HR-05Drill and fix brackets — stud, dot-and-dab or lath and plaster wallsSame cable and pipe check as before: confirm your stopcock works and use a detector, expecting it to miss something. Isolate the circuit at the consumer unit if you have any doubt. For a timber stud, drive a wood screw into the centre of the stud — never rely on plasterboard alone for a handrail, which takes constant pulling force. For a metal stud, never use a plain wall plug or wood screw — it will strip straight through 0.5mm steel; use a self-drilling metal-stud fixing or toggle-type hollow-wall anchor rated for the load. For dot-and-dab, use a fixing long enough to pass through the plasterboard and adhesive dabs and bite into the masonry behind — a standard wall plug fixing sized for board depth won't hold a handrail on its own. For lath and plaster, avoid relying on the plaster or laths; find the timber studs behind and fix into those, or use long fixings into the masonry behind if the wall is solid with a plaster skim. A handrail takes constant pulling and leaning force, so if you can't get a solid fixing into timber or masonry at every bracket, fit a timber noggin between studs first, or fix through to the masonry behind.