Drilling question

Just fill it and re drill it. Standard Pollyfila should do the trick.

Mike

Thanks Mike,

Is the standard drill OK? or should I use a hammer action drill?

Depends how much the guitar is worth...

I always start without hammer action, and only engage it if I find it's needed.

What's the wall's construction?

Its just an internal wall. The house is an 1890's terrace house, so I am assuming that is is basicaly brick with plaster over the top.

I did find that drilling got VERY tough a few mills in....

I really should learn to read the whole post befor replying ;-))

The guitars (as there are a total of 4 of them - I was going to put up 4 seperate hangers) are worth a couple of grand in total so I wouldnt want them falling off at any time :-)

I think it might be worth considering whether the Polyfilla will hold in a hole in such crumbly plaster. I agree that Polyfilla will fill the hole up and tidy things up but maybe you should drill right through it into the brickwork (using hammer action) in order to get a good hold on something solid.

Rob Graham

I would use car body filler, which sets fast and will be much stronger then polyfilla.

Jonathan

My point is not regarding the strength of the filler, but how strongly the filler bonds to the plaster. I visualise that when the OP puts a fixture into the filler that the whole lump of filler will pull away intact.

Rob

If you hit a brick, you'll need hammer action. However, if you go into a (lime) mortar joint, you don't want hammer action. The bricks used on internal plastered walls were usually the B grade bricks. Sometimes when one of these sees a hammer drill (particularly SDS), it shatters into hundreds of pieces. To repair that, I generally brush out loose material, paint the edges with diluted PVA so it soaks in and binds what's left together, and then fill with bonding coat plaster. If this is for a flush electrical accessory, you can simply push the back box into the plaster and it will be fixed better than any screw would have done. If it's to repair a large missing area, then you ideally want to level off the bonding coat a couple of mm below the wall surface and finish it with finish coat plaster (whilst bonding coat is still wet) or polyfilla (once the bonding coat is dry).

Someone else's suggestion of car body filler sounds OK, but I would still stablise the surface with a wash of dilute PVA first. In the case of body filler, let PVA dry in case the moisture prevents the body filler bonding. (In the case of plaster, it sticks better if the PVA is still tacky.)

With an old house, the internal wall may only be lath & plaster, in which case you need to locate the vertical studding and screw into this. Since the studding may not be in the position you want, the solution is to put a horizontal battern across 2 or more. Since you want to hang several guitars this would seem to be the answer

Colin

Just fill it in and drill a new hoile 2" away diagonally (if feasable) - the original hole went into a crumly mortar course, the new hole will be in brick or similar.

If he's unlucky he'll go around the corner of a brick and still hit mortar. 1.5 bricks vertically would be better.

Or... if he _does_ hit mortar again on the second time go off on a different diagonal!

Andy

Thinking about it 1.5 vertically doesn't help either. Top of 1 vertical to bottom of the next... I think the best answer is to try one diagonal, and if it doesn't work the opposite one.

Andy