Stainless Steel Pad Eye Wall Fixing

An M6 316 stainless steel pad eye — a flat plate with a fixed ring — for anchoring something to a wall that is going to be under tension. Sold singly. Mounting screws included.

Two jobs in particular:

Shade sails

Gives one corner of a sail a fixing point on a wall, where you would rather not put another post in the ground. One per corner you are fixing that way — a triangular sail has three corners, a square has four. Most gardens end up as a mix: a pad eye or two on the house or a garden wall, and a shade sail pole wherever there is nothing solid to work with.

Pair each one with a turnbuckle so you can tension the sail properly once it is up.

Festoon lighting

Gives a festoon run a proper anchor at the house end, instead of a nail, a hook screwed into a window frame, or whatever happened to be handy. Lighting cable sags and swings, and over a season that works a weak fixing loose. Run the far end to a festoon lighting pole where there is no second wall.

Fixing it — worth reading

The pad eye is rarely the weak point. The fixing behind it usually is.

The screws supplied suit light duty and timber — fine for a run of lights into a sound timber frame or fascia. For a shade sail, or for masonry, use proper anchors rated for the job, fix into solid brick or stone rather than mortar joints, and keep away from render, cladding and cavity walls. If you are not sure what is behind the surface, find out before you drill. A sail in a gust pulls far harder than most people expect.

The steel

316 stainless — the same marine grade we use on The Stainless One, and the grade specified for coastal handrails and boat fittings. It costs more than the 304 fittings sold in most places, and it is worth it on something that will sit in a wall for years in the weather. In salt air it will hold its finish where a cheaper fitting would tea-stain.