My lad is trying to put up some fairly high shelving in his garage. He needs to stabilise them by fixing in at least a couple of points to the wall constructed ofthe above-mentioned blocks. I gather that they are a bit soft and crumbly so has anyone any suggestions as to the best type of fixing to use. (apparently previous attempts at fixing things to this surface screwing into plastic plugs have been less than successful) TIA. Jayeff ps needless to say this is all being conducted at long range.
You can get special wall plugs for these soft blocks, Plas Plugs make them. They have a coarse thread on the outside and you sort of screw them into the wall and lock them with a pin.
I tend to use long (2") conventional plugs with long screws and drill the holes a tad undersize. I'm not had one come out yet, even when hanging heavy stuff in the garage.
If you already got a "big" hole you need to plug, you can buy a resin based fixing system that works but it isn't cheap.
I don't know if your blocks are the same as ours but I did some experiments just screwing drywall screws into the blocks directly. They seem to hold very very well. Now I am sure you shouldn't do this but I'm not sure why. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Because they are crap. So are all the other suggestions.
Black screws (and in fact any treated mild steel screws for that matter) are brittle. And that foam concrete is about as sound a material to fix into as dried shit. You'd be better off plastering it with porridge and fixing to that.
What you have to do, to put any weight on shelves where that crud has been used, is to make stands for the shelving. Getting away with less is precisely that. If you are only storing light junk, the chances are that you will get away with it for a very long time.
I suppose that is good enough but it is not what the material is designed for and possibly why there is no specialist product for the OP.
Having said that, I have worked for reputable builder's who will fix door frames to such rubbish directly and have done it myself with long sleeved hammer fixings called -in my neck of the woods Fischer Fixings after one popular make of plastic sleeved "screw."
I doubt very much that the frames last more than a few years before they become a source of constant nagging problems. This is so much in keeping with modern building techniques these days that it most likely goes "by" as expected and/or unnoticed.
I found that it helps a lot if you drill deep, such that the top of the plug is about half an inch below the surface - this provides a lot more support and reduces the risk of the whole thing breaking a chunk out of the block. I used some plugs which were thicker than normal ones - can't remember the name - maybe 'cellular block plugs' or similar, Plasplugs I think.
Your talking out of you a**e mate. Lightwork blocks aren't the bes material for fixing to but its perfectly possible with a little care I've fitted lots of kitchens etc into houses built with them and fixe many heavy wall units using brown plugs (7mm drill) and 10 or 12 gaug screws. Take a bit of care with the drill, use a plain hss bit you don need a masonry bit, and dont over tighten the screws or they will "spi out". You might need extra fixings on some things but thats no difficult. If you've got these blocks you have to get on with it an overcome the problem, its no good bleating that they are "****"
One task which is some way down my list is fixing a Keston boiler to such a wall. That's 45kg mounted on 3 fixing points in a horizontal line. I've fitted such a boiler before, but that was to a 9" solid brick wall, which was no problem (well, one-man lift of 45kg to the ceiling was interesting, but once hung, it isn't going to pull out of a solid brick wall). I rather suspect it would be lucky to last
5 minutes on a thermal block wall, but I guess people must manage somehow? For a heavy microwave wall bracket, I drilled right though and used nuts and bolts through the wall. With the boiler, even that's not really doable as it's a cavity wall, so I can't get to the other side.
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