Homeowner Forum / Repair / July 2008

...

"molly" bolts...

those are the ones that expand behind the sheetrock and can put them in
existing holes.

--

Not sure what you mean by "drywall inserts".   If you mean plastic plugs--  
Don't!

Towel bars, tissue and so on should be hung using a 1/8" toggle bolt.  The
butterfly portion of which require about a 3/8" hole to enter the wall.
They are sold in different lengths.  I only stock 3" ones on the truck which
seems to work in about 95% of the installations.

Colbyt

That depends entirely on what kind of drywall inserts the holes are bigger
than. If you're talking about inserts like these

http://homerepair.about.com/od/interiorhomerepair/ss/wall_fastening_8.htm

then yes, you can easily re-use the same spot, probably with no repairs needed
at all -- just get some of these instead:

http://homerepair.about.com/od/interiorhomerepair/ss/wall_fastening_4.htm

You can buy these at any home center or hardware store. It wouldn't surprise
me to find them in the hardware department at Wal-Mart, either. If the holes
are already bigger than these, check out these:

http://homerepair.about.com/od/interiorhomerepair/ss/wall_fastening_6.htm
http://homerepair.about.com/od/interiorhomerepair/ss/wall_fastening_7.htm

The self-tapping screw anchors (...fastening_4) are a little questionable for
towel holders. I think you're better off with either the toggle bolt or
expandable anchor for that application.

Get over it, Most color matching now is amazingly good, so you don't
have any excise to do a hack job on that basis. You will find that
almost all color matched repairs will be very hard to spot after a few
days. The key to a good match has always been a decent sample, clean
and reasonable size. HTH

Joe

You can make a decorative board that is a bit longer than your
towel bar.  Round the corners or cut at 45, run an interesting
router bit around the thing.  Paint it a close or contrasting
color, install to the studs, install towel bar to it.

The ITW EZ anchors are great:
http://www.itwbuildex.com/ezprod.htm