How to put up a shelf

T.K.Maxx

into a brick wall?

Well...Used 8mm drill bit as stated on the packet, drilled hole to the correct depth, put up bracket, screwed tight then it started to "spin". Took the plug out, put some masking tape around it, put back in, "Bingo" So what happened? Should I have used a 7mm drill bit and then gone round inside with the drill to smooth the insides so the plug gripped better or what?

Thanks

tomstickland

Depends what's behind the plaster. Old mortar can turn to dust. Few things you can do: move the hole slighlty and fill the old one with polyfiller, or buy some readymixed mortart, mix a bit up and ram it into the hole. I'd probably enlarge the hole more and then ram it with new mortar, then redrill it a day later.

Bigun28

It may be that you slightly 'wiggled' the drill when you drilled the hole, so that the hole may have actually ended up being 9 mm diameter instead of 8 mm. This would make the plug loose when inserted.

Hence, when you put the tape around the plug, it took up the 'slack' and enabled the plug to grip the wall correctly.

tomstickland

Yes, undersize drills are always good starting point.

bennygod

A great quick and easy remedy if you do have a hole that's too big and no filler/time to let it cure. Use some spent matches, to reduce the size of the hole, simply push 1 or 2 in the hole alongside the rawlplug. If using non-spent matches be sure to remove the bulb for safety! You could alos use cardboard but I prefer the matchstick solution! this works really well with plaster board and fixes it firmly. Sometimes with shelves, over time they tend to pull out of the wall and this seems to do the trick and saves a lot of mess of filling and re-drilling.