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[Deleted member 174758]

... given that the lathe is about 6mm the screw will (normally end up spinning when you screw it in fully.

If they were that narrow (6mm) they'd all split when you nailed them onto the studs! In point of fact laths are generally made of timber 1 to 1-1/2in (25 to 38mm) wide and about 3 to 4mm thick with 3 to 6mm gaps between to allow the lime plaster snots to form. You make them by cleaning from a soaked billet. Some smaller diameter screws such as drywall screws (3.5 or 4mm) can give a fix into the laths - unfortunately drywall screws won't carry much of a load. Its never a good idea to depend on fixing to.the paths, though, you don't know what state they are in and you don't know how well.thdy are fixed to the studs as the tacks can rot out over time and the laths themselves often have splits on them

 

[opps]

If they were that narrow (6mm) they'd all split when you nailed them onto the studs! In point of fact laths are generally made of timber 1 to 1-1/2in (25 to 38mm) wide and about 3 to 4mm thick with 3 to 6mm gaps between to allow the lime plaster snots to form. You make them by cleaning from a soaked billet. Some smaller diameter screws such as drywall screws (3.5 or 4mm) can give a fix into the laths - unfortunately drywall screws won't carry much of a load. Its never a good idea to depend on fixing to.the paths, though, you don't know what state they are in and you don't know how well.thdy are fixed to the studs as the tacks can rot out over time and the laths themselves often have splits on them

When I mentioned the 6mm I was referring to the thickness of the lathe (which I clearly over exaggerated- in my head I thought they were about 3.2mm but I opted for 6mm) not the width, sorry for not making that clear. Hence my suggestion of drilling in a 5mm screw and letting it get to the point where it just spins. Not a fancy pants Spax type screw with a self cutting tip, just a cheapo bog standard screw.

Having read a significant number of your posts I am happy to be corrected by you and accordingly doff my proverbial cap to you but unless you say otherwise I will assume that a 5mm screw drilled straight into a lathe is gonna spin (assuming that it doesn't just push the lathe out of the way (in which case it will still spin).

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I wasn't disagreeing on the issue of spinning screws. Frankly, I think the only way to get a screw fixing to work in a lath and plaster wall is to use smaller diameter screws, and lots of them, and even then there's no guarantee it won't just fail at a later date. And with that approach you will need to allow for multiples of screws because you just don't know and can't see where good timber laths are.... which is why we are almost all suggesting that the OP finds the only decent material he can in that wall - namely the studs......