# Forum Home Renovation Brickwork  To Dyna bolt or wall plug

## Beaton

Quick question can you use dyna bolts on house bricks,i have heard that they can shatter the brick and come loose after time.

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## Barry_White

If they are solid bricks you can use Dyna bolts but if the are wirecut bricks with holes in them it is better to use Ramset Delta Plugs and use coach screws. 
 I have hung 3m x 3m roller doors on 12mm Delta Plugs with 3/8 coach screws into holey bricks. 
 The other alternative in holey bricks is Ramset Epoxy Bolt systems.

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## Ashore

> Quick question can you use dyna bolts on house bricks,i have heard that they can shatter the brick and come loose after time.

  What weight are you going to hang off them   
The trouble with life is there's no background music.

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## Beaton

Not much at all, just fixing a a piece of 30x80x1000 jarrah to the wall and three hooks for towels in the bathroom,towel may be a bit damp.

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## Ashore

> Not much at all, just fixing a a piece of 30x80x1000 jarrah to the wall and three hooks for towels in the bathroom,towel may be a bit damp.

  I've found that 3/8" dyna bolts fit nicely between the bricks in the mortar and will be more than strong enough.
Only time I had problem was doing a job for a friend of SHMBO in a housing commision place and the mortar just poweded away    
The trouble with life is there's no background music.

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## Beaton

That sounds like the render on the walls soon as you hit it with the drilla big patch off it turns to dust, have learnt to start small and work way upto big bit.

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## Ashore

> That sounds like the render on the walls soon as you hit it with the drilla big patch off it turns to dust, have learnt to start small and work way upto big bit.

  Yes I know what you mean, but the housing commission house was was only 14 months old so put it down to a cheep mix of mud or poor workmanship,
still iv'e had no trouble with them elseware they hold just fine in the mortar. 
rgds russell    
The trouble with life is there's no background music.

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## boban

Ive used red spagetti (not the Ramset orange stuff). It forms a complete tube with a split which is joined until you screw or nail into it.   In it Ive been able to screw and nail really well.  It wont let go.   
This is suitable to a certain point.  If you want to use large diameter bolts (6mm and above) then Barry's suggestions are the way to go.   
I dont like dynabolts in non solid bricks (just personal preference) and I never aim for the mortar joints as the result is too variable. 
The brand of spagetti I use is "Star".

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## TrevorOwen

I have used both dyna bolts and ramset plugs for larger fixings quite successfully but would recommend ramset plugs over dyna bolts because at some point you may want to undo what you have done. With ramset plugs you can always drill out a piece of plastic whereas with dyna bolts it is harder to extract the metal insert. There is no doubt the expansion of a dyna bolt is more localised than a ramset plug, increasing the risk of fracture, depending on the location. 
Regards from Adelaide
Trevor

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## jasonpell

Hi, 
I am trying to attach a gate post to my single brick wall, I have been told its best to install the dynabolts into the bricks themselves, and they do appear to be quite strong, so much so that when I stuff it up, I can't get the damn thing out to start again.  Had to angle grind the head off one today, and drill another hole and try again.  Decided to wait for father in law to help, so I don't stuff it up again  :Redface: ) 
I have a few questions, first if Ramset Plugs are better, where do I get those from, and will they suit 12mm hole I already have?  Can I attach 100mmx100m 1.8 metre cypress pine post and then 1m wide steel / wood panel gate to it? 
I actually did a test run on a standalone brick today and managed to crack the brick, so I am a little worried about that possibility, as replacing a brick in an existing wall would be really expensive I would imagine. 
My bricks seem to be quite hard, but they have 3 round vertical holes in them and I can't really avoid having at least a couple of holes go through these hollows sections?  If I get a 125mm dynabolt, it will actually go all the way through the brick, and I figured the sleave would lock the bolt to the outer edge of the brick inside the wall? 
Any advice as so far I have had no success with dynabolts, and the ones I put into mortar appear to move around quite a lot... 
Thanks
Jason

