How do I remove these hooks on my wall?

donutandbeer

These hooks are left by the previous owner. I think this is a double brick wall with no cavity wall. 

I have tried using
- a screwdriver by hand: no movement 
- a drill set to turn anti-clockwise: no movement and I seemed to damage the hook a bit (photo 2)
 



Have no idea what I should do. My drill is a very basic one that was picked up from Wilko and certainly cost less than £50, so maybe I just need a proper drill?

Please advise. Thank you.

CliveOfIndia

Looks like the screw head has had it.  Simplest would be to get hold of the whole thing with a pair of mole-grips, you should be able to unscrew it easy enough then.

grumbler

donutandbeer said:

I have tried using
- a screwdriver by hand: no movement 
- a drill set to turn anti-clockwise: no movement and I seemed to damage the hook a bit (photo 2)

If a manual screwdriver fails, then unless you use an impact driver with a good screwdriver bit, the only result you can achieve with a power tool is to destroy the screw slot.

ThisIsWeird

As Clive says.

It looks as tho' the round upper edge of the plastic plug is very close to the wall surface, or even slightly above it? You'll want to either sink these plugs nicely below the surface so you can fill over them, or else even pull them out. 

Use grips on the hooks and unscrew them. Once out, reposition them and screw them in a turn or two. See if the plug will come out with you pulling on the hook straight out. If it won't, then inside try the opposite - refit the hook a turn, and then tap it firmly in with a hammer. Does the plug sink nicely in?

donutandbeer

Thank you all for the advice, I have now managed to remove the hooks. However as @ThisIsWeird has pointed out:

ThisIsWeird said:

As Clive says.

It looks as tho' the round upper edge of the plastic plug is very close to the wall surface, or even slightly above it? You'll want to either sink these plugs nicely below the surface so you can fill over them, or else even pull them out. 

Use grips on the hooks and unscrew them. Once out, reposition them and screw them in a turn or two. See if the plug will come out with you pulling on the hook straight out. If it won't, then inside try the opposite - refit the hook a turn, and then tap it firmly in with a hammer. Does the plug sink nicely in?

One of the wall plugs is still above the wall surface (the other one is fine). 

I tried what you suggested. First repositioned & rescrew the hook back in a bit then pulled, wall plug didn’t come out. Then I tried the opposite, when I tapped the hook, the hook went in further, but the wall plug didn’t move. It does look quite damaged (?) I took a photo:

donutandbeer

Another photo showing how broken it is. 

donutandbeer

Update: I got the wall plug out!! Just too impatient with the first few tries. Thank you @ThisIsWeird for the detailed advice again 😊

bjorn_toby_wilde

If it's a plastic plug and you can't tap it further into the wall, insert the tip of a craft knife into the hole and rotate it, cutting off the plug a few mm below the surface.  You can then fill it and sand.

donutandbeer

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

If it's a plastic plug and you can't tap it further into the wall, insert the tip of a craft knife into the hole and rotate it, cutting off the plug a few mm below the surface.  You can then fill it and sand.

Yes it’s a plastic plug and in the end I managed to pull the plug out after rescrewing the hook quite a lot in before pulling. 
 
 
Now next step is to buy stuff to fill the hole. I also ordered a powerful corded sds drill because I really struggled to drill through this brick wall with my cordless drill on hammer (I bought masonry drill bits so I can only assume the drill is too weak). My right wrist still hurts now from trying to drill through it this morning 😭

ThisIsWeird

An SDS drill is absolutely worth it. Good move

grumbler

ThisIsWeird said:

An SDS drill is absolutely worth it. Good move

For bricks - not really IMO. What is a normal combi drill for then?