Drilled hole in wall, too big. How to fix?

Drilled hole in wall, too big. How to fix?

Author
Discussion

AmitG

Original Poster:

3,298 posts

160 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
I drilled a hole in an internal brick wall using a 6mm drill bit. About 40mm deep.

I've done lots of them before, with no problem, but for some reason this one turned into a right mess. The sides of the hole looked jagged and the rawlplug wouldn't go in properly. I tried to tidy it up with a bigger drill bit, with the utterly predictable result that the hole is now too big, and is still a right mess.

I think that the problem was the 6mm drill bit. It was designed for brickwork, and I used it on all the other holes, but part of the tip seems to have broken off and perhaps that caused it to make a mess. I'm pretty sure that the brickwork itself is not the problem.

Anyway - I need to re-use the hole and basically salvage the situation.

How do I do this?

I thought of packing the hole with filler and then re-drilling, but I can't see how I would get filler all the way down the hole, and I'm not sure it would help anyway.

The hole is for a medium duty picture hook so it needs to be a fairly robust job.

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

Oh, and merry Christmas everyone smile

MagicalTrevor

6,476 posts

229 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
How about some matchsticks? Jam them in around the rawlplug.

Rollin

6,088 posts

245 months

MagicalTrevor

6,476 posts

229 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all

Spudler

3,985 posts

196 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Trim a piece of wood and hammer in place. Pilot hole.
Can't fk that up.


CorradoTDI

1,461 posts

171 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all

Laurel Green

30,779 posts

232 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Drill deeper and use a longer screw?

HootersGsy

731 posts

136 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Use a larger rawl plug and hammer a smaller one into it?

dirkgently

2,160 posts

231 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Spudler said:
Trim a piece of wood and hammer in place. Pilot hole.
Can't fk that up.
This, Old skool, simple and it works.

smn159

12,654 posts

217 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Put a large Rawl bolt in the hole and use that to hang the picture?

Opens up an opportunity to hang a larger picture that you had planned to as well...

Mr Pointy

11,220 posts

159 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
dirkgently said:
Spudler said:
Trim a piece of wood and hammer in place. Pilot hole.
Can't fk that up.
This, Old skool, simple and it works.
Yep, just whittle a piece of softwood down so it's a tapered fit, tap it in & trim off the excess. That's what we did in the days before rawlplugs.

Muncher

12,219 posts

249 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Suck out any dust and fill it with gripfill, push the wall plug back in and jobs a goodun.

megaphone

10,724 posts

251 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Use a brown plug, 6.5mm hole is the ideal size.

Wings

5,814 posts

215 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Mr Pointy said:
Yep, just whittle a piece of softwood down so it's a tapered fit, tap it in & trim off the excess. That's what we did in the days before rawlplugs.
^^^this, or buy wooden dowels for doing the same.

http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-wood-dowel-pack-...

Spare tyre

9,573 posts

130 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
I've wrapped electrical tape round a rawl plug to get me out of trouble

Depends on application of course

Chrisgr31

13,474 posts

255 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
Muncher said:
Suck out any dust and fill it with gripfill, push the wall plug back in and jobs a goodun.
That is my preferred solution when this happens to me.

226bhp

10,203 posts

128 months

Thursday 25th December 2014
quotequote all
megaphone said:
Use a brown plug, 6.5mm hole is the ideal size.
^^ This! Just put a brown plug in.
7mm drill for brown plugs usually, but we used to purposely drill them smaller in loose stuff like clinker block etc.

AmitG

Original Poster:

3,298 posts

160 months

Friday 26th December 2014
quotequote all
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions so far.

I'm going to try them in order.

So matchsticks first. This sounds like the easiest option.

If that doesn't work I'll get a bit of 7mm or 8mm dowel, hammer it in, drill pilot hole then screw in (no rawlplug).

Failing both of those I'll try a brown rawlplug - though I'm not sure whether I'll need a bigger screw as well - that would be a problem since the picture hook can't take a screw bigger than the one I'm using at present.

And if all that fails I'll try Gripfill.

Moving the hole isn't an option, since the picture in question has to go in this exact location. Hence the need to "save" the hole.

I will report back...thanks again!

Matt_N

8,902 posts

202 months

Friday 26th December 2014
quotequote all
Got any car body filler in the garage, the 2 part epoxy type?

If so mix some up and fill the hole then set your raw plug in before it goes off.

It'll never come out.

stuartmmcfc

8,662 posts

192 months

Friday 26th December 2014
quotequote all
The Christmas spirit is strong on PH.
Loads of replies bit not one taking the piss out of such fkwittery.
Well done OP smile