How to secure shelves to wall with crumbling bricks?

I have an old brick house (1930s/40s) and am trying to secure open shelving to the wall for baby proofing. It has worked in a few areas with a powerful plug-in drill, but on some walls the holes are just crumbling. - see photo of the multiple attempts! I'm using green wall plugs and long screws but there must be a better way on old walls? Sometimes I've hit mortar, and sometimes just bricks which crumble and dont get a good enough hold. What would work?

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EricL

Hello @charlotte_fl

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about your shelves.

Because the bricks are a bit soft, I propose using the following:

Here is a handy step-by-step guide: Ramset™ UltraFix PLUS Polyester Anchoring Kit

My best advice is to measure the position of the bracket that you'll be using to make sure that the anchor stud settles at the correct height.

Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1 and @Nailbag for their recommendations.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

Dave-1

Good afternoon @charlotte_fl

The green rawl plug works but I have stopped using it years ago. Mainly becuase there are better products that have come along. It is very old school in its use (still vaild in circumstances) but as you have found there are limitations.

The Chemset anchoring taht @EricL has suggeste dis a good one, it will solve the iussue for sure. Anothyer product you can look at is a masonary screw. (Its a screw you lituary screw into the hole in the brickwork) I really like them but with your crumbly wall I do think the Chemset fixing would be the best way forward.

Dave

Nailbag

Hi @charlotte_fl

I suspect the bricks aren't crumbling your instead hitting either the edge of one or into the soft mortar. Unfortunately hits very hit and miss with render over brick internal wall.

Traditional wall plugs don't expand much if at all, so the holes you make have to be super tight. And as good as the suggestion by @EricL on the chemical anchors, it may be too an advanced system for you. You need expanding fasteners.

Ignore the bad reviews because often people dont use them correctly or using the wrong fastener. I use these ones and the smaller version for pretty much all type of wall fastening and find them excellent. They will expand and contract †o pull them in very tight as the screws and driven in. The fasteners have raised barbs to help prevent them from twisting as the screws are driven. It's still important to use the right size drill bit. Consider going a size small in and go VERY slow with the speed when drilling. The problem with corded drills is that its too easy to over drill the hole size.

Nailbag

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