I want to put up a trellis on the front of my house where it's a brick wall. I have some 2" long copper tubes for spacers and 3" long screws to go through the spacers. What kind of anchors should I use? And do I drill the anchor holes in the bricks or in the cement in between the bricks, and why?
Thanks!
In the mortar between the bricks, 'cause it's almost as strong and it's a ton easier to drill. Use a hammer drill and a 3/8" (or 7/16" if you can find one) masonary bit. But a length of 1/2" dowel rod. Drill holes about 1 1/2 to 2" deep, cut dowel pieces just slightly longer, and pound into the holes. If you have a gringing wheel or stationary sander and can put a small "cheater" tapered edge on the end before you start hammering, it will make it lots easier. If you're stuck with too much dowel after you've hammered it in solid, just trim the extra with a hacksaw or whatever you can navigate around the bricks. From that point on, it's putting a screw into wood. Like fallin' off a log.
I almost agree with Tom on this one.
In the mortar joints is far easier and almost as strong.
You have four options: Tapcon screws that will penetrate the masonry by at least 1", or Masonry plastic plugs, the non-fluted type lead anchors (another form of plug) wood dowels as Tom suggested.
Of the 4 choices I have had the best results with the plastic, non fluted plastic plugs. The lead anchors come in second. Tapcons are a great product but sometimes don't hold as well in old mortar and the wood dowel will rot out over time.
Colbyt
Lowes and Home Depot sell tapcons for going into masonry. Some packages come with a bit.
I agree with Tom, put anchors in the mortar. It is easier to fix if you change your mind. I would just use the big red plastic ones that use a screw about
1/4"Tom,
Is using wooden dowels a good idea? Wall anchors are pretty cheap and wood can swell when wet. A process similar to your description is used to split stone. This may not be desirable in a brick wall.
Dave M.
Yes, it is easy to drill into the mortar. However, in my experience, don't do it. I have always found that the mortar is much softer than the brick and will tend to crumble when under the stress of an expanding anchor and will quickly fail if it is supporting a load. The brick is hard to drill, but when you do get the hole it will be firm and can support considerable weight without the anchor coming out.
He was talking about a trellis for flowers. The load is not really that great. If he changes his mind later he can repoint that mortar. Holes in the bricks are forever.
Actually if you mix some brick dust with 2 part epoxy glue a small hole in brick can be filled and you will never spot it.
I dunno. They've been doing it that way forever, long before the wonders of injection molding created the palstic anchor. Most dowel rods are relatively soft wood, you need to go out of your way to find Oak or Maple dowels, so I really don't think they're going to do any splitting. Swelling when wet isn't a bad thing in this situation, although you're talking an exposed edge that is 100% vertical, but I guess it could get wet.
All honesty, I don't know what's on the market as far as plastic goes, I've used lead anchors in the past but they can be tricky to get in place, so I usually reccomend the easy concept of driving a slightly oversized piece of soft wood into a hole that should not give way. Again, I've done it dozens of times for hanging signs, mailboxes, "baby gates", etc. Sometimes they "let go" after somebody's changed the screw a few times, but then it's like any other oversized screw hole in wood: a couple of wooden match sticks and a few drops of wood glue and you have a magically "healed" spot to drill again.
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