1893 house and trouble fixing to walls

The outside walls are brick on the outside and 22 inches thick.

ke my current 1930s semi, where I had to buy an SDS drill to have any hope of drilling into the walls.

xture of stone and mortar. I can tell this having seen the walls of the pla ce next door which have been stripped of plaster and look quite nice.

o the wall to stop them toppling - I found it really hard to get a decent f ixing in using my usual method of a hole with the SDS and a PlasPlug. I gue ss the PlasPlug is all going to be in the plaster. It's like drilling into a digestive biscuit - I can't get a decent purchase and I'm glad I'm not tr ying to hang wall units.

some 8x80mm frame fixings but not tried them yet. I guess I need a plug th at's a lot longer than the depth of the plaster and that's what the frame f ixings provide.

I have had several similar places. In the end the only solution is to hack all the plaster off and cement rend er the lot.

On exterior walls you might take opportunity to line with insulation.

There are no short cuts.

Be sure to wear a mask. This old plaster often has horse/cow hair in which may have still active anthrax.

built in 1893. The outside walls are brick on the outside and 22 inches thick.

bricks like my current 1930s semi, where I had to buy an SDS drill to have any hope of drilling into the walls.

d then a mixture of stone and mortar. I can tell this having seen

the walls of the place next door which have been stripped of plaster

and look quite nice.

them to the wall to stop them toppling - I found it really hard to get a decent fixing in u

sing my usual method of a hole with the SDS and a PlasPlug. I guess the PlasPlug is all going to be in

the plaster. It's like drilling into a digestive biscuit - I can't get a decent purchase and I'm glad I'm

not trying to hang wall units.

ought some 8x80mm frame fixings but not tried them yet. I guess I need a plug

that's a lot longer than the depth of the plaster and that's what the frame fixings provide.

In extremis chase out a channel in the plaster to reveal a line of bare stone. Then you can fix to the stone strategically, Fix a batten to the stone and and pack the batten out where necessary. Fix to the batten.

Bill

What I did with my kitchen, which has dodgy plaster over brick, was to cover the whole wall with 15mm ply, using frame fixings, then screw the kitchen units to the ply.

You could try some longish masonry screws straight into the solidish stuff behind the plaster, such as these

They are bloody good screws.

In the end the only solution is to hack all the plaster off and cement rend er the lot.

On exterior walls you might take opportunity to line with insulation.

There are no short cuts.

Be sure to wear a mask. This old plaster often has horse/cow hair in which may have still active anthrax.

- show quoted text - You could try some longish masonry screws straight into the solidish stuff behind the plaster, such as these

Fischer do some extra long plugs, which I have used in soft walls (celcon block) to good effect.

There is one in the S10 range that are even longer. Use a 6mm screw if you can for extra purchase.

I wouldn't worry about anthrax from a tiny sample of horsehair. Lots of old furniture was stuffed with horsehair and you didn't get people catching anthrax all over the place.

There's anthrax in your flower beds and you need a decent exposure to catch it - at least that's what Tomorrow's World said...

Intended for wall cupboards, but I don't see why you couldn't use wall cupboard hangers on a tall cupboard, with a rail:

Helps get multiple fixing points ona dodgy wall

Owain

Done that!

Done something very like that too! Actually to make a built-in corner unit clear of the floor to hold a TV, but same idea. This was on 18th century rubble filled stone wall, also about 2 feet thick.

New neighbour started doing something like that. Until the conservation officer came round.

...

My main problem was that horizontal mortar lines happened to coincide with where I needed to fit the cabinet brackets, so I couldn't just use longer screws. The ply could be fixed to brick centres and then allowed me complete freedom as to where I fitted the brackets.

I have always found that hacking out whatever is loose and backfilling with car body filler (P38 etc.) provided a stable place for screws.

It works on loose walls an disintegrated chipbord in kitchen cabinets too.

Basically, the softer the wall material the longer the fixing needs to be.

Frame fixings would probably be your best bet.

Nightjar was thinking very hard :

In the past, when a fixing must be obtained in a soft mortar joint, I would clear the mortar out where I needed the fixing and hammer a wooden wedge in, then drill and fix into that.

The problem with that is that I needed a lot of fixings on the same line and the plaster over the brick was in poor condition. I was not convinced that I wouldn't end up having to re-plaster the entire wall.