Furniture anchors for drywall, plaster and brick: the wall decides the screw, not the strap

The same rule on every wall

An anchor kit ships with a wood screw for the wall end because most US walls are drywall over wood studs. The kit does not know your wall. The load it has to take is a sudden outward pull when a dresser tips, and the fastener has to resist pull-out under that load; the CPSC's tip-over numbers, 217 deaths from 2013 to mid-2023, are in do you really need to anchor furniture. So the question on every wall is the same: what is behind the surface that will hold a screw or a masonry anchor against a pull? Once that is answered, the install is the one in how to anchor a dresser.

Drywall

Half an inch or five-eighths of gypsum board with a paper face. A screw in it alone holds a picture; under a tipping dresser the paper tears and the screw comes out. Plastic expansion plugs are worse, because they rely on the same gypsum. Toggle bolts and snap-toggles hold more in pull-out and are sometimes suggested; we do not, because the manufacturers' instructions and the CPSC's Anchor It! guidance both say stud, and a toggle's rating assumes a clean static load, not a jerk. Find the stud with a stud finder (every 16 inches, sometimes 24), confirm with a nail, and screw into its center. If no stud lands behind the piece, screw a 1x4 cleat horizontally across the two nearest studs and anchor to the cleat; that is fifteen minutes and it is the correct answer, not a workaround.

Lath and plaster

Pre-1950s walls: horizontal wood or metal lath strips nailed to studs, with plaster keyed through the gaps. Stud finders struggle here; use the electrical outlets as a guide (boxes are nailed to studs), tap for the solid sound, or drill a small exploratory hole. Once you find a stud, pre-drill through the plaster with a masonry or regular bit slightly smaller than the screw so the plaster does not crack, then drive the screw into the stud. Wood lath alone will hold a screw in a pinch; metal lath will not, and a screw that hits only plaster and metal mesh needs to move to a stud. Plaster over masonry (common in older brick buildings) is the brick case below with a plaster skin on it.

Brick, block and concrete

Drill the brick or block itself, not the mortar joint, with a hammer drill and a masonry bit sized to the anchor. Use a sleeve anchor or a wedge anchor rated for pull-out in masonry; the small plastic plugs sold for hanging shelves are not rated for a tipping load and are the wrong product. The anchor's bolt then goes through the strap grommet or the bracket. Hollow concrete block wants a sleeve anchor long enough to reach solid material or a toggle designed for block; solid brick and poured concrete take a wedge anchor. Both Hangman's steel bracket and QuakeHOLD!'s strap grommet accept a masonry anchor bolt in place of the wood screw. Renters in brick buildings have a different problem, covered in anchoring furniture in a rental.

Metal studs

Newer apartments and commercial conversions often have steel studs behind the drywall. A wood screw will strip them. Use a self-drilling metal-stud screw or a toggle designed for metal studs, and land it in the stud's flange, not the open web. The strap or bracket does not care; the fastener does.

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