Gripit Red Plasterboard Fixings

Going to be looking today at putting a small shelf on the wall to mount my router next to the hub unit for my car charger so they can be on the wall, a little tidier than it is now. And I'll be doing it using these GripIt Fixings and mounting this little square unit on them, on the wall so that I can put the router on and hopefully tidy up the whole appearance and the wires.

For this next part, I have marked my holes on the wall, levelled them up and I'm just going to drill them. This next bit could be a little noisy. I've also checked behind, there were no electric cables, nothing unexpected down the heating pipes. All well over to that side, out of the way.

The two fittings fit into the wall, putting in the screw, tightens and then it sends out the blades behind, then it starts to tighten and pull forward the fitting and I've just tested it, that's nice and free. I'm going to break now, get ready to put the fitting on the wall. Right, now, if I was putting a different kind of shelf up, something that had a bracket, I'd put the bracket on the wall and screw through into these and that screwing action brings forward the mechanism inside, grips the plasterboard and takes the weight. Because I'm using a different fitting and it just hangs on screws, I've stuck a couple of washers in there just to tighten up the screws, bring the mechanism forward and open up their leaves.

I'm just going to ease off now, it's all tight in the wall, and I'm going to mount my little unit which, there you are, which sits there nice and snug. And I'll get everything back up on the wall and then have a look at the finished result. And in not very long at all and nice and securely on the wall I've got my little shelf unit.

Now these units will take quite a bit of weight. I think it says these will take 71 kilograms, which is an awful lot, far more than the little shelf I put up. And in the past I've used these for heavy shelf units, the big glass unit below here, and I've used them for radiators and they really are the bee's knees. Nice and easy to use and very strong. You can actually remove them if you have to, by reversing the process as you unscrew it the fins behind close up and you can pull it out, fill the holes and move on, if that's what you want to do.

So there you are, that's it, that's it for GripIt Fixings. Now it took me longer to set that up, keep breaking to film another part and then put it all together than if I'd just gone in there, put up a shelf and walked away. Here's one of the little beasts for anyone that's not seeing them. And you see those little metal blades there and they fold away and when you actually screw it onto the wall, they open up behind the plasterboard, grip the plaster board, they pull forward and pinch the plasterboard so you can use up to about two mil deep there down to about nine mil and they're a wonderful bit of kit. Quicker to use than they are to explain.

Hi there, Scott here from SC Electrics. Been asked to do a wee review of GripIts that we have thanks to Expert Trades. If you haven't seen these wee things before, they're plasterboard screws. They're quite good wee things. Today we're going to be using the red ones because we're hanging a plasterboard up in my office. They're handy wee things, and pure magic for the likes of putting a TV up and things like that. As you can see, there's wee fins there on the back. If the camera is adjusted. As you can see, there's wee fins there on the back. You basically put them in so the wee fins are sitting on the tops. You put them in so the wee fins are sitting on the tops, and then you turn here in the front so the wee fins open out. If I can get that to do it like that. When you open it up, that's what holds it in the wall.

And they are designed to hold quite a bit of weight. Wee red ones here I'm using, designed to hold 74 kilos. As you can see, it says it on the top. The instructions for them are quite simple. It's all written on the back. Now, this is a great wee set. It's a wee starter set. It comes with all the size you could ever need. They're handy things. They're quite a permanent fitting. You have to drill a reasonably large hole. They're not the sort of thing if you normally just stick a simple screw in the plasterboard and drive off with. This is for jobs that you want to hold quite well. It does say blue ones hold up to 115 kilogrammes. I don't know if I'd trust much plasterboard to hold that, but they might argue with what they say on the packet.

First thing we're going to do is we've already marked up the wall because super efficient. We'll drill a wee hole here. We're using here, this is an 18mm bit, as it says in the packet. All we do is drill a wee hole. In case anybody's wondering, yes, we have already checked for cables. Yes, I know where they joists are, and I know there's no pipework behind this. Once you get that up, you realise you forgot your hammer. Give me a second. Here, got your hammer, which you miraculously find downstairs on the kitchen table where the wife's been moaning for the past two weeks. That's where it's been sitting. And you basically put the plug in the wall, push it in gently. Make sure the wee fins are closed after you've opened them. Push it in and a wee gentle tap. And that's in.

The only problem I have with these is there's a wee lip, but to be honest, it's not so much that's going to be a big show stopper for you. Once that's in, you're going to put a screwdriver in and turn it. And the wee fins in the back will open out. And that, when it'll hold, will hold tight. We'll get the three in. There we go. Nice, quick and easy. All we do now is we get our nice board and we screw it on. As you can see, that's worked quite well. They do hold a wee bit of weight. These ones here, they do only hold 74 kilos. I wouldn't exactly swing on it, but they do seem quite secure. The whiteboard is up, it's not going anywhere.

Do I like them? They're not bad. But there's a few wee issues, as you can see here. As you can see here, if you're not sitting with something that will cover the GripIt, it is still visible afterwards. The screws that come with them, which you can't really use anything smaller because they won't fit inside the hole, are quite large. About number eight screw, which for some things you're doing is a wee big. Another problem find, if you happen to be really, really unlucky, like me and hit a noggin, you can see it can actually cause a wee bit of damage trying to get it in. I was very, very lucky. I literally hit the edge of the noggin, but I actually wasn't able to get to the centre of the plug. It does hold this thing quite well, in all fairness, but it's not the way it's supposed to be. But wee bit of filler over that, you won't see it.

But hopefully you find them useful. I don't know if they're much better than most other things out there, but why not give them a try. They're not the most expensive thing in the world. Thank you all very much. This is Scott for Expert Trades. Talk to you again soon.

Hello there, this is Brendan from B. Burnside Property Maintenance here. I've wanted to tell you about these Gripit plasterboard fixings, which I've been asked to give a little review on. Anyway here's one of the larger fixings that I've taken out of another packet that I already had. Unlike your traditional plasterboard fixings, these will actually clamp onto the plasterboard rather than screwing into it, giving a far stronger fixing. I would have liked to have shown you them in actual use, but unfortunately the job that I've just done is for a vulnerable person and I'm not allowed to film in their property. I have just used four of these to hang a 65 inch TV onto a dot and dab wall and it's solid as if it was into concrete.

They're very simple to use. You find your appropriate size drill bit, drill through the plasterboard and then tap your fixing into the hole. Once the fixing is in the hole, screwdriver in that slot, obviously aligning it so these things will go vertical. Turn those, and that will then bring the wings out behind the plasterboard and fix it in position. Once you use your supplied bolt into the fixing and tighten it up, it then docks it absolutely solid. Brilliant product, they are my go-to plasterboard fixings now. I won't use anything else, not since I've used these. Brilliant product.