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Best way to remove wall screw plugs?

Having had a new satellite dish installed and old one removed I'm left with the old screw hole plastic wall plugs still in the brick at the side of the house.

I'm going to try and get them out and fill the holes with mortar or filler, What is the best way to do this?

I was thinking pliers to remove the plugs, I also wondered if i can't get a plug out if to just fill the hole with the plug left in!

Any experienced this?
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  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
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    Pliers just tend to rip the tops of the plug. Best way is to partially screw in a screw then then pull that out along with the plug, or, as a botch, you can tap the plug further into the wall and just fill over it.
  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 8,667 Forumite
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    neilmcl said:

    ...or, as a botch, you can tap the plug further into the wall and just fill over it.

    Why's that a 'botch'?

    Attempts to extract a plug can easily cause damage to the surrounding area - either pulling plaster off the wall, or damage caused by trying to drill it out.

    Gently tapping the plug in so there is enough depth to fill the hole with suitable material is not only easier, it also reduces the risk of additional work being required to repair a larger area of damage than necessary.

    I'd only attempt to remove a plug if it comes out with minimal force. Otherwise bury it - it isn't like it will cause any problems if it stays there.
  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 8,667 Forumite
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    Frank99 said:

    I'm going to try and get them out and fill the holes with mortar or filler, What is the best way to do this?

    The first step is to figure out what you are going to use to fill the holes.  If you aren't likely to be able to get a near invisible repair then often just leaving the plugs alone looks better than a poorly executed filling job.

    Are the holes actually in the bricks, or in the mortar joins?
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 17,478 Forumite
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    Another advantage of tapping the plug in is that it limits the void to be filled.
  • Bendy_House
    Bendy_House Posts: 4,756 Forumite
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    edited 18 September 2021 at 1:07PM
    Frank99 said:
    Having had a new satellite dish installed and old one removed I'm left with the old screw hole plastic wall plugs still in the brick at the side of the house.

    I'm going to try and get them out and fill the holes with mortar or filler, What is the best way to do this?

    I was thinking pliers to remove the plugs, I also wondered if i can't get a plug out if to just fill the hole with the plug left in!

    Any experienced this?

    Do you still have the screws/coach bolts that were used in them? If so, screw them in a ~half-doz turns or so - so it bites into the plastic sleeve as before, but hasn't got to the point where it's properly expanding the plug out to secure it, and then slip the 'claw' of a claw-hammer as flush to the brickwork as you can, and on to the screw to catch the screw thread that's just showing above surface level. Gently lever.
    If the screw pops out leaving the plug behind, then screw it back in, a couple more turns this time.
    As you lever the hammer, you want its 'pull' to be straight out and not sideways, so it might work better if you slip something - even a piece of wood 10mm thick - under the hammer's fulcrum to straighten the pulling angle - you'll see what I mean when you do it.
    You will get most plastic plugs out this way, but some will be stubborn. For them, either tap them in further, or try and snip off as much as you can below the surface before filling.
    If you can tell us what the material is, we can suggest filling options. But I agree it should be done as open holes allow water in to the core which can then expand repeatedly in winter, causing further damage. Even a good sealant will sort this.
  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 8,667 Forumite
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    But I agree it should be done as open holes allow water in to the core which can then expand repeatedly in winter, causing further damage.

    Although freeze/thaw is a thing, it usually works at pore level rather than in holes previously drilled in the wall and not filled.

    Porous bricks that might be susceptible to freeze/thaw will be affected regardless of having holes drilled in them, non-porous bricks won't be a problem in any case.

    On the other hand, if the bricks are susceptible to frost damage - and if this is thought to be a genuine problem - then having had holes in them for however many years will mean the faces are already weakened, and the amount of force involved in using a claw hammer to lever the plugs out will very likely pull sections of the face away with the plug.

    So as I suggested upthread - it is usually better to leave them alone, or else tap them in, rather than trying to use force to pull (or drill) them out.  If they are loose enough to be pulled out with fingers then by all means pull them out if this is felt to be essential (which it isn't, unless the hole needs to be reused).
  • fenwick458
    fenwick458 Posts: 1,522 Forumite
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    edited 18 September 2021 at 5:06PM
    Section62 said:
    neilmcl said:

    ...or, as a botch, you can tap the plug further into the wall and just fill over it.

    Why's that a 'botch'?

    Attempts to extract a plug can easily cause damage to the surrounding area - either pulling plaster off the wall, or damage caused by trying to drill it out.

    I'd say it's a botch if the area is likely to be fixed to in the future. if you remove a plug and fill with a solid mix then if you attempt to drill & fix very close chances are it will be ok. but if theres 5mm of something covering a plastic plug and you try and drill right next to it then theres probably going to be a problem.
    My first attempt would be to remove the plugs completely and fill right up with something solid if it was likely that something else would be fixed there in the future
  • Hi Frank.
    If you want to remove these plugs, then the method I've described has been the most effective for me on countless occasions, and with some very recalcitrant plugs. 
    If you don't want to remove then, then, well, you know... :smile:
  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 8,667 Forumite
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    I'd say it's a botch if the area is likely to be fixed to in the future. if you remove a plug and fill with a solid mix then if you attempt to drill & fix very close chances are it will be ok. but if theres 5mm of something covering a plastic plug and you try and drill right next to it then theres probably going to be a problem.

    If we are talking about a near-miss later drilling event then I'd say that a hole more or less completely full of a plastic (Nylon/PP/PE) type plug which has previously been expanded out to fit the hole snugly, is going to provide more peripheral support for the surrounding material than some kind of filler that someone has attempted to pack into a hole having a much smaller diameter than length. 

    What percentage of the hole depth do you think you can reliably fill?  (given that a 'bubble' of trapped air makes it tricky to do)

    Alternatively, if the new hole is going to partially overlap the old hole then there is a high probability of the bit 'wandering' into the softer filler - unless the filler has a similar level of hardness to the surrounding brick/block.  I've not yet found a low-cost structural grade filler in the DIY sheds, perhaps there is such a thing and I've missed it.

  • Section62
    Section62 Posts: 8,667 Forumite
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    Hi Frank.

    If you want to remove these plugs, then the method I've described has been the most effective for me on countless occasions, and with some very recalcitrant plugs. 

    If you don't want to remove then, then, well, you know... :smile:
    Sure, if someone really wants to remove old plugs from a wall and is confident they can achieve a repair which is less obtrusive than the plug/hole then they should fill their boots.

    My point was that nobody should feel they have to do so based on an urban myth about freeze/thaw damage if the plugs aren't removed and the holes sealed up.

    One of the common DIY errors is to try fixing things which don't actually need fixing, and ending up with more of a mess than they started with.  Repairing holes in bricks is very tricky to do neatly, and mortar smeared over bricks (a common outcome of DIY 'fixing') looks very ugly... compared to a tiny hole which most people won't see unless they are looking for it.

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