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Funny how concrete walls are just a last chapter low content part. Most of us Europeans fight very hard battles against concrete walls and using the right ancho
by oaiey 5y ago
Funny how concrete walls are just a last chapter low content part. Most of us Europeans fight very hard battles against concrete walls and using the right anchor is quite a thing.
- blue1 5y agoAlso, I was surprised not to see the magic word "Fischer" mentioned anywhere.
- TorKlingberg 5y agoThe Duo Power plastic anchors shown in the article are made by Fischer. I used to live in an old building in Sweden where the external walls were made of thick concrete containing large stones and straw(!) The cheap drill bits I had did not last for long.
- sysadmindotfail 5y agoUS (Florida) checking in. A hammer drill is your friend. Once you spend a few decades in concrete houses, everything else seems cheap and suspect.
- sam_lowry_ 5y agoChemical anchors are not covered. They are often the only solution for older brick walls.
- stinos 5y agoAlso tends to work for 'hollow' brick (the ones with cavities) walls. Now, apart from just being a solution, it should be mentioned that this is probably the only solution which both has sub-mm accuracy for positioning and combines it with ridiculous strength without elasticity. As in: you drill a hole, fill it, put a steel bar in it, positioning it with e.g. small pieces of wood, wait until hardened, and the thing won't ever move again in no direction. None of the typical issues like plastic and other plugs having some slack, old bricks being notoriously uneven making it extremely hard to get a hole drilled exactly at the spot you want (which is impossible anyway if you land on the edge of stone and mortar). Cons: pricey. Also most of the time it's complete overkill, I admit I like doing that just for peace of mind though :)
- formerly_proven 5y agoChemical anchors is how all industrial machinery is mounted these days.
- stdbrouw 5y agoHow so? Concrete takes any kind of wall plug extremely well, and brick is not so bad either as long as you don't hit the mortar joints. Vertically perforated brick and old cinder blocks can be annoying, though, I'll give you that.
- ThePadawan 5y ago(Not parent, but European) I think the issue is generally more how to get into the concrete in the first place. I personally live in a skyscraper and have tried to drill into my walls and found out it's close to impossible without industrial equipment. Every few months on the beginning of the month (when people move in), I can hear the furtive struggle of a drill trying to get into the load-bearing walls. How it starts off confident and then the torque decreases and decreases.
- LoneWolf 5y agoDepending on the walls, generally at least in my country walls are made of clay bricks, so any hammer drill will work, but if you want to drill too close to the ceiling, or the ceiling you will need something better. I ended up buying a rotary hammer because of this, holes on the floor (doorstoppers), ceiling, or walls right close to the ceiling was impossible with the cheap hammer drill, along with a good SDS+ drill bit feels like butter now.
- ThePadawan 5y agoYes, I had good experiences working with brick walls so far - but a lot of very modern construction (here in Switzerland) uses a lot of concrete, sometimes even exposed concrete in living spaces [0]. I really don't know if any of the designers/architects involved have ever tried living in those apartments. I think a lot of them would choose different materials if they had to do their own DYI. [0] https://www.ryserboeden.ch/binokular https://www.ryserboeden.ch/binokular
- bipson 5y ago
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoI'd argue for the applications shown in this article, generic plugs work just fine. Drilling into the material is another matter though, I at some point invested in a hammer drill which manages that just fine.
- maeln 5y ago> Drilling into the material is another matter though, I at some point invested in a hammer drill which manages that just fine. And don't take a cheap one. Also buy good drill bits. I have reinforced concrete wall in my home and anything less than 7€ drill bits was basically one-used only.
- namdnay 5y agoI second this. Honestly if you own a house there's no reason not to invest in a good cordless rotary hammer
- bayindirh 5y agoI just use Bosch's drill bits for concrete. They're nice and durable. For wood, B+D Piranha lives up to its name. On the screw bits side, heavy use delegated to Bosch again, while fine stuff are handled by Wera.
- Aaargh20318 5y agoCheap ones work fine if you only use it occasionally. Mine was like €35 and I've had it for over 10 years now, still works fine. Goes through concrete like a hot knife through butter. When I initially needed one I checked how much they were to rent, it was actually cheaper to buy one than to rent one for a day. Worst-case scenario it fails an I get another cheap one, I already got my money's worth.
- nemetroid 5y agoFor any job larger than one or two holes, I highly recommend using (perhaps renting) a rotary hammer. For hard concrete, the difference against a hammer drill really is night and day.
- 5y ago
- bayindirh 5y ago> Most of us Europeans fight very hard battles against concrete walls and using the right anchor is quite a thing. I've mounted (and still mounting) lot of stuff using high quality, but ordinary plastic plugs & screws. Fsicher, or any similar brand will do. Drill the hole with correct diameter, put in the plugs, screw, attach. Hardened concrete is really a battle to drill though.
- oaiey 5y agoAbsolutely :). Just missed them in the article :)
- fy20 5y agoYes don't cheap out. My local hardware store sells off brand wall plugs, but compared to Fischer they aren't even worth the packaging they come in. Fischer isn't that much more expensive, especially if you buy the bulk boxes (50 for ~€8). For masonry get yourself a 220V hammer drill. I picked one up from Lidl a couple of years ago for €40 and it has no issues drilling into my monolithic concrete walls. If I were using it daily I'd get something a bit better quality, but for DIY it's more than enough.
- bayindirh 5y agoI have an old 850W Bosch with 2 speeds + reverse. That thing is built like a tank. OTOH, I've used a DeWalt cordless hammer drill. Brushless motors are frightening things :)
- fy20 5y agoHaha. I have a cordless brushless impact driver. First time I used it to put a screw in a wall it went in so fast I didn't stop in time and it stripped the head :D
- sam_lowry_ 5y agoCordless impact drivers or even 230V ones like Bosch Advanced Impact do not perform well on reinforced concrete. You need a pneumatic hammer drill. Visually they are quite different because of the SDS head.
- chrisseaton 5y agoYeah do almost all of these anchors require that you’ve got hollow walls? A sheet of plaster with nothing behind it but air?
- namdnay 5y agoI've only lived in stone or concrete houses, there has always been enough of a gap between the drywall and the house walls to expand mollies into. That air helps noise and heat insulation, as well as being useful for passing heating water, electrics etc
- chrisseaton 5y agoWhere I live the walls are brick and then you plaster on top of them.
- oaiey 5y agoWell the concrete houses I lived in never had drywall on the wall at all :). It really depends :)
- namdnay 5y agoSo raw concrete inside? and they painted directly on it? o_O
- quickthrowman 5y agoJust use wedge anchors in concrete for anything somewhat heavy, blue tapcons for lighter stuff