Here’s a better way to mount things to the wall

You’re ready to fix that loose towel bar, coat hook or other loose wall-mount fixture.

Unfortunately, there is no stud behind the wallboard and you aren’t sure which type of hollow wall anchor to use to properly secure things. There are so many choices it can be downright confusing.

Well, help is on the way. We’ve been doing this sort of thing for more than 30 years, and we just learned a new trick.

We recently had to repair a towel bar that had come loose from the wall. We old-timers would have used a self-tapping metal-drive anchor. It’s fast, easy to install and inexpensive. No drilling required. Simply drive it through the wallboard with a hammer, tighten the screw until it seats snugly in place, and then remove and replace the screw to mount whatever it is you want to attach.

But Morris’s son Ricky said no. He told us he’d replaced more self-tapping metal-drive anchors than any other type of hollow wall connector. In fact, he’d replaced so many of them that he had devised his own routine to do it. He bought a pair of snippers to cut the head off the connector flush with the wall so that he could push the rest through the hole and into the wall cavity without damaging the surrounding wall board. This left room for him to use the old hole for his favorite connector: the plastic toggle.

Ricky said that metal wall fasteners that are driven through wallboard can push away part of the gypsum and the paper backing. They can easily be over-tightened, causing the spreading support legs to over-bend, reducing support and loosening in a short time.

And over-tightening can cause the retaining nut to slip free of the connector.

Ricky said the plastic toggle had never failed him. Its built-in grips have only two positions, compressed and spread:

The retainer arms of the fastener are squeezed together to form an arrowhead shape that can be pushed or lightly driven into a predrilled hole.

With the fastener in place, a small pin provided with the fastener is pushed into and through the screw hole, releasing the retainer arms and causing them to spread apart and lock against the inside surface of the wall. At the same time, the oversize head of the fastener locks against the outside surface.

For more home improvement tips and information from James and Morris Carey, visit their Web site at www.on thehouse.com or call 800-737-2474 Saturdays from 6 to 10 a.m. The Careys are also on KRKO (1380-AM) from 6 to 8 a.m. every Saturday.