Fixings for Cob Walls

[Spaniel87]

Am looking for suggestions for what the best method is for wall fixings for screwing shelfs to cob walls. Normally you would just use wall plugs, but these are strong enough as the cob around the plugs just crumble away. Any suggestions?

 

[Stevers]

No experience of cob, but the traditional approach for fixings is wooden wedges driven into mortar joints, and that's worked for me when I've tried it. I don't see why you couldn't drive them into a slot made into a cob wall in the same way, as long as they're of sufficient size to spread the required load into the fragile cob. Another approach would be dowels perhaps tapered and glued into a hole and left to set, before making a pilot hole.

The art will be to spread the load sufficiently into the cob, and not put anything valuable on any shelf before you've sussed what works. You'll have to experiment and then let us know how you get on.

 

[jdsnape]

I had to re-fix some wall lights recently into cob walls, and I think my advice would probably be don't. It was hard enough getting fixings for relatively small lights to stay put, I wouldn't want to risk anything with any weight to it.

Is there somewhere else you can fix the shelf? Alternatively, could you have some kind of free-standing furniture like a bookcase or dresser?