Snowbird Open and Close
Two seasonal visits a year for absent owners. Open the house in October to December, close it in April or May.
Picture, Mirror and Shelf Hanging in Palm Beach County
Hung level, anchored for the wall you actually have, and laid out before anything gets drilled.
What is included
- Single pieces, pairs, and full gallery wall layouts
- Heavy mirrors hung on proper wall anchors
- Floating shelves and bracket shelves set level
- Anchoring into CBS block with masonry fasteners
- Locating framing in partition walls before drilling
- Laying the arrangement out on the floor or with paper templates first
- Wall mounted coat racks, key rails, and pegboards
- Hanging hardware upgraded on frames with tired wire or hooks
- Filling and touching up small holes from a previous layout
How the job runs
- Step 1
Lay it out before drilling
We put the arrangement on the floor or mark it on the wall with tape or paper templates first, then step back with you. Nobody drills until you have looked at the layout from where you actually sit or walk into the room.
- Step 2
Find out what the wall is
We check whether we are drilling into a hollow partition, a furred CBS block wall, or block direct. That decides the fastener. A toggle in a block wall does nothing, and a drywall anchor holding a heavy mirror over a bed is a real hazard.
- Step 3
Hang, level, and clean up
Anchors set, pieces hung, everything checked with a level across the run rather than piece by piece. We vacuum the masonry dust, take the scrap out with us, and touch up any hole from a previous layout if you want it gone.
The wall behind the wall decides everything
In Palm Beach County the exterior walls of most homes and condo units are concrete block with a stucco face outside and either furring strips and board or a direct skim coat inside. Interior partitions are usually light frame. From the room, both look identical. What is behind them is not, and it is the whole story when you are hanging something heavy.
A plastic anchor rated for a hollow wall does nothing useful when it hits solid block a short distance in, and a fastener set for block is wasted in a hollow partition. We test before we drill. It takes a minute and it is the difference between a mirror that stays on the wall for twenty years and one that comes down during the first slammed door.
Heavy mirrors, and where they end up in Florida homes
Large mirrors are everywhere in this county's housing stock, because they were a standard way to open up the smaller rooms in 1970s and 1980s condo plans. Owners inherit them, replace them, or want them moved. A framed mirror of any real size needs to be carried by anchors sized to the weight and set into something solid, not by two hooks in board.
We also pay attention to what is below it. A heavy piece over a bed, a sofa, or a crib gets a more conservative anchor than the same piece on an empty hallway wall. If the wall cannot take what you want to hang where you want it, we tell you that at the walkthrough and suggest a different spot rather than drilling and hoping.
Condo buildings, quiet hours, and drilling into block
Drilling masonry is loud, and it travels through a building. Almost every association here sets quiet hours, and in older buildings with shared walls a hammer drill at eight in the morning will generate a complaint before the second hole. We schedule masonry work inside the allowed window and get any required certificate of insurance and front desk access sorted ahead of the visit.
Some buildings also restrict what can be anchored into a demising wall between units or into a wall that carries building systems. If your piece needs that wall, we ask management first. Nobody wants to discover a rule after there are four holes in the concrete.
Seasonal owners, rentals, and the reset visit
Hanging work clusters around arrivals and turnovers. Seasonal owners come back in the fall to a unit that was closed all summer and want the art from the last redecoration finally put up before family visits. Rental owners want the walls to photograph well and want nothing that a guest can knock loose.
For a rental, we favor anchors that hold more than the piece weighs and layouts that do not put glass over a bed. For an owner occupied home, we are happy to spend the extra fifteen minutes moving a template around the wall until the spacing is right. Both are the same visit, just a different judgement call.
Humidity, salt air, and the hardware on the back of the frame
The failure people do not expect is the hanging hardware on the frame itself. Sawtooth hangers and thin wire corrode in coastal air, and screw eyes back out of a soft frame after a few years of humidity swings. A piece can be perfectly anchored to the wall and still end up on the floor because the wire gave.
When we hang older pieces we check the back and replace tired hardware. It is a small thing and it costs almost nothing while the piece is already off the wall and in our hands. Rentals benefit from a quick check between guests too, since a piece knocked loose and rehung by somebody in a hurry is usually sitting on one hook instead of two, and nobody notices until it is on the tile.
Book it on a schedule
Packages that usually include this work.
Rental Turnover
Punch list work between guests: locks reset, walls touched up, blinds and furniture repaired, photo report on completion.
Condo and HOA Program
A standing program for associations and management firms: unit turns, punch lists, painting, and lock work on one monthly invoice.
Where we work
We cover 39 cities, villages, and towns in Palm Beach County. These are the seven largest.
See all 39 service areasQuestions about this work
Can you hang a heavy mirror on a concrete block wall?
Yes. Most exterior walls in Palm Beach County homes and condos are CBS block, and they hold weight well once the right masonry anchor is used. We test the wall before drilling, because the same wall can be furred with a hollow gap in one spot and solid in another, and the fastener has to match what is actually there.
Will drilling into block upset my condo neighbors?
It can, which is why we schedule masonry drilling inside your building's quiet hours rather than first thing in the morning. Sound carries through shared block walls. We also check with management about any restriction on anchoring into a demising wall before we start, not after.
Can you plan a gallery wall, not just hang it?
Yes. We lay the arrangement out on the floor or mark it on the wall with paper templates first, then you look at it from where you actually sit. Once you approve the layout we drill. That step costs a few minutes and prevents the row of extra holes people usually end up with.
What happens to the holes from the old layout?
We can fill and touch them up if you have matching paint, or leave them ready for your painter. On textured walls common in older Palm Beach County condos, tell us at the quote, because matching a 1980s knockdown pattern takes a test sample rather than a dab of compound.
Is a drywall anchor enough for a large piece?
Not for anything heavy, and not over a bed or a sofa. Where there is framing we anchor into it. Where the wall is block, we use a masonry fastener. If the wall in the spot you want cannot carry the piece safely, we will say so and suggest a different location instead of overloading an anchor.
Can you check the hardware on the back of my older frames?
We do that as a matter of course. Wire and sawtooth hangers corrode in coastal air and screw eyes loosen through humidity swings, so a well anchored piece can still fall because the frame hardware failed. Replacing it while the piece is in our hands takes moments.
Get a quote for picture, mirror and shelf hanging
Tell us what you need done and roughly where in Palm Beach County you are. Photos help. We come back with a price, not a sales visit.