I need to attach a house sign that?s made of slate and is about A5 size, it has no attachment holes and is being attached to a pebbledashed surface that has been painted.
I can?t drill any holes in the slate.
My initial thought is to screw a piece of something like plywood (or maybe plastic) to the wall and glue the sign to that.
Any thought on this, or a better way? What glue?
Thanks
Some of the Polyurethane glues should glue direct to the pebbledash even PU foam should do it. Other alternatives are the likes of Gripfill. No doubt TNP will be along with car body filler. Your main problem will be holding the sign in place till whatever you use sets.
If using a plywood backing then impact adhesives will eliminate the need to support it but the ply will need to be marine ply and suitably sealed otherwise the ply will over time separate and the sign will drop off.
Richard
If it?s intended to stay there, I?d just wire brush any loose paint off and use something like ?NoMoreNails?. Plywood will delaminate and look a bit crap after a while.
Tim
Fill the pebbledash first - a mortar skim say - to make a flat surface, then almost any adhesive which is suitable for outside. Silicone, No more nails, I can't believe it's not nails, Fuck me this stuff is better than nails etc.
Whatever you do I suggest avoiding a gap at the top where stuff can take root.
Take a piece of hardwood (20x20, perhaps), cut a groove in it, cut it in half, fix it to the wall above and below the slate, slide slate into groove. If the wood is longer than the slate then retain the slate by inserting fillets in the visible grooves. If the wood is shorter than the slate retain the slate with a squirt of something behind it. Ideally, bevel the front corner of the lower piece of wood before fixing it. Alternatively, use stainless mirror clips. Others have suggested just sticking it to the wall - unwise IMHO.
As a matter of interest, why can't you drill the slate?
Because of the aesthetics, because you don't have a drill, or because you just don't want to?
To my mind drilling and using stainless steel fixings would be the quick, neat, and very long-lasting option without "side effects".
3M VHB tape
daughter 2 has a slate house name and it has fixingb holes drilled in it.
Yup I like that idea :-)
Alternatively you could do a fix based on a French cleat style design. Take a bit of 2x1, and cut a bevel on *both* sides. Screw that to the wall, with the narrow face against the wall. Cut a couple of similar lengths of wood, and rip a bevel onto *one* side of each of those. Stick them to the back of the slate with epoxy or PU glue, and leave them to set. Now slide the sign onto the cleat on the wall. If you want to fix it in place, drive a single screw up through the bottom strip fixed to the slate so that you pin it to the wall mounted cleat. That will give an invisible fixing, but also removable if required.
I've got one I have'nt put up yet that has half thickness 1cm holes drilled in the back to epoxy studs into.
OP here
Thanks for all those suggestions
Now I come to think about it, I think the sign has half-depth holes drilled in the back so I guess I could Araldite something into the holes and then drill two corresponding holes in the wall and glue it in with resin or maybe even silicon sealant.
I think that would be quite a neat fix. It's obviously quite a thick slate, then. I guess some of us were thinking it might have been a bit more like a roofing slate. I think I would go for studding epoxied into the slate, then something like 3 - 4 inches of studding protruding from that. IME standard zinc plated studding araldited to the slate would last OK, you could go for stainless if you wanted perfection. Two studs at the top might be enough, less problem then getting the clearance and alignment with the holes correct. And I would probably go for silicone in the holes, then it should be secure but would still let you lever it out relatively easily for painting or re-rendering in the fullness of time.
car body filler straight onto the wall
Why cant you drill holes in the slate? diamond core drill works fine...
I remember back many moons ago, in the Channel isle, seeing a slate sign attached using holes in the slate but behind the slate appeared to be some plastic pacers of some kind, no doubt to stop the wobbly wall putting stress on the slate and eventually cracking it. Slate is very heavy stuff, and I also see quite a few with bits missing in them days. Maybe you need plastic slate imitation!
Brian
If you do use mirror clips make sure they are not going to go rusty in the blink of an eye. Brian
I don't want to drill holes in the sign because it'd ruin the look of it - the wording would be affected.
just occurred to me that neodymium magnets in the holes and bolts in the wall would allow for easy positioning and removal - but probably with downsides I've not yet seen
In the end I found the sign had just one hole drilled in the back so I drilled two, one at either side and inserted a couple of screws held in by their heads using a mix of superglue and sodium bicarbonate which makes an excellent instant filler in my experience.
I'll drill two holes in the wall, fill the holes with silicone sealant and put a decent amount of sealant across the back of the sign near the top to stop rainwater running down and getting to the screws. Press the screws into the holes and support with gaffer tape until the sealant dries.
Not as tough as car body filler, or as weatherproof, but very quick :-)
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