How to Choose The Right Picture Hanger for Drywall

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You don't want to use too small of a picture hanger, or it might pull through the drywall. On the other hand, using an unnecessarily large hanger will leave too big of a hole. David Lupberger shows how to pick the right one every time.

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Video Transcript for "How to Choose The Right Picture Hanger for Drywall"

David Lupberger on How to Choose The Right Picture Hanger for Drywall: Hi, I'm David Lupberger, with ServiceMagic.com. Almost any home finished within the last 20 to 25 years was used with 2 by 4 framing or 2 by 6 as the case may be; and finished with ?? inch drywall. What we're going to do today is talk about how to hang a picture on drywall. I'm going to show you four different anchors to hang pictures. You'll use a different anchor depending on how heavy the picture is.
Lupberger: Let me show you how each one works. Most people have seen this first picture hanger. It's a simple hook with a nail. And you simply drive it into the drywall. That's all well and good unless the picture is heavy, because remember; this is drywall and that would easily begin to pull away if the picture is heavy.
Lupberger: Now let's look at a second way to do this with pictures that are just a little bit heavier. You may have seen this; it's a screw with a plastic anchor. In this case, I'm going to start the hole with my screwdriver. So this is going to go in, I now have a secure way to hang a picture. And on the back you'll see the anchor actually expanded, to really hold it in the drywall itself.
Lupberger: This next anchor will hold pictures a little bit heavier, but you'll see it's a screw within the anchor. Let me show you how it works. This anchor is actually self-tapping. So I actually just started the hole, and once we're in the drywall, I'm going to take my screw driver and it just screws right into the wall. And if you need a little bit more room, you just back that screw out a little bit and it works very, very well.
Lupberger: Now this last one is a little bit more expensive but you can use safely with pictures over 40 pounds. To get this started I actually did a small starter hole in the drywall. Again you don't want to make that starter hole any wider than the width of this anchor, this anchor slides in, and there's a couple teeth that grab. So at this point I'm going to start screwing in. From the back side you'll see how this works. This anchor is actually collapsing on the wall, so that it is a very, very firm anchor. But you must also note that this is not something that you can remove afterwards. Once this is in, it's in. And so those are some of your options for hanging pictures and mirrors on drywall.