How do I hang heavy things on a solid brick wall?

Solid brick is the best wall to fix into and it is routinely got wrong in two ways: drilling the mortar because it is easier, and leaving the dust in the hole.

Safety

What you'll need

• Hammer drill and masonry bits
• Detector for cables and pipes
• Plugs or anchors rated for the load
• Vacuum or a blower to clear the holes

Step by step

1. Confirm it is solid brick.Drill dust colour and drilling resistance tell you — solid brick is consistent and hard. If the bit suddenly drops through after 100mm, it is a cavity wall and the outer leaf only.
2. Check for services first.A detector over the whole area, not just the drill points. Then think about what is above and below — cables run from sockets and switches, pipes from radiators and bathrooms.
3. Drill the brick, not the mortar.Brick is denser and holds a plug far better. Mortar crumbles, especially old lime mortar, and a fixing in a joint will pull out under load.
4. Use a hammer drill on the right setting.Hammer action for brick, and off for tile or anything brittle. A standard drill will get through eventually and will burn out the bit and take five times as long.
5. Match the bit to the plug exactly.A 7mm plug needs a 7mm hole. Oversized and the plug spins; undersized and it will not go in. This is the single most common cause of a poor fixing.
6. Drill deeper than the plug.About 10mm extra. Dust collects at the bottom of the hole and stops the plug seating fully, and the extra depth gives it somewhere to go.
7. Clear the dust out.A vacuum nozzle at the hole, or a pump blower. Dust left in the hole is the difference between a fixing at full strength and one at half. Almost nobody does it and it matters.
8. Keep the drill straight.Square to the wall, and let the drill do the work rather than leaning on it. An angled hole means the fixing bears on one side and the plug will not expand evenly.
9. Choose the plug for the load.Standard nylon plugs for light and medium loads. Frame fixings for heavier. Chemical resin anchors for anything genuinely heavy or where the brick is old and soft — resin is far stronger.
10. Use resin in old or crumbly brick.Victorian soft brick does not grip an expansion plug well. Resin bonds to the whole surface of the hole rather than pushing outwards, and it does not stress the brick.
11. Push the plug fully home.Flush with the surface, not proud. A plug sitting partly out expands against nothing and the fixing pulls straight back out.
12. Match the screw to the plug.Long enough to reach past the end of the plug, and thick enough to expand it. Too thin a screw does not expand the plug at all.
13. Spread heavy loads over several fixings.Four fixings at a quarter of the load each, rather than two at half. It also stops one failing fixing dumping everything onto the next.
14. Load it gradually.Put the weight on progressively and watch for movement or cracking around the fixings. A fixing that is going to fail usually gives some warning.

Tips

• Brick, not mortar. It is the easiest thing to get wrong and it halves the strength.
• Vacuum the hole out. Two seconds, and it makes a measurable difference to holding power.
• Resin anchors in soft Victorian brick. Expansion plugs can split old brick rather than gripping it.

Common mistakes

• Drilling into the mortar joint — Mortar is softer than brick and crumbles, especially old lime mortar. A plug in a joint pulls out under load far more readily.
• Not clearing dust from the hole — The plug cannot seat fully and the expansion is against loose dust rather than solid brick. It can halve the effective holding power.

If it doesn't work