Drywall screws and plasterboard fixings for both jobs - fixing board to timber stud, metal stud or masonry, and hanging fixtures onto a finished board wall. Coarse thread, fine thread, self-drill, spring toggle and hollow-wall anchors, in trade quantities.
Fixing board to stud
Thread type follows the frame. Coarse-thread drywall screws are for timber stud - the wider thread bites into softwood without stripping. Fine-thread screws are for metal stud, where a coarse thread chews through the gauge instead of gripping it. Length should give around 20mm of penetration into the frame, so 32mm for a single layer of 12.5mm board and 42mm where you are doubling up.
Drive the head just below the surface without breaking the paper face. A broken face loses most of the screw's holding power and will show through the skim. Fix at roughly 300mm centres on walls and 230mm on ceilings, which works out at around 30 screws on a standard sheet.
Hanging fixtures on a finished wall
Board on its own carries very little load, so anything heavier than a picture needs a proper anchor. Self-drive metal fixings suit light to medium loads such as small shelves and wall cabinets. Spring toggles and umbrella anchors spread the load across a wider area behind the board, which is what you want for radiators, TV brackets and heavier units. For anything genuinely heavy, fix through to the stud, or install a timber noggin behind the board before boarding out.
Boards and quantities
Our plasterboards come in standard, moisture-resistant, fire-rated and acoustic grades, and our plasterboard calculator guide works through sheet counts, screw quantities and plaster coverage for a given room.