Can a "Rawlplug" that is suitable for concrete be used for brick?

Correction: Sod's law applies: the spacing of the holes in the mounting bracket mean that the Rawplugs must be drilled into the edge of the bricks, within 1 cm of the mortar. I'd hoped to be able to drill into the centre of the brick face. Or else if I put two holes in the centre of the brick, the other two must be in the mortar.

The fixings need to be very secure because they will get a lot of pulling force as the hosepipe is unwound (against a retracting spring) from the reel.

Should be fine. As you say, *not* in the mortar, or within about 20mm of the edge of the brick. 10mm is no problem in one go with an SDS drill, but with a weak hammer drill 6mm then 10mm may be easier. A new, sharp drill is less likely to crack the brick.

I'd put two in the centre of the mortar bed and two in the middle of the brick. They are strong fixings and if two are very firm there should be little force on the other two. Otherwise you will end up with a damaged brick and four failed fixings.

PS I'd also put the plugs in the mortar with the slot horizontal and with a bit of luck they'll press on the bricks above and below, as the mortar should only be about 10mm thick.

Wallplugs supplied with products seem to be universally made of chocolate.

I tend to replace them with plugs from the likes of Fischer:

They cost a few pennies each but worth it IMHO, especially if you aren't doing hundreds of fixings.

Theo

If all else fails drill a massively oversize hole and fill it with mortar or car body filler and set the rawlplug in that

Those are fairly universal fixings, and will work fine in brick. They will even get some traction in plasterboard.

Unless its particularly crumbly, you can probably drill straight to final size.

You can buy an epoxy resin for this purpose.

Maybe someone on eBay has some Rawlplastic left over...

No, 10mm in masonary should be fine with a decent drill and masonary bit. I've never drilled small holes then enlarged them in masonary even with larger diameters.

I wasn't sure whether drilling a 10 mm hole in one go was more likely to crack the brick/mortar boundary than drilling a small hole and then enlarging it.

In my case, the brickwork is a 2 brick x 2 brick pier, 7 brick courses high, capped with a flat paving stone, at the end of a long low brick wall. So not part of a very large, high wall where cracking of bricks from the mortar is less of an issue.

I think that, if anything, it would be the other way round. I've always had more problems with the bit juddering or grabbing when enlarging holes than when drilling the hole full-size.

I'd be interested in other people's view though as this is just my limited personal experience.

Ah. Good point. Thanks for that advice. I'll see if I've got a 10 mm masonry drill (I have a horrible feeling that 8 mm might be the largest I have) and have a go at drilling it, with two holes in the centre (top to bottom) of a course of bricks and the other two (of necessity) in the mortar.

Fit wooden battens to the wall and attach the reel to those

Hose reels can be tricky to fix because of their weight and offset, plus the fact that you may haul on the hose in different directions.

To some extent results may depend on the age, condition, and quality of the brick.

As others have said, a decent mains drill should be fine for 10mm, SDS not required. And a good cordless will work too.

The best type of fixing if you need to go near the edge of a brick is the Multi Monti (also now cloned by Screwfix IIRC).

These are used *without* a plug. You do need to drill the correct sized hole, and minimise any "taper".

If you do go for coach screws as illustrated, you might be better off going for something a bit longer than 2 1/2 inch as supplied. And as others have said, maybe Fischer plugs.

At 5 times the price

Not only that, it will no doubt be pretty heavy as some water is always retained in the pipe. How about mounting it on a plate and mounting the plate on the wall with the holes where you want them to be? Brian