LP-06Choose the right fixing for what you foundIf you landed on a timber stud, use a wood screw or coach screw around 65-75mm long, driven into the centre of the stud, using the 3mm pilot hole as a guide. If the wall is a solid wall with lath fixed to timber battens (a 'studded out' wall) and you've gone deep enough to hit masonry, use a wall plug rated for the masonry with a matching drill bit, and a screw long enough to pass through the plaster, lath and batten gap and still get 30mm or more into the brick or block behind. Never rely on plaster and lath alone for a floating shelf's weight: if you can't reach a stud or masonry at a fixing point, move it rather than trust a light-duty toggle for anything beyond a very small ornament shelf. If you unexpectedly find a metal stud, don't use a plastic plug or ordinary wood screw here, as it will strip straight through 0.5mm steel; you need a self-drilling metal-stud screw or a metal-stud toggle fixing, and even then a metal stud won't safely hold a full floating shelf load without a timber noggin behind it.