[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

There are ADA regulations for grab bars near toilets if you want to sell your house as ADA compliant. If you don’t care, you can do what you want, but grab bars do need very secure backing. If you have a concrete block wall, is the drywall simply glued to the block, or are there steel studs between the block and the drywall. Attaching grab bars directly to concrete block can be done, but you will need special tools and anchors. If you have tile attached to backer board attached to steel studs, or drywall attached to steel studs, there are some difficulties. The studs are usually 16” or 24” apart, center to center, so you may need a bar that is 24” or 16” or 32” or 48” long. Do you know how to find steel studs in a wall, including exactly where each edge is (a stud finder is useful but not always exact)? You will need at least two special long heavy duty screws for each stud, and you will need to drill the pilot holes just right. If you are off a little, the screws will just go through drywall. Toggle bolts are not strong enough in drywall. There is more government info here. I will paste in a couple of drawings from this below. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publi...ng/fairch6.pdf

Ideally, wood blocking for these bars should be installed before the drywall goes on, but it isn’t easy to do that with steel studs. If I were installing a safe grab bar in my own wall, I would buy a piece of red oak four inches wide, 3/4” thick, and the length of the wall. I would screw this to all the steel studs with two heavy screws. I could then attach a grab bar with three screws at each end anywhere I wanted along the oak. (I would also sand and finish the wood before screwing it to the studs.) This is a very strong way to install a grab bar. I would do this myself, but not everyone has the tools. The oak can also be painted the color of your other trim.

Re: red oak
I just recently bought some at Lowes 8 inch wide. I was shocked 7.50 a foot. I wish I did not listen to my wife when she told me to get rid of all the hardwood I had in my basement. Today, it is priced like gold.