Ben Peters
4/8/10
Hello,
I need to hang a heavy tile piece on a wall in our café and was hoping to use some heavy duty aluminum cleat so I could get a very shallow profile but I am having trouble finding a source for the cleat. I know I have seen cleat that is 3”-4” tall (one side) but all I am finding now seems to be about 2” tall. I wanted some more height to really stagger the screws into the object (the back is plywood, which I am able to screw into). I would guess the object weighs about 120 lbs and is 36” x 36”.
Is there other hardware that people would recommend?
Thanks for any suggestions
Ben
Ben Peters, Preparator
The Walt Disney Family Museum
phone 415-345-6857
fax 415-345-6896
david 4/8/10
Hi Ben, I think you may be more concerned than necessary about the 120 pound object. A single cleat with 4 screws into the plywood back would be more than sufficient to safely hold up your tile. Staggering your screws is a good idea when going into natural wood or into a sheetrock wall, but isn't as critical when fastening into plywood as its construction prevents it from splitting apart. If you are still concerned about the need for more support, use two cleats, one at top and one at bottom. This will also ensure that your tile hangs parallel to the wall. I hope this is some help in solving your problem. David
james gielow 4/8/10
I'm going to have to agree with David, that's not that much weight and those aluminum cleats canhold quite a lot. If you're still concerned, drill the holes out a bit more and use a #12 screw, it will vastly increase the shear factor and then you can hang yourself and the tile with no worries at all. good luck yours, James P.S. How's life in the woods David? Miss you and that lil' lady of yours! Can't make it to the forum next month, funding issues and the like. Very sad, it sounded like it was going to be great. cheers
Jen Jackson 4/9/10
Ben, For future reference here is a source for Z-clips (the name of the aluminum cleats) http://www.orangealuminum.com/
steve
4/9/10
I generally use two pieces of flat bar overlapping each other with screws going through both pieces. This make sort of a Z bar.
Philip Brutz
4/9/10
We just hung a 400 lbs 36” X 36” mosaic on 2 pairs of aluminum Z-Clip from Benchmark http://www.benchmarkcatalog.com/main-hardware.htm . We bolted a piece of ¼” angle to the wall at the bottom of the object. So that the weight is not on the Z-Clips but on the angle shelf.
Philip Brutz
Mountmaker
Cleveland Museum of Art
11150 East Blvd.
Cleveland, OH 44106-1797
216-707-2617