HRH has bought a cupboard/mirror thingy to hang over the sink in our bathroom.

The wall is lath & plaster.

I tried to make a test hole to see what would happen – the plaster’s very crumbly & seems loosely adhered to the lath, such that there is now a half-inch diameter hole in the wall that started out as 5/6mm(it’ll be behind the cupboard if I ever get it hung).

How do I go about fixing the unit to the wall?

Loads of fixings out there to choose from, head to B & Q and and see what looks strong enough.

When drilling into Lathe and plaster always start with a smaller drill and work your way up to the desired size, always make sure your drill is sharp, this makes a massive difference in reducing the chewed up wall efect you have just now.

I just re-decorated the bathroom in my flat and i used the red rawl plugs and screws to attach my bathroom cabinet, it feels plenty secure enough.

If possible cut away enough of the plaster to fit a wooden dwang between the upright wooden studs, there are probably specific fixings as well. HTH

Can you find anything solid behind the lath and plaster to attach to?

Loads of fixings out there to choose from, head to B & Q and and see what looks strong enough.

And none of them will work if the platers crumbling off the lathe.

Either cut a strip of plaster out and fit a noggin between the battens or fix a betten directly to the wall (fixing to the battens the lathe is fixed to). I think battens are 18 inches apart in most old houses, they were in ours, but not 100% sure.

Either it’s cut the plaster out or put a layer of plywood over the wall so that it spans between 2 studs. You’ll need to decorate that but you would hae to decorate something anyway as you won’t get a fixing directly into the lathe