When mounting anything on a plaster wall there are precautions that must be taken to avoid damaging the plaster. In much older houses the plaster can be very easy to crack and crumble away causing major damage to the wall.

First you will need a good stud finder, preferably one that has a deep scan setting. You want to locate your wall studs behind the plaster and use these to mount your item or equipment. The weight of whatever you are mounting on the wall should determine the size of screw or lag bolt to use.

After locating the wall studs you want to drill a hole through the plaster in the center of the stud. The wall stud will be 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide so you want the pilot hole centered in that span. The drill bit should be a masonry bit at least as big around as the mounting bolts you will be using. If you are using a hammer drill do not use the hammer setting on the plaster. Just use the regular drill setting and don't force the bit too much. Use the highest RPM setting on the drill and let the bit do the work.

Most plaster walls have wood lathe strips between the plaster and the stud so make sure you are on a stud and do not mistake the lathe for the stud. Once you have bored through the plaster and have reached the wood stud then replace the bit with a regular metal boring bit that is a little smaller than the mounting bolts that you will be using and then bore straight into the center of the wall stud about a half inch or so and stop.

You want your mounting bolt to be long enough to go through the plaster and the wood lathe and then screw into the wall stud at least one to one to two inches. Some situations may have brick behind the plaster and if this is the case then you want to still drill carefully through the plaster and continue using the masonry bit to bore on into the brick. You must use a lead set anchor for this application so you want your masonry bit to be the exact same size around as the anchors you will be using.

Lead set anchors or drop in anchors have to be set with an anchor set and a hammer.  You just push the anchor all the way into the hole and then take the anchor set and insert it into the anchor and hit it with the hammer. This causes the anchor to expand in the hole to hold it in place. Depending on the item to be mounted and the weight of it, lighter items can be mounted using plastic anchors in the brick. Never try to set an anchor into just the plaster. Always make sure the anchor is all the way into the brick behind the plaster.

Another option when mounting into brick or a masonry wall is to use Tapcon Masonry Fasteners. These are anchor less screws that use a special sized masonry bit. You just bore a hole into the brick and screw the Tapcon fastener straight into the hole.

Figuring your needed amount of concrete for a project is the easy part. Forming, pouring, and finishing the concrete is the hard part. Most slabs are poured at 4 inches thick. You take the length of the formed area and multiply that by the width. Take that total and multiply it by 0.33 for a 4 inch thick slab then divide that total by 27 for the total yards of concrete you will need to pour the slab. Here is an example calculation for a 10 X 12 slab at 4 inches thick.

10 x 12 = 120 x 0.33 = 39.6 divided by 27 = 1.46 yards of concrete.

W x L x 0.33 / 27 = Total yards of concrete needed at 4 inches thick. 

W x L x 0.49 / 27 = Total yards of concrete needed at 6 inches thick.

W x L x 0.66 / 27 = Total yards of concrete needed at 8 inches thick.

*Note- It is always a good idea to add just a little to the total amount of concrete that you figure simply because it is better to have a little extra than to come up short.

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Fluorescent bulbs in 4′ and 8′ lengths can be difficult to handle and dispose of properly. But there is a device that is simple to make and works great for disposing of fluorescent bulbs or tubes..

You will need a 10′ stick of 1 1/2″ conduit. There are several different types of conduit you can use for this. I will list them below and tell a little about each type.

Types Of Conduit:

1. PVC Schedule 40- This type is the lightest to work with but it is also the most fragile and can break rather easily when disposing of the tubes. This type will require a T/A or terminal adapter glued on each end.

2. EMT- Electrical Metallic Tubing- This type of conduit works pretty well for this project. It is stronger than PVC but a little heavier. This type will require a steel set screw connector on each end.

3. IMC- Intermediate Metal Conduit is heavier than PVC and EMT and is also much stronger than both. This type is ideal for this project. All you would need for this are 2 -1 1/2″ caps for the ends as IMC is threaded on both ends. Rigid is another type that will work well for this.

You can shorten the pipe down to 5 or 6 ‘ if you wanted to make one just for disposing of 48″ bulbs. Really all you need to do is screw a pipe cap on each end of the pipe and when you are ready to dispose of a fluorescent bulb just unscrew the cap on one end and slide the bulb down into the pipe and screw the cap back on the pipe. Now just hold the pipe vertically with one end sitting on the ground. Hold the pipe with both hands and quickly raise the pipe off the ground about a foot or so and then slam it down on the one end letting the pipe cap hit the ground hard and the fluorescent bulb will break inside the pipe and contain it.

Then you can get some type of large heavy duty zip lock bag and then remove the cap and pour the contents right into the zip lock bag and seal it shut and throw it in the trash. I would advise doing this outside to avoid a mess inside the building.

Galvanized Pipe Cap

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