"Spalling" when fastening into brick/mortar

You can get small cable clip plugs which have their uses especially cables transitioning from a surface which takes pins across a surface which does not. However if you are doing an extended run it is questionable if they actually save you work compared to other methods of securing cables.

That's what bricks do

Mortar usually does not

So use some other way to mount the clips. Epoxy?

drill a suitable hole and fit a "pin plug".

I finally bit the bullet and bought a pack of these pin plugs recently - they make a big difference when using nailed cable clips.

FWIW I found to my surprise that B&Q have them cheaper than TLC!

When I had this problem I ended up using these:

Do you have to predrill or do those screws self-tap into the brick?

For dense timber, I replaced the nails in clips with screws. Made it quicker to do with an impact driver than lots of hammering because they self-tapped.

Theo

They look like they're made of cheese

No fromage involved, They were perfectly suited to the task. I pre-drilled and used wallplugs. This on a wall including both stucco and painted pebbledash surfaces.

I'm only doing a short run. Thanks for the idea as I might just as well use standard small rawl plugs of which I've got lots, shove a bit of epoxy glue in the middle and then knock the cable clips in, and if I'm doing that I'm not sure why I need the rawl plugs either.

Once you use a drill, the spalling problem should not occur.

You just have the problem of a small tool in a larger hole to overcome

Is that one of you auto signatures from "as the actress said to the bishop" volume?

It ought to be. :-)

The advantage of pin plugs is that they are are VERY small, smaller than any other 'rawl' I have.

Pin plugs are the answer - drill 5mm hole, pop the plug in, then nail the clip into that.