Yes, you can anchor a dresser, bookcase or TV to the walls of an older Philadelphia home, and you should. The method depends on what's behind the paint. On an interior partition, that's usually plaster on wood lath, and the anchor screw has to go into a wood stud, exactly as it would with drywall. On a party wall or an outside wall of a rowhome, it's usually brick, and you drill into the face of a brick with a masonry bit and use masonry screws. The two mistakes to avoid are trusting a plastic anchor in crumbly plaster, and drilling into a mortar joint.
Below is how to tell which wall you have, how to do each one, and when it makes sense to hand the job to someone with the right drill.
Why bother: what the CPSC says
Furniture and TVs that tip over are not a rare accident. In a February 2024 release, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported an estimated annual average of 17,800 emergency-room-treated tip-over injuries in 2020–2022, and 217 reported tip-over deaths from 2013 through July 2023. Of those deaths, 47 percent involved a television and 55 percent involved children between 1 and 3 years old. The same release notes that ER-treated injuries from furniture-only tip-overs among adults 60 and older rose from 1,800 in 2013 to 4,300 in 2022, so this isn't only a toddler issue.
The CPSC's advice is simple: anchor TVs and furniture such as bookcases and dressers securely to the wall. Its Anchor It campaign says to anchor all furniture with drawers, doors or shelves.
Doesn't a new dresser already meet a stability standard?
Partly. Under the federal STURDY Act, the CPSC adopted ASTM F2057-23 as the mandatory stability standard for clothing storage units such as dressers and chests. Per the Federal Register notice, it applies to units manufactured after September 1, 2023, that are at least 27 inches tall, weigh 30 pounds or more and have at least 3.2 cubic feet of enclosed storage. The tests are meant to simulate children up to 60 pounds.
That leaves a lot uncovered: every dresser made before September 2023 (which is most dressers in most homes), bookcases and shelving, which the standard excludes, and TVs. Anchoring is still the CPSC's recommendation for all of them.
Philadelphia's Rowhouse Manual, published by the City Planning Commission, describes the two materials you'll most likely meet in an older house:
- Interior partitions in many older homes are plaster applied to wood lath.
- Party walls between rowhouses in older homes are usually brick, typically two or more layers (wythes) thick. Front and back walls of an older rowhome are often masonry too.
Renovated houses mix things up. A party wall may have drywall on wood or metal strips in front of the brick, and an old partition may have been replaced with drywall. A few quick tests:
- Push a thumbtack in. The Anchor It guide suggests this: if the tack goes in easily, it's drywall; if it doesn't break the surface, it's probably plaster.
- Knock. Plaster on lath sounds fairly solid with duller, hollow spots between studs. Plaster directly on brick sounds solid everywhere. Drywall on strips over brick sounds hollow with a hard surface close behind it.
- Think about where the wall is. In a typical rowhome, the long side walls you share with the neighbors are the brick party walls. Walls that divide rooms inside the house are the partitions.
Step 2: anchoring into plaster and lath
Treat plaster the way the CPSC treats drywall: the screw goes into a stud, not just into the wall surface. Old plaster can be loose from its lath, and an anchor that only grips the plaster can pull out exactly when a child climbs the drawers.
Finding studs is the hard part. The 16- or 24-inch stud spacing you'll read about applies to modern framing; walls in a 100-year-old house don't always follow it, and electronic stud finders can give confusing readings through thick plaster. Methods that work better in old walls:
- Use a magnetic stud finder. Lath strips are nailed into each stud, so a strong magnet sliding sideways will stick to a vertical line of nail heads. That line is a stud.
- Look for clues. Baseboard and trim nails usually go into studs. Outlets and switch boxes are often mounted on the side of one.
- Confirm with a small test hole in a spot that a bracket will cover. If the drill bit pushes through plaster and lath and then drops into empty space, you've missed. If you feel steady resistance after the plaster, you're in wood.
To drill plaster cleanly, put a piece of painter's tape over the spot, start the hole slowly with a sharp bit, and don't use hammer mode, which can crack plaster and loosen it from the lath. Use the screw length the kit calls for, and make sure it goes well past the plaster and lath into the stud; a short screw that only reaches the lath isn't enough.
