Can plaster board support any size shelf?

[PaulUszak]

I'm putting up some shelves onto plaster boarded walls and I'm confused. When you look on line for advice, it all seems to revolve around the type of fixing you use. They range from small generic yellow Rawl plugs, through Fischer specialist plaster board plugs to large spring toggles. It seems that you can hang anything off plaster board as long as you have a strong enough fixing.

But the plaster board itself is just stuck to the wall. I don't have any battens, so there are no screws. It's either sticky foam or more probably just plaster dabs. Don't you risk pulling the whole plaster board sheet off the wall eventually, or could I hang a grand piano with the right plaster board fixings. I'm not asking how to hang shelves. I'm asking how strong a large set of shelves would be with perfect fixings?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Providing the item being fixed, is fixed correctly. You can fit very heavy weights to a dry-wall.
Grand Piano? maybe, if fitted on it's long side.

 

[footprints]

If it is dot and dab there will not be sufficint space for a toggle to operate just drill right through into the brick/block behind and use a conventional wall plug fixing, ideally do it over or near a dab.
While plasterboard fixings do work they are never going to hold the same loads as normal plugs.
I have seen radiators hung on them that have fallen off the wall after a very short time.

You might get away with this one though!
https://www.tesco.com/direct/carous...AQYASABEgLT4_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&source=others

 

[John D v2.0]

I didn't trust plasterboard for our kitchen wall cupboards so I just chopped a rectangle out and fixed a floorboard to the structural wall, then used that as a strong surface to screw into.
Basically depends how paranoid you are about it dropping off.
I think plasterboard itself is quite strong as a whole, it's just crumbly so can fall apart if you use the wroing fixings

 

[^woody^]

If it's a floating shelf, you'll have no worries.

Otherwise, try Grip-it fixings which will support radiators, apparently.

 

[PaulUszak]

Grip-it fixings are pretty expensive aren't they? They make a huge hole. And I was led to believe that the trade didn't really like them...

 

[^woody^]

I was led to believe that the trade didn't really like them...

Lol. Who are "the trade" that led you to believe this..

They are as cheap as anything else. How many do you need for your shelf to make them expensive - £2.00's worth? What's the cost difference of the shelf staying up, and falling down?

The shelf brackets hide them, btw.