A company called Gallery System Art Displays sells a hanging system designed for picture moldings that solves two out of three problems (here’s a UK alternative system that looks similar, but I’ve not tried it). In my case, after doing quite a bit of online searching, I discovered picture molding hardware that seemed to solve most of the problem. (The good news, however, is that since the wire or cord is generally attached to the back of the picture frame, at least that connection will be secure.) Second, the wire or cord holding up the picture frame could jump off the molding hook. First, there is nothing to prevent molding hooks from jumping off the picture molding in the event of a big quake. There are several different sorts of picture molding hooks out there (see photo below), but all of them seem vulnerable in the event of an earthquake. The fishing line then rests on the lower hook of the brass molding hook, while the upper portion of the molding hook rests on the molding itself. I’ve used fishing line (sorry, hard to see!) tied to eye hooks on the back of the frame. Here’s a picture of a small frame hung in my house from a molding hook in the traditional manner. Surprisingly, however, there’s almost no discussion out there of how to secure art hung this way in the event of an earthquake. And since nearly half of San Francisco’s housing stock was built before 1940, a lot of us rely on these picture moldings today (renters often have no choice, as leases frequently forbid making holes in the lath-and-plaster walls that are common in 100 year old houses). So without further ado, take it away Fred, and thanks!īefore the 1940s, it was common for houses to have picture moldings (also known as crown moldings, or picture rail moldings) for hanging art, rather than using nails and picture hooks affixed to the wall. Now I know they were the only game in town for a few hundred years, until just about 80 years ago.įred said he’d find some more information about the topic for me, and got back to me with basically an entire article, so he agreed to let me run it as a guest article pretty much as is, with no editing on my part other than to stitch together a few of his photos. In all these years, nobody had ever asked me about that before, and in all these years, I had never lived in a home without drywall and simply wasn’t aware that these things existed. picture rails) in homes with lathe and plaster walls. Fred attended one of my talks and absolutely stumped me with a question about hanging pictures on picture moldings (a.k.a. This month, Quaketips hosts guest blogger Fred von Lohmann.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |