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I need to attach some timber (pine) to a wall. It is for decoration. The straightforward way is to use screws and wall plugs.

However, once a month, the timber will need to be removed, some decoration added to it, and then put back.

How can I find a secure way to attach it, but keeping the ability to remove it often?

Are there some special wall plugs that resist well to many unscrews and screws? Or maybe another way?

DevShark
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1 Answers1

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French Cleats

Could you use a french cleat? They are commonly used for demountable fixing of items to walls, including quite heavy items.

If necessary, they can be recessed so that they are entirely invisible

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They are easily made from wood but you can also purchase aluminium or other metal sections designed for this purpose.

Threaded inserts

You can put a threaded insert into a wooden stud (or into a wall cleat as above). This allows you to use a machine screw (bolt) instead of a wood screw. A machine screw into a metal insert will stand up to repeated removal and replacement better than a wood screw.

Just one (or two) of these could be inserted into a wall cleat and used to lock the other cleat into position.

Alternatively, if you have wooden studs in convenient positions you could use these directly in the stud. It might be a little fiddly to align everything when reattaching your item to the wall.

enter image description here

Some inserts are hammered in, some screwed in using a hex drive (allen key). You need to drill the correct sized hole to receive the insert.

RedGrittyBrick
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  • This is a great solution. We used to use this (one on top and another on the bottom) to mount display units that weighed up to nearly 300 pounds. Done right, there's no reasonable way to pull the unit off the wall without lifting it evenly. – Craig Tullis Aug 02 '15 at 18:05
  • That's a great idea, but it would not be secure enough. The timber will be in a child bedroom, so it needs to be almost impossible to remove the timber for a child. – DevShark Aug 02 '15 at 22:11
  • @DevShark. See amended answer for some additional ideas. – RedGrittyBrick Aug 02 '15 at 22:38
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    Use two cleats; top and bottom (the bottom one goes upside down) and you slide it in sideways. Or just use a screw through the decoration, into the cleat behind it. – Mazura Aug 02 '15 at 22:50
  • Thanks for the ideas. And what do you think of using an anchor bolt? – DevShark Aug 03 '15 at 12:03