Sorry if this is really stupid question but I have a very bad history with DIY.

I’ve got to attach some brackets for fire extinguishers to brick walls in a victorian house. Obviously extinguishers are fairly heavy and although there aren’t many cracks or any crumbling the house is a bit old, so:

What sort of screws? Should I use wall plugs? How do you know what size to get / which drill bit to use with which screws / wall plugs?

Sorry again, but I don’t want the house to fall down. please help!

BTW, yes I’ve got a reasonable hammer drill and masonry bits

my experience with victorian walls;

1) get right sized wall plug for the job.

2) drill hole

3) inspect inch wide hole that appeared when plaster and brick collapsed.

4) go out and get longest rawlplug and screw that you can so that it hopefully finds a bit of decent brick to bite into at some point.

5) use bit about 2mm smaller than recommende to end up with hole approc the right size.

6) wrap plus in maskign tape to make up the gap.

7) attach item to wall

8. go to bed waiting for midnight crashes as plugs pull out of wall.

The ‘use a smaller bit first’ is a good tip. You can easily make a hole bigger (sometimes even intentionally), but it’s hard to make it smaller.

as a pro i keep things simples…

drill size 6.5/ 7mm (6.5 fav)

plugs.. brown

screws.. size 10 or 12 1.5 inches long

drill hole the depth of the screw, push in plug, screw!!

unless you are hanging the fire extinguisher somewhere that’ll be catastrophic if to falls off – above a child’s cot or something then just a regular rawlplug(s) should do. The weight is straight down so as long as the material you drill into appears firm then the weight of the extinguisher is pressing the fixing against the top of the hole and the friction will keep it jammed there.

If when you drill the everything feels a bit flakey something like a frame fixing or hammer fixing that would usually be used for fixing windows can be good -they are longer and it takes you past the plaster and further into the wall and something (hopefully) a bit firmer

@ wwaswas 😆

But he’s not far wrong in some points. Yes, use rawl plugs, and if you go to a decent hardware shop and get a good make, (i.e. Rawl) they should have a description of the uses on the packet, tell you the size of screw to go with them and the drill to use. Take the bracket with you to and buy some screws that comfortably fit the holes.

When drilling start off with a small pilot hole and work up in a couple of stages from there. Stop 1mm, or even 2mm like the man said and see if you can tap the plugs in with a hammer. You can always make it a bit bigger, but going back is harder.

Victorian plaster is usually 25mm thick; you need a screw 50mm long to work. I would use 5 gauge (metric) and use a red plug in 5.5mm hole. I like cone shaped plugs, not the snub nosed ones because they often break when you hammer them in.
Oh yes, make sure you drive the plug right inside the hole (hammer in with a screw) otherwise it’ll just grip on the plaster.

Good advice above , one other tip if its a victorian house, they knew how to make a good brick,make sure you have/borrow a decent drill(sds if poss).and good masonry bits.

one other tip if its a victorian house, they knew how to make a good brick

Yes, we did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington_brick

In this kind of situation I think the best course of action is to keep the fire extinguisher on the floor. Safest all round.

Oh, one more thing: External walls were often Stud and Lathe so as not to be cold to the touch. Knock them, if they sound hollow then you’ll need Plan B: The only way to fix into a wall like this is to screw into one of the uprights (studs), they are often at 13″ centres (measuring out out fron the corner) and being behind 1″ of plaster can only really be found by knocking in a bradawl.

…and make sure you aren’t about to drill into something you don’t want to. Cabling, pipes etc.