Fit a pulley clothes airer to a lath and plaster ceiling

Fit a pulley clothes airer into ceiling joists safely, checking your ceiling type first and using fixings rated for the load.

PA-01Clear the room and gather your toolsMove furniture out of the way and lay a dust sheet under the work area, since drilling into lath and plaster makes a mess. You'll need a cordless drill, a bradawl, a stud/cable detector, steps, a spirit level, a pencil and a tape measure. Wear safety glasses when drilling overhead, as old plaster crumbles downwards.

1 each · Dust sheet

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1 roll · Masking tape

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PA-02Plan where the airer will goChoose a spot over clear floor space, at least 300mm from any light fitting or pendant cable, and where the lowered slats will clear worktops, doors or your head. Most pulley airers need two or three ceiling brackets spaced to match the slat length, plus one wall-mounted cleat nearby to wind the cord onto. Mark a centre line on the ceiling with a pencil, checked level with a spirit level.

PA-03Find your stopcock and think about safety before you drillFind your stopcock now, usually under the kitchen sink, and check it turns, so you can shut the water off fast if you hit a pipe. Cables and pipes can run almost anywhere above a ceiling, including diagonally to light fittings, so run a detector over the area but still expect something to be there — detectors miss cables that are deep, in conduit, or behind foil-backed plasterboard. If you have any doubt at all, isolate the lighting circuit at the consumer unit before drilling near the pencil marks.

PA-04Work out what's above the plasterA true lath and plaster ceiling is thin plaster keyed over narrow timber laths, always fixed to timber joists — metal ceiling joists didn't exist when lath and plaster was used. Tap gently: a dull, slightly springy sound between joists is normal for lath and plaster; solid, dead-sounding lines are the joists themselves. If your ceiling turns out to be flat plasterboard instead, it may be on timber joists or, in some flats and refits since the 1990s, on metal furring channels or resilient bars — check with a magnet, which will grip steel but not timber.

PA-05Locate and mark the joistsRun the detector along the ceiling to find a line of screw or nail heads, which usually tracks a joist at 400mm to 600mm centres. Confirm with a small bradawl pilot hole: timber dust means you've found a joist, fine plaster dust with no resistance means you're between joists, and grey steel swarf means a metal furring channel, not a structural joist. Mark the centre of each joist you'll use, and check the spacing matches the slots in your airer's ceiling brackets — most brackets have adjustable slotted holes for exactly this.

PA-06Fix the ceiling brackets into timber joists — lath and plaster methodA loaded pulley airer is heavy with wet washing, so every ceiling bracket must go into solid joist timber, never into plaster or laths alone. Drill a pilot hole through the plaster and lath, then hold the drill steady and slow for the last few millimetres so you don't crack the surrounding plaster. Screw the bracket on with a 5mm x 50-60mm wood screw driven into the centre of the joist, checking each one pulls up tight with no wobble.

6 each · Wood screws 5 x 60mm

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PA-07If your ceiling is plasterboard instead of lath and plasterOn a plasterboard ceiling over timber joists, fix exactly as above with a wood screw into the joist centre. If you find a metal furring channel or resilient bar instead of a joist, do not fix into it — it's designed to isolate sound, not carry weight, and a wood screw will strip straight through the thin steel. Keep searching sideways until you locate an actual timber joist, or fix a short timber batten across two joists to create a solid fixing point if the spacing doesn't line up.

PA-08Fit the wall cleat, matched to your wall typeThe wall cleat only holds cord tension, but it still needs a fixing that suits the wall. In solid brick or block, drill a 6mm hole 35mm deep, fit a red wall plug and drive in a No.8 screw. Into a plasterboard timber stud, screw straight into the stud centre; into a plasterboard metal stud, use a self-drilling metal-stud fixing or a hollow-wall toggle — never a plain plastic plug, which will spin uselessly in the hole. On dot-and-dab plasterboard, use a fixing long enough to pass through the dab and bite into the masonry behind, usually 60-75mm. On a lath and plaster wall, screw into a stud or noggin behind the laths if you can find one; if not, a spring toggle rated for light loads is fine here since the cleat only takes gentle pulling force.

1 pack · Wall plugs (assorted pack)

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1 pack · Self-drilling metal stud fixing

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1 pack · Spring toggle fixing

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PA-09Assemble the airer and thread the cordClip the pulley wheels onto the ceiling brackets and hang the slats from the cords supplied with the kit, following the manufacturer's diagram. Thread the free end of the cord through each pulley in turn, ending at the wall cleat, and check the slats hang level. Trim any excess cord once you're happy with the drop height.

1 each · Pulley clothes airer kit (slats, cord, brackets, cleat)

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PA-10Test under load before you trust itRaise and lower the airer a few times to check the pulleys run smoothly and the cord winds cleanly onto the cleat. Load it with a normal wash — wet towels or sheets are a good test weight — and check every ceiling bracket for movement or plaster cracking around the screws. Retighten anything that's loose before leaving it in daily use.

PA-11Tidy upFold up the dust sheet and check the floor for dropped screws or plaster debris. Wipe down the ceiling area if any plaster dust has settled on nearby surfaces. Store any spare fixings in case a bracket ever needs adjusting later.

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