Had my new French cleat system pull right off the wall last night

I spent all Saturday building this nice custom French cleat setup for my workshop, got it all level and mounted with what I thought were good screws into studs. Last night I hung my heaviest tool bag on it and the whole thing came crashing down around 9 PM. Turns out I only caught about half an inch of stud on one side and missed completely on the other because I was too lazy to use a stud finder. Now I've got three holes in the drywall to patch and a chipped circular saw blade from the fall. Anybody else learned this lesson the hard way or am I the only dummy here?

3 comments

3 Comments

james_torres7d ago

Man I felt that one in my bones. I did the exact same thing with a heavy shelf for my power tools last year, thought I was being clever by eyeballing it and ended up with a shelf full of drills and saws on the floor plus a cracked tile. The worst part was patching those drywall holes and trying to find matching paint, took me like three trips to the hardware store to get it right. Your chipped saw blade stings though, that's a pricey reminder to always grab the stud finder next time. At least now we both know better, nothing like a crash in the middle of the night to teach you that lesson.

the_phoenix2mo ago

Expensive wall art" got me. I used to think stud finders were overkill but not anymore.

anna9832mo ago

Stud finders exist for a reason. French cleats are great but they need solid anchoring or they are just expensive wall art. That half inch of stud was never gonna hold much weight, especially with a heavy tool bag. Drywall anchors would have been better than missing the stud altogether. Hopefully the circular saw blade is the only expensive casualty, those can get pricey to replace. Live and learn, just like I did when my spice rack took down a section of pantry wall last year.