SSD-06Re-fix a loose frame to the wallBefore you drill anything, find your stopcock (usually under the kitchen sink) and check it turns freely, so you can shut the water off fast if you ever hit a pipe. Run a cable and pipe detector over the fixing point, but still treat the wall as if something is there — detectors miss cables that are deep, in metal conduit, or behind metal-backed board, and this is worse near existing shower plumbing. If there's any doubt, isolate the relevant circuit at the consumer unit and turn off the water at the stopcock before you drill. On solid brick or block behind tiles, drill through the tile with a tile bit first, switch to a masonry bit, and use a plug and screw sized to the hole — typically a 6mm plug set 40-50mm deep. On plasterboard over timber studs, find the stud with a detector or by tracking the line of existing screw heads, listening for the dull thud between the hollow-sounding bays, then fix a wood screw into the centre of the stud. On plasterboard over metal studs — common in flats and anything fitted since the 1990s — a pilot hole brings out fine steel swarf rather than timber dust; never use a plain plastic plug or a wood screw here, as it strips straight through 0.5mm steel, so use a self-drilling metal-stud fixing or a toggle-type hollow-wall anchor instead. On dot-and-dab plasterboard, use a fixing long enough to pass through the void behind the board and bite into the masonry behind, typically 60-75mm. On lath and plaster, locate the timber laths by sound and feel, and screw into a lath or noggin rather than bare plaster, which will crumble under load.