I need to fix a wooden post to the outside brickwork of my house.
Is it best to drill into the mortor and use a 10mm frame fixing, or direct into the brickwork.
If in the brickwork, where is the best to drill into the edge or the middle, and use a No10 screw and plug.
Screw into the brickwork - it's far stronger than the mortar. If the bricks have frogs, you need to drill into the solid part - which will be within about 1" of the top or bottom, depending on which way up the bricks are laid. [If you don't know which way up they are, you'll have to drill some small test holes to find out].
You can get screws which go directly into bricks without plugs - but you'll have to drill the right size of pilot hole to suit the screw size and the material.
Mortar is normally weaker but you also need to avoid the frog or other voids in the brick. These vary with brick design.
Drilling about 25mm in from a vertical mortar joint should be a safe option if you don't know the brick detail.
Frame fixings are likely to be a lot stronger than a no 10 screw
hth Bob
Straight into the main body of the bricks, at least 1" from any edge. Watch out for hollow sections or frogs, try not to fix into those areas. If you can't get a good solid hole for expansion fixings, use cartridge resin and lengths of threaded rod for a bombproof fix.
(True. That's why it's easier to drill into the mortar.)
How well do those work? I've seen them but I've been skeptical because to me brick looks too crumbly at a small scale to hold threads properly.
They seem to work ok. They are used extensively in the 'trade' for fixing window and door frames - and stay put extremely well.
gray coughed up some electrons that declared:
Seeing as no-one's mentioned it: resin anchors.
7 quid for a tube of the Screwfix No-Nonsense generic stuff (use with any sealant gun) and length of M6 or M8 studding, or bolts with the heads chopped off - no need to get fancy, it's a fence not a bridge.Might seem like overkill, but it's tediously simple if you have suspect substrates to fix to. The Screwifix gunk comes with 2 nozzels (one session each) but if you wipe the end of the tube, and cap it it should keep for a while.
Drill holes in post.
Hold post in correct location and drill through into the brick for all holes (3 should do).
Clear hole: this is where you can buy a little air pump or little "bottle" brushes, but if you have a short length of tube that goes in the hole with slop, a few sharp puffs should clear most of the debris and dust - this is important.
Remove post, inject resin into all holes, put post back, insert studs right though and prop post in correct position while resin sets (it's firm fairly quickly, but leave it for the recommended time before apllying nuts and tightening up.
You can get female anchors that take bolts, but this is wher eit starts getting expensive.
I've just got into the stuff as it's a dead hand way of setting in ties to anchor new concrete to old and tying in bricks where I was narrowing a wall opening by about 100mm and really couldn't be bothered to try to cut out more bricks to get an interleave.
As I said, probably not what you want, but it's not a silly option given how cheap the magic gunk is these days...
Cheers
Tim
If you need a strong fixing, use rawlbolts. Into the brick. You might have to buy longer bolts is the wood is thick.
On Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:55:35 +0100, Bob Minchin had this to say:
Of course (!) some gaps in bricks aren't actually frogs, but holes (usually three) through the brick.
You really have to check on the brick design. Ask a neighbour whether they might have some knowledge of the builder's choice of brick.
If this is simply for a lightweight gatepost or similar, it's unlikely that you'll have any real problem, but I agree that it's best to go into the brick than the mortar/cement course.
Many years ago I fitted a wrought-iron gate some 7' high (but only about 3' 6" wide) to the side of the house and simply used the two supplied brackets (each with 4 holes for ~ No 8 screws) attached to the bricks with Rawlplugs, and these have never shown any signs at all of failure or working loose...
The more fixings you have for your post, the less stress there should be on each fixing point :-)
If we are talking about multi monte's then extreemly well, easier to pull a sailor off your sister etc...
Yes, good stuff. As you allude later in the post ('cor: someone who reads the whole thing before replying :-) it sets up quickly, so you'll have to be organised and work fast. It probably sets even faster in the warmish weather. While the "gunk" can be stored, you'll need new nozzles for each session but these are only pennies each - so it's worth buying a few extra at the time.
Also, keep it off your hands. it's nearly as hard to remove as polyurethane.
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It's worth counter sinking the bolt heads for a neater job, particularly in thicker timber. Large coach screws into plugs make a good alternative to rawl bolts for most purposes and they're much cheaper. Large 'penny' washers under the screw head help to make the job stronger.
Cic.
If I may hijack this thread a bit - who knows it may be relevant anyway
- I recently did this job myself in order to attach a "To Let" sign flag-style to the side of a house. Needs to be a strong fix as there's a hell of a lateral force on those things in high winds.
I did it myself by simply using a length of toobitoo, 3.5 x 10 screws and brown rawlplugs which worked fine; however for my application I keep needing to remove and replace the sign in between lettings. I'd rather remove the toobitoo as well as the sign as it's a bit unsightly, so the question is, what would be the most durable method of fixing that would best lend itself to repeated re-fixing? Anything better than what I've done?
Thanks David
I'd be inclined to attach a couple of headless[1] bolts to the wall, and then slip the 'toobitoo' over them, and fix with washers and wing-nuts. You can leave the bolts in the wall when the sign's not there.
For good measure, I'd probably replace the 2x2 with square metal tubing - or even angle, which would reduce the amount by which the bolts need to be proud of the wall.
[1] These could be the sort which have a woodscrew one end and a machine thread the other, with the woodscrew end screwed into a rawlplug - or shield-anchor studs - or they could simply be lengths of threaded rod fixed with resin into the brickwork
I *had* mentioned it earlier, but I agree anyway - resin is the dog's danglies for this sort of fixing.
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Just replace the screws with hex head coach screws and add a 'penny' washer to each. Removal is then quite easy with a small ratchet and socket and the wall plugs can be replaced when they wear out.
Cic.
Excellent idea - makes perfect sense, thanks! David
But how good are they for going into semi engineering bricks.
Presumeably the drill dia has got to the right dia and have no wobble.
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