Pro Handyman Blog

Drywall Repair For A Loose Towel Bar

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A common repair we get is for a towel bar that has come loose. Actually, it's not a repair of the towel bar, but rather a drywall repair. The towel bar in usually installed with more importance on the cosmetic rather than the soundness of the installation. Typically, it is screwed into drywall rather than into a wall stud.

Along comes a child that thinks it would be fun to lift up themselves on it, or an adult that loses his balance, etc. The result is that the drywall develops an elongated hole from the screw or wall anchor, and the towel bar becomes loose.

You can try to move the towel bar over enough to bite into fresh drywall or even a stud (if the mounting plate/escutcheon is large enough) and re-install it. The most common solution though is to use a larger wall anchor. You can use a small toggle bolt (aka molly bolt), an EZ anchor, or a large hollow wall anchor. For the larger wall anchors, get the kind that have tall sharp teeth. These will really bite into the drywall and give a good amount of strength. Simply place the sharp point of the anchor against the wall and screw it in. Then place the mating screw into the towel bar's mounting plate and screw it into the toggle. The only downside is that if this pulls out of the wall, you will have a drywall hole of about an inch around.