracket, with risk of cracking tile. If I push wall plug below the surface then the screw would be unsupported at the the hole in the tile and with the weight of the radiator would surely pull the screw down and onto the tile.


2. Do I need to fix the two screws for each bracket or would I be OK with one? Reason being the slots/ holes in the bracket are fairly close together and the breeze block substrate is fairly soft. I can anticipate if I were to drill two holes into tile and through to breeze block then there's a possibility that the holes in the breeze block may end up being really weak as they will be close to each other or fracturing into one big hole.


Many thanks in advance and would appreciate any other advice or considerations I might need.


Thanks,


Daz
 
If yours is soft ,hollow, block expanding plugs may or may not have anything to expand into.
Until you drill into it ,you won't really know. I would use a smaller size drill than the plug ,to go into the block. A the correct size hole in the tile though.
 
terryplumb said:
If yours is soft ,hollow, block expanding plugs may or may not have anything to expand into.
Until you drill into it ,you won't really know. I would use a smaller size drill than the plug ,to go into the block. A the correct size hole in the tile though.
Click to expand...

Breeze block is soft to drill but wall plugs do grab fine. I installed the marmox boards with adhesive and mechanically fixed them with screws, washers and wall plugs and had no failures (no spinning wall plugs). Always drill slightly smaller than wall plug when drilling into breeze block.

Specifically, need advice on 1 and 2 in original post.
 
DazJWood said:
Breeze block is soft to drill but wall plugs do grab fine. I installed the marmox boards with adhesive and mechanically fixed them with screws, washers and wall plugs and had no failures (no spinning wall plugs). Always drill slightly smaller than wall plug when drilling into breeze block.

Specifically, need advice on 1 and 2 in original post.
Click to expand...

One fixing per bracket is fine.
Do the top ones first, hand the rad on them and then mark up the bottom ones for positioning.
Diamond tile bit (7mm) to get through the porcelain.
Then a 5.5 or 6mm masonry bit for a brown rawl plug (don't use hammer on drill).
Tap rawl plug in (tight).
Use 2" x 10s steel screws with washers.
It'll hold fine.
 
Depending on the weight of the radiator (allowing for water) I'd be tempted to use an 8 x 100mm frame fixer.
 
It's a shear load, not cantilever... Even the porcelain tiles are enough to hold it IMO.
 
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