Backboard material for mounting HA patresses

[jpdw]

Easy question (please be nice to the newbie):

What's the best wood material to use as a mounting board ?

- Chip ? MDF ? Ply?

Normally I'd reach for whatever I had lying around rather than perhaps the most suitable but when we moved 4 months I was made to throw away my stash of useful offcuts!

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Specifically I'm planning a first purchase of some Idratek kit and want to mount a board on the wall on which to mount some of the patresses. Idea being to mount the board on standoffs and so need only 4 (decent) fixings to the back wall of the cupboard (rather than fixing every patress directly to the wall).

In the more immediate term, I can use the board to build up a neat-ish test in the study - keeping it tidy will keep the wife happier !

[TimH]

Some US sites have suggested mounting a 3/4" sheet of ply to the wall and then fitting the gadgets to that. It certainly makes it easier than drilling, fitting wall plugs and then putting the screws in.

If you're going to use the void behind the board to run cables you obviously you need to make sure that the screws put into the patresses are shorter than the thickness of the board...

HTH,

Tim

[jpdw]

I settled in the end of a piece of ply - an offcut I spotted whilst on a tool borrowing reccie @ my parents (30 years since they last moved = lots of 'spares').

Though getting the screws into it can be quite annoying

Indeed, TimH, the intention is to avoid drilling the wall as much as possible...

[TimH]

I settled in the end of a piece of ply - <snip>

Though getting the screws into it can be quite annoying

It may seem a silly question but what screws are you using? And are you drilling a pilot hole first?

I find these two things can make a big difference to how easy the job goes, as even a 2mm pilot is often just enough to 'steer' the screw in the right direction.

HTH,

Tim.

[jpdw]

It may seem a silly question but what screws are you using? And are you drilling a pilot hole first?

I find these two things can make a big difference to how easy the job goes, as even a 2mm pilot is often just enough to 'steer' the screw in the right direction.

HTH,

Tim.

I was drilling a small pilot first .. the main problem though was that the only short screws I have are slot & not cross-head - which I hate using .. minor problem really!