If there's no stud where the furniture has to go, mount a wood strip across two studs and attach the bracket to the strip, or move the piece. If your plaster is already cracked, bulging or loose, fix that first; our guide on plaster wall repair vs drywall explains the options.
Step 3: anchoring into a brick party wall
Brick holds very well once you're in it. The CPSC's guide notes that brick is harder to work with and that you might want a contractor to do it. If you do it yourself, its steps for brick and concrete are:
- Pick a spot on the face of a brick, not the mortar joint.
- Mark the holes and drill with a masonry bit of the size the screw package recommends.
- Drive self-anchoring masonry screws with an impact driver.
- Attach the strap.
On a rowhome party wall there's usually a layer of plaster on top of the brick, so the screw has to be long enough to pass through the plaster and still reach the embedment depth printed on the masonry-screw package. Old Philadelphia brick can be soft; if a hole spins out or crumbles, move to a different brick rather than forcing a bigger screw.
Keep it small. A couple of short screw holes for a furniture strap is ordinary household work, but the Rowhouse Manual is clear that party walls carry floors and roofs and no changes should be made that reduce their strength. Don't chisel or channel into a party wall, and don't drill deeper than the anchor needs.
If the party wall has drywall on strips in front of the brick, you have two options: find a strip and screw into it (fine for a dresser strap), or go through the drywall into the brick with a masonry screw long enough for the gap.
Step 4: attach the furniture end properly
The wall side gets the attention, but the furniture side fails too. The Anchor It guide says to attach the bracket to a thick, sturdy spot, ideally solid wood such as the top rail, and to avoid the thin stapled back panel and veneered edges. Drill a pilot hole smaller than the screw.
For a flat-screen TV, anchoring kits attach to the standard mounting holes on the back. If you're wall-mounting the TV itself rather than strapping it to its stand, use a mount rated for your TV's weight and size, and put the mount's screws into studs or brick, never into plaster alone.
Before you drill: three checks for an older home
- Pipes and wires. Avoid drilling directly above or below outlets and switches, where wires usually run, and near bathrooms and kitchens, where pipes do. If your house still has old knob-and-tube wiring, the wires may run in places you wouldn't expect; see our knob-and-tube guide.
- Lead paint. Homes built before 1978 may have lead paint under newer coats. A few small holes make little dust, but catch it: hold a damp paper towel or a folded envelope under the bit, and wipe the area with a wet cloth afterward instead of sweeping. More in our guide to lead paint in older Philadelphia homes.
- Test it. When the strap is on, pull on the furniture. The CPSC's check is that there should be no slack and nothing should move. If a bracket shifts, tighten the screws a little more, but don't strip them.
Quick checklist
- List every piece with drawers, doors or shelves, plus every TV not on a wall mount.
- Identify each wall: plaster on lath, plaster on brick, or drywall.
- Get the right hardware: the strap or bracket kit, wood screws long enough to reach studs, masonry screws and a masonry bit for brick.
- Find studs with a magnet; drill brick faces, not mortar.
- Attach to solid wood on the furniture, never the back panel.
- Pull-test every strap, and keep heavy items in the lowest drawers and on low shelves.
- Where you truly can't anchor a TV, the CPSC says to put it on a sturdy, low base, push it back as far as possible and keep cords out of reach.
When to call a pro
Anchoring one dresser into a stud is a reasonable DIY job. It's worth hiring help when:
- the wall is brick and you don't own a hammer drill or impact driver;
- the plaster is cracked or loose where the furniture has to go;
- you're wall-mounting a large TV, especially over a fireplace or on a party wall;
- you have several pieces to assemble and anchor at once, such as a new bedroom set or a nursery.
What drives the cost is the number of pieces, whether they need assembly first, the wall type (brick takes longer and needs different tools), and whether the pro brings the hardware. Say all of that up front.
On HomeKept you can describe the job once on the furniture assembly page for Philadelphia, answer whether wall mounting is needed, and compare up to 3 estimates from local pros. It's free for homeowners. In the description, list each piece, the wall it goes against (brick party wall or interior wall), and whether you already have anchor kits. Before you hire, our checklist on how to check a contractor in Philadelphia covers what to ask.
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