I need to permanently mount a piece of art work (around 10 pounds) on an outside brick wall. I see there are a variety of different types of anchors like double expansion shield, sleeve anchor, wedge anchor. What type would you recommended for this application? Thanks! Bob Simon
10 pounds isn't very heavy. If the artwork isn't subject to catching strong winds or other such mechanical forces - anything will work. My 100 ft. rubber garden hose is hung on 2 smallish screws into cheap plastic brick anchors and it becomes a whole lot heavier when filling watering cans while most of it is still on the hanger. If you are really worried - use a bracket or backplate with 2 or 3 screws. John T.
I'd just throw in a couple of tapcons, myself. - Likely 4 - one on each corner if there iaa chance of wind catching it. A single tapcon would be more than strong enough - a 3/16X1 holds a minimum of 600 lbs pull and 720 lb shear.
What he said. The small tap con is probably plenty. The extraction strength won't be that much in brick so don't go nuts tightening it. Just snug it up. If you change your mind later, the holes won't be hard to patch.
Thank you. I just looked at a video on how to install these and, as you said, it seems like they will work great for my little project. And, YES, we sometimes get quite a bit of wind here in New Orleans!
Its easier to drill into the mortar than the brick. Tapcon will work for you. Be sure it is anchored so wind does not blow it away.
Yep, that was what I would have suggested.
BTW, if you use Tapcons, use soap, wax or some form of lube when screwing in the Tapcon screw and edge it slowly. Much also depends if you hit the mortar or the brick but either way, it enters much easier.
So did you make the holes in the bricks, or in the mortar?
When I first moved in, I too needed a garden hose bracket, and I was able to mount it with 2 or 3 screws in anchors in holes drilled in the mortar. It had a wheel and a crank. Ah, suburbia, I've arrived.
I figured the mortar is much easier to patch later, although matching the color may be hard, or impossible for some masons.
30 years of pleasantness and satisfaction later, a teeny hole appears in the aluminum pipe, and water sprays out. I wrapped maybe duck tape around it. Good.A year later, a couple more or maybe bigger holes appear. I wrapped rubber around them and used a hose clamp to hold it in place. Couldn't tighten too much because I'm sure the tube will collapse.
Started looking for replacement. I wanted the exact same thing, but everything on line was plastic, Everything at the store was plastic.
Went up in the "attic" where I save the empty boxes, just for this purpose. Got the brand name and googled. Nothing. The whole brand is gone. And it wasn't a totally fly-by-night brand... I think I bought it at Hechingers, a local chain like Home Depot, but it's also gone.
Why can't the world stay the same?
Now I'm going to get one of those cube-shaped things with a crank and a lid that opens. Suncast is the big brand.
But when I take off the old aluminum one, I'll have those holes. I only need 3 tablespoons of mortar, but I don't know how to match the color.
Very few of the things I did 37 years ago failed, between few and none, until 7 years ago and since then, it's pretty amazing how many things have failed.
The secondary doorbell, in the upstairs hall burned out***.
The string that opens and closes my bedroom's curtains broke. Restringing will take 30 to 60 minutes.
A big 4'x6' painting on the wall in the bedroom fell off just as I was looking in that direction, a couple weeks ago. The eye come out of one side of the frame, and one of the two nails the wire hung on cut through the sheet rock and now points down instead of up, I'm trying to decide which happened first.
I think there are other things 30+ years old that failed in the last 7 years. Well, me.
***I had bought two wireless doorbells from Sunset house. They were 2 or 3 dollars each, really cheap. One was for my mother, who used it for 20 years until she died. Then I used it for 8 years until it failed. Then I found the other one and I used it for 1 to 2 years utnil it failed. 28 years vs. 2 years. !!
And for crying out loud, USE THE IMPACT DRIVER,
Here's a nice new Festool one ... $ 500. ... oh wait - it's only for wood, metal, plastic. :-( John T.
Easy to repair and blend in later in mortar too if you decide to remove whatever was put in place too.
Like everyone else has noted use Tapcons, use the correct size drill into the motor. I have never had to use any kind of lube.
I haven't had good experience attaching anchors to the mortar between bricks so in recent years I've been drilling into the brick instead. So far, so good, but I've read that bricks tend to get more brittle as they get older, so you'd have to take that into account. A hammer drill with a masonry bit is a must.
Anecdote: My current house and my next door neighbor's house are both just a hair over a year old now. We both hung garden hose reels at about the same time. He drilled into mortar while I drilled into brick. His reel fell off the house 3 times, while mine has stayed put. The first two times he simply used bigger Tapcons but the third time he accepted defeat and put the hose reel in the garage.
I've hung a couple 100' hose reels on my houses, among other things. Always drilled into mortar, even if it meant making a frame of 1x1's when the fixture holes didn't match the mortar lines. Always used plastic inserts and SS screws. Nothing ever came loose. Just don't want to take the chance of cracking a brick. Don't want to patch brick either.
Expansion anchors in the mortar is OK but TapCons won't really bite. Mortar is too soft, particularly Type N.
I'm the original poster. Thanks to all for the good advice. I went to Lowe's this afternoon and bought some Tapcons. I wanted 3/16 x 3 1/4" but they didn't have that size so I went up to 1/4" plus the appropriate bit. It's on the wall now and is very sturdy. Wy wife is delighted which I expect you can all appreciate is a good thing.
In case you want to see the artsy New Orleans-themed sign that our son made for her, I uploaded a pic to Google drive:
Depends what kind of brick. Up here we use a lot of autoclaved concrete brick - much stronger than mortar - or clay brick.
Well, I drilled into the mortar 37 years ago and it's still firmly attached to wall. The hose reel may leak, but I still use it to crank up the garden house, 1.5 of them, and even though those winds parallel to the wall, there's bound to be some force away from the wall when I wind. FWIW, I didn't use tapcons, pretty sure it was lead or plastic anchors. And screws with fewer threads than machine screws.
Sounds wise.
Technically, you can, but not everyone will see it. This isn't a binary group, so some NSPs will drop posts in this group that contain binary attachments. It might be a better idea to post your attachment somewhere on the web and include a link here for folks to click on.
Two pieces of Scotch tape should do the trick. LOL
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