Furniture straps?

[halfwayupthehill]

I bought some white fabric furniture straps which came without fixings but my handtman syas they are not fit for purpose as they require small screws which would come out of the hardboard backing of my furniture if they fell. The handyman seems slow and unreliable in other ways, but he may have a point. If so, are there alternative ways of fixing furniture to walls? I can see tht the ikeas drawers would be hardboard at back but not old wardrobe and m and s display cabinet. Not sure what to make of it. He was making heavy weather of fitting bolts. Sigh.

Well, thinking back to a-level physics, I'd say he's looking at the wrong end of the "fall". If you had a 3 foot strap then by the time it got taut, yes, the bookcase or whatever would have built enough momentum, and enough of its weight would be acting against the fixings that the screws would pull out of the hardboard. However, I'll bet your straps are a few inches long, designed to prevent anything worse than a slight wobble, so the furniture never goes past it's tipping point. That way, they should only have to resist the force that caused the perturbation, never the full weight of the furniture. Assuming your furniture is standing on a level, stable surface, and you're not trying to swing from it, I think he's missing the point.