Best way to remove picture hooks from wall

[WM]

What is the best way to remove the newer style picture hooks?

have some of these on an interior wall which is made of plastered brickwork. Some hooks have been painted over and some have not.

If I prise the hooks off with a screwdriver (protecting the wall with a steel rule placed under the screwdriver blade) then I can see I might take out a chunck of wall plaster.

If I yank the hooks off with a mole wrench then I will probably also remove plaster. Or maybe the plastic surround of the hook comes away first and I can then take each pin out with pliers?

Q.1 -- What method of removal miminises the damage to the wall, given that I already have several of these in the wall?

Q.2 -- Is there a way to fix these in future (perhaps by not hammering the pins right in???) which permit them to come away with less wall damage?

[Harry Bloomfield]

WM formulated the question :

If the pins all go in at exactly the same angle, then they should come out without too much difficulty, just tap them up/down/left/right to loosen them - then a straight pull with pliers or what ever.

If however the pins enter at different angles, all I can suggest is melting the plastic with an hot air gun to enable the pin heads to be gripped and pulled out straight.

[Mr Fuxit]

Soften the plastic (with a hot air gun or soldering iron) until it slips off the pins. Then tap the pins until flush with the wall surface.

[Andy Dingley]

up (wear a glove!) and use the jaws to melt their way through the plastic until they get a good grip on the pins.

[Tim and Steph]

I would recommend against applying a 600 degree airflow to a painted wall. I imagine it'd be far harder to deal with burned paint than three little dings in the plaster.

[Andrew Barss]

: Q.2 -- Is there a way to fix these in future (perhaps by not : hammering the pins right in???) which permit them to come away with : less wall damage?

Use the kind with very thin, hardened steel nails. They go right into brick, and right out with a pair of pliers. All ACE Hardwares carry them.

-- Andy Barss

[PC Paul]

And they pull a big chunk of plaster out with them when they come out IME.

And with the bricks on my last house they bend buckle and tear out big chuinks on the way in as well.

But then again I could blunt a masonry bit in one hole on those bricks...