STRAND PROFILE
Storage and shelving
Wall types, matched fixings, levelling and a sensible view of load.
Running order
A shelf is a lever. Everything you put on it tries to pull the top fixing out of the wall and push the bottom one in, and the wall decides how that argument ends. That is why this strand starts with the wall rather than the shelf.
Solid masonry, a dot-and-dab plasterboard skin over blockwork, and a stud partition with nothing behind the board but air are three different problems that happen to look identical once they are painted. Knocking, drilling a test hole in a spot that will be hidden, and using a detector are all part of the same question.
The bench rule for this strand: the fixing must match the wall, the length must reach the structure and not merely the surface, and the load you plan for should be the load after the shelf has been lived with for two years, not the load on the day it goes up.
Open the weekend schedule to see how a strand of this kind is paced across two days, or the room directory to find the same guides by room.