Fixings for porcelain tile

[sentience]

I want to attach a new shower system to my shower wall. It includes a mounting plate with three 4mm screw holes. I have successfully drilled the holes in the tile using a diamond-tipped drill bit. The carbide-tipped masonry drill bit recommended in the installation instructions didn't work, because the tiles are porcelain and therefore too hard.

Now that I have the holes drilled, I am having trouble with the supplied masonry anchors (pictured below). When I try to use them to fix the mounting plate to the wall, they fail to cut through the tile and instead the threads get flattened.

I'd like a recommendation for how to mount the mounting plate securely to these porcelain tiles, ideally using the 4mm holes I have already drilled (as they match the screw holes in the mounting plate).

Supplied masonry anchor

[Jason]

Thanks for joining the Bunnings Workshop community @sentience. Welcome aboard, we are really pleased to have you with us. 

Is this part of a larger bathroom renovation project? We'd love to learn more. 

Let me tag a couple of experienced members in @Former Workshop member and @JDE for their thoughts on tackling the problem with those masonry anchors. 

Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site, or have any feedback about how we can improve Workshop for you.

Thanks again, 

Jason

[sentience]

Thanks, Jason! The showers are Nebia units that we bought on Kickstarter, and they're the final touch of a home renovation we started four years ago. They look great, but it turns out porcelain tiles are pretty challenging to work with!

[JDE]

@sentience 

In assume you have drilled all the way through the sheeting. Have you considered using a hollow wall anchor. Available at Bunnings.  Make sure you get an extended one it has to go through both the tile and the gyproc behind it

JDE

[Former Workshop member · Accepted solution]

If the tiling is on brick, you can use a slightly larger drill (.5 to 1mm) to increase the hole diameter

just for the thickness of the tiles.

You could also probably just use wall plugs with appropriate screws for your fixing.

You can use your existing screws with wall plugs.

The green plugs use a 6.5 mm drill bit and a 10-12g screw.

How to install masonry fixings

[sentience]

Thanks for the advice, @JDE!

I think the plaster sheeting behind the tile is intact. Per @Former Workshop member's suggestion, I was able to widen the hole in the tile and then drill the provided screw into the sheeting behind it, and that seems to have produced a sturdy fit.

[sentience]

Thank you, @Former Workshop member! I was able to widen the holes in the tile and then use the existing screws to drill into the gyprock behind one wall. The other wall I need to do this to is brick behind the tile, so I'll use your advice there too.

[MitchellMc]

Hi @sentience,

It's great to hear you managed to find a solution to the issue. Did you have any pictures of the shower system in place as I trust our members would like to see your handiwork?

Mitchell