When you are hanging shelves and pictures in your Smith Mountain Lake rental home, it is crucial to do so as safely as you can. Household accidents and falls result in over 30 million doctor’s office and emergency room visits each year. To avoid injury, understanding well and observing proper safety guidelines, is imperative.
The first matter to learn in connection with hanging shelves and pictures safely is to take the time to do the job correctly. Properly installed shelves can last for years, but, a hastened job could make shelves both ugly and dangerous. Before you start, you need to know where you want to place the shelves or pictures and then gather the proper tools and materials.
Various homes have drywall for their interior walls, which is not strong enough to hold heavy objects. To hang shelves and large pictures, you do need to anchor them to the wooden studs in your walls. To easily figure out their location, you have to use a stud finder. It is significant to place shelf supports and picture hangers in wooden studs to keep the shelves and pictures from falling, in all likelihood destroying walls and floors and maybe even getting someone hurt.
After that, plan out the placement of your shelves and pictures. Use a measuring tape, pencil, and a level to ensure that your installation will result in proper placement. When you are hanging shelves at a height that would require a ladder, make certain to execute proper safety precautions. Ladders alone injure more people than any other household accident.
For pictures, the height at which you hang your pictures is critical. If this is done incompetently, the result will look out of balance or unprofessional. As a fundamental principle, the center of a framed picture should be located approximately 57 inches above the floor (this is eye level for the average person). Measure and mark the placement of each picture seriously before proceeding on to the next level.
Subsequently, you will then have to determine what type of screws, anchors, and brackets you will need to support the item’s weight. For shelves, be sure to include the weight of the objects that will be stored there. It is always a good plan to overestimate the weight, just to be safe. To place screws, anchors, and brackets in the studs and walls, you may most probably need a drill driver or other power tool.
Bear in mind to educate yourself on the proper use of your drill driver before attempting to use it for the first time. Just in case you want to hang shelves or pictures on a brick or concrete wall, that could require a masonry bit and plastic anchors to install the screws required to hold the shelf or picture in place. Any time you’re ready to install the shelf or picture, give a serious thought on bringing on someone there to help lift and steady things. Also, another perspective on your placement and measurements never hurts, either.
If screws, drills, and power tools are not something you have a lot of experience with, pictures can also be secured to the walls by other methods such as double-sided adhesives. Remember, some adhesives may be permanent or removable, so make it a point to choose the one that best serves your needs.
By taking a few precautions and choosing the right tools, you can start hanging shelves and pictures on the walls of your Smith Mountain Lake rental home in no time.
Need a new rental home to hang your art? Evaluate our current selection of rental listings and give Real Property Management Cairn a call at 434-215-3028 to consult with one of our Smith Mountain Lake property managers today.
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