on topic(!): finding mortar course

[Jimk]

Just move it up a bit & try again....

[nothanks]

Half the time when I fix something to a rendered/plastered block or brick wall the fixing holes find the blasted mortar course rather than the block or brick - it's just happened again when trying to fix the backing board for a row of Victorian coat hooks. A short time ago someone suggested that an IR camera might show the wall structure - does this *really* work on a plastered cavity wall?

[williamwright]

Use a tiny screwdriver to probe the wall in a vertical line. Make good with polyfilla.

Bill

[TimW]

It's okay to fix into the mortar, especially for something as trivial as coat hooks. If it really mattered, if it was a structural fixing or it was holding up a ming vase you would want to use some more serious fixings, resin or chemical or something.

TW

[newshound]

Better still, a bradawl

[nothanks]

I've been fixing things to walls for 45 years or so. In this case it's a substantial piece of oak, 1.5m long, and mortar is lime mortar. Hence my specific question about using an IR camera.

[nothanks]

In fact I've moved it down by just less than half its width (to hide the original holes). The question was really intended as a follow-up to an earlier discussion about using an IR camera - I'll edit the subject to make that obvious

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

And in answer to the original. It does not work, at least it depends on the heat conduction but many things affect that. A ground penetrating radar might be more useful! Brian

[nothanks]

My thoughts too, but I think someone said that it *did* work, hence the question when I'd just put a row of concrete screws into lime mortar :-(

[williamwright]

No because with a little screwdriver you can twist it round and tell by the scraping what it's pressing on.

Bill

[williamwright]

The same things? Maybe there's a problem. You've come to the right place.

Bill

[nothanks]

:-)