Check hook positions as numbers before you drill
When several towel bars or cup holders go on one bathroom wall, placing them by eye usually leaves everything bunched to one side. Enter the wall width, how many hooks, the width of a single hook and the clearance you want at each end, and the page returns the even gap plus a table of left-edge and center positions for every hook. The center figures are the ones to compare against tile grout lines.
How the numbers are worked out
The clearance is removed from each end to give the usable width, the total hook width is subtracted from that, and the remainder is divided by the number of gaps between hooks. The first hook starts one clearance in from the left and the last finishes one clearance from the right. No officially recommended gap or clearance is offered here, because the items being hung differ in width from product to product and the figures that circulate are common practice rather than a standard. Measure and enter your own, as of October 2026.
Wall material, load limits and anchor types are not covered on this page. For drilling and load, follow the product manual and the manufacturer's instructions.
Frequently Asked Questions
The left edge of the wall is treated as zero and every figure is measured to the right from there. The first hook starts at the clearance you entered, and the same clearance is left after the last hook.
No officially recommended gap is offered here. Towel bars, cup holders and shower hooks carry items of very different widths, so a single figure would not hold. What the page does instead is divide the usable wall width evenly.
It means the hooks are wider in total than the usable wall width once the end clearance is removed. Reduce the hook count or choose a narrower hook and the calculation will resolve.