Basic hole in the wall drilling question.

justaquestion

Ok folks,


I have a drill in house and have used it a few times to put a few things in wall and more through luck than anything else I got the stuff up, as I am not great at DIY


But would like to know,


1 Say I am putting a screw in wall, Ok I know the length of the screw is from screw head to bottom, but how is the width of screw measured?


2 for a particular width and length of screw do I use the same measurement for the wall plug.


3 How do I determine what masonry drill bit to use with a particular screw?


I do put on the plastic thingy on drill to give approx. depth of wall plug.


Totally basic question I know, but as I say DIY is not my forte.


Thanks

Chanes

First - make sure you are not going to hit a pipe or a wire!

david1951

I'm only moderate DIY so someone might correct me...this is how I do it...

Start with the screw, this should have a diameter, say 8mm (or sometimes "M8").

Choose a wall plug that either states 'for use with 8mm screws' or simply 2mm larger in diameter.

So an 8mm screw would use a 10mm wall plug.

Alternatively just buy a plug and screw set, that way you can't go wrong.

Then use a masonry bit equal to the diameter of the wall plug, but start with a bit that is smaller in diameter so you don't blow the hole.

keith969

M8 is an ISO size and is indeed 8mm, but usually used for bolts, you might have meant a No. 8 which is a common screw size and is actually 4mm. So a 2" no. 8 screw is 50mm X 4mm.

A rawl plug about 5 or 6mm wide would be about right, with a similar size drill (if in doubt start with a smaller drill, easy to make it bigger but not so easy to make it smaller). Rawlplug should be a tight fit in the hole!

And of course this is only for holes in brick etc, for plasterboard you will need a suitable fixing...

stator

When you buy the wall plugs it should tell you which drill bit to use. You can even buy packs of wall plugs and screws matched together, can't get simpler than that.
Usually I just find a screw and wall plug that are about the same size.

southcoastrgi

For 8's use a red plug
For 10's use a brown plug

However it's all done in some stupid metric system that no one understands now but you can still buy screws in the old flavour

Ectophile

From my experience, not only does the wall plug tell you what sizes of screws it suits, but they even tell you what drill bit to use. Look on the packaging, or on the sprue that holds them together.

FreeBear

keith969 wrote: »

A rawl plug about 5 or 6mm wide would be about right, with a similar size drill (if in doubt start with a smaller drill, easy to make it bigger but not so easy to make it smaller). Rawlplug should be a tight fit in the hole!

If a wall plug says it requires a 6mm hole, I usually use a 5mm masonry bit and drive the plug home with a small hammer. Same for other sizes, use a drill bit 1mm smaller. The fun comes when you drill through the plaster and find either a void or hit a mortar joint of crappy old lime.

Thermalite/breeze blocks can also be problematic when trying to fix stuff to them - One trick is to flush the hole with water and then squirt a dollop of grab adhesive (for example, No Nails) in before driving the wall plug in. Leave it for 24 hours then drive the screw in.