Drilling into crumbling brick/putting shelves etc up?

[youngsyr]

The OH and I recently bought a 1920s semi in South West Essex and are having issues with trying to put shelves/curtain poles etc up. Clearly the owners before us also had issues, judging by the amount of polyfiller and bodged shelving in the place.

The issue is that when you drill into the walls the (London?) bricks just crumble, to the extent that even if you very carefully drill a neat hole, just the right size for a wall plug, when you screw into the wall plug the it spins in the hole and removes some of the brick around it!

With very careful drilling and screwing (and not a small amount of cursing) I've managed to put up some curtain poles, but I also want to put some shelves up, and there's no way the fixings will take any weight - they'll simply pull themselves out of the wall.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a solution?

[stuttgartmetal]

move.

[IanMorewood]

[DeputyDawg]

Ian, I'll raise ya!



get a tube of no-more-nails or similar, put the nozzle deep into the hole (so it fills from the end) with no plasplug in it. Squirt until it oozes out at the surface of the hole, withdrawing the nozzle slowly as you fill. Now push the plasplug deep into the hole (it will push out excess no-more-nails) so that it reaches the bottom. Give it time to set overnight if poss. Only thing with this method is it obviously takes a bit longer to complete the job.

Edited by DeputyDawg on Wednesday 27th October 14:58

[s1962a]

Chemical Fixings with studs

Anything from this range http://www.screwfix.com/cats/100071/Fixings/Inject...

The way it works is you drill a hole, clean it out, squirt some injection resin in there and then put the stud in and leave it to set. This does assume though that this is compatible with your type of fixing though.

[youngsyr]

Great, thanks for the tips (those that posted serious ones!). I had tried polyfilling the holes, waiting for it to dry and then trying to drill into it, but it wasn't great at drilling neatly either.

I'll give the No More Nails a go.

[Piersman2]

use a smaller drill bit or larger plugs to make sure you have to tap the plugs in to make a good tight finish.

Or,, wittle (whittle?) a pointy piece of wood to hammer into the hole to then screw into.

Thing is the action of screwing in the screw should expand whatever the fixing type is against the edge of the drill hole, sounds like you need to make sure and get the plug in good and tight before you even start trying to screw.

So many double entendres

[Spudler]

Are you sure its solid bricks?. 1920s could possibly be hollow block or similar to 20 hole brick, both of which are a nightmare to get a fix in.
Try a smaller bit and use the drill off hammer.

Edited by Spudler on Wednesday 27th October 16:40

[youngsyr]

I used a 1mm smaller sized drill bit than for the same sized holes in solid brick and had to tap the plugs in. As I tapped them in, the hole crumbled!

I ended up having to hold the wall plug in the hole with a pair of grips whilst screwing the screw in and then gingerly screwing in the last few milimetres whilst hoping the expanded wall plug wouldn't just rip up the hole.

Believe me, it's not a case of drilling too big a hole.

[Simpo Two]

Try using longer screws too, say 2-3". The further in they go, the more likely they are to get a grip without breaking out. As an extreme, you could try window frame fixings.

[duff-man]

As already said use a longer drill bit and screw, chances are you have a fair bit of plaster and browning on the walls.

[white90]

P38 better than any polyfilla

[youngsyr]

Spudler said:

Are you sure its solid bricks?. 1920s could possibly be hollow block or similar to 20 hole brick, both of which are a nightmare to get a fix in.
Try a smaller bit and use the drill off hammer.

Edited by Spudler on Wednesday 27th October 16:40

Difficult to tell, the drill bit cuts through it very easily but smoothly/consistently.

As above, I can't go any smaller on the bit as I'd just mash the wall plug trying to get it in and probably end up with a large hole in the wall to boot. I am using the drill on the normal setting, rather than hammer setting.

[ssray]

I have a 1930`s house with some really hard bricks that either blunt the drill or explode.
I drill and use gripfill to hold the fixing in place.
Ray