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## Ashore

I would advise drilling into the morta and fixing the dyna - bolts there
I know you will get a lot of advise but I have hung gates using the morta and dyna bolts with sucess , mI am only a  local and not a profrsionall but it has worked for me     
Rgds

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## Barry_White

Dynabolts are next to useless in bricks with holes and not really recommended  in the mortor joints.  
The Ramset plugs are called Delta plugs and they make them up to a 12mm so you should be able to use them OK. They are very forgiving in holey bricks and actually expand into the hole and really hang on. As I said earlier in the thread I used to hang 3m x 3m Roller Doors with them and they will take a 3/8' hex head coach screw. They hang on so well I have actually screwed the threaded part of the coach screw off because I drilled the hole with a worn out drill bit which made the plug very tight. I was using an electric impact wrench to do them up. 
You should be able to purchase them from Bunnings. 
Hilti actually make a similar type of plug that works just as well. 
I have posted a pic of an older type Ramset one so you know what they look like. I think the current ones are orange and a slightly different design. 
I just reread your post. To fix the post you will want a coach screw long enough to go through the post and protude the length of the plug and no longer. I would recess the head of the coach screw into your post so the top of it is flush with face of the post and use a washer under the head of the coach screw. 
Just make sure you have at least 2 to 3 courses of bricks above where you are putting the holes in the bricks and you should have no trouble with cracking of bricks. 
Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

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## Pulse

It might be worth adding that you should try to avoid fixing hinges directly to brick with mechanical fasteners. The hinges will wobble loose over time. Better to weld hinges to angle iron or screw into a jamb and then fix that to the wall. 
Pulse

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## jasonpell

Hi, 
After posting this topic, I decided to try another prototype on a standalone brick and it worked really well this time. I realised the dynabolt was not responsible for cracking the brick, but merely the way I had handled the brick once I had inserted the dynabolt. 
I understand that the pressure on the bricks is much more localised, but the holes in the clay bricks are right in the centre, and there is a lot of brick around the dynabolt, albeit only on one side. 
I realise that some of the advice in this forum indicates I might have a problem later, but at the moment it seems to be working a real treat. 
I installed 4 dynabolts and used brackets to bolt the post against the wall. 
The following URL shows the end results (I still have 1 paling to install - off by 1 error  :Redface: ) http://clair.iamvegan.net/gallery/di...lbum=113&pos=1 
Thanks for the responses, and apologies if you think I wasted your time, I actually should have come back earlier and said I had figured it out myself. 
The dynabolts appear to be very secure, and the father in law, seems to think it will hold very well. 
I guess time will tell, and perhaps I will regret my decision, but hey its all a learning experience for me, the next one is to tile my floor. 
Thanks
Jason

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## drilla

hello, 
i'm new to the forum.  the discussion about the dyna bolts vs plugs made me want to join.  :Smilie:   
i want to suspend a beam of wood (eg 2x4) across the length of my bedroom about 2-300mm below the ceiling.  the length of the room is about 3.6m, although I haven't measured exactly yet.  I live in an older style plaster/brick house (about 1940s), so i think i will have to use dyna bolts with square blocks of wood that the beam can be held up by - but the discussion about plugs has made me think again.  it's also a rental property so i want to have minimum impact.  I want to be able to use the beam to suspend a clothes hanging rack (eg a 1.3m piece of 20-25mm dowl hung by string at either end) and other light storage devices, and perhaps a pot plant or such. 
questions:
are dyna bolts the best or should i use plugs? (+ what's the maximum weight you would recommend for each?)
would hex dyna bolts be advisable so they are removable later?
will this scheme work?

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## DanM

Myself i would use a plug or spagetti,  any fastner, scew or nail over 3mm in guage will take the waitof your beam and using them will be easier to strip when you move out.  If using a dynabolt drill the hole deeper, the thickness of your material and a bit deeper, that way when you strip the blockes you can hit the bolt back into the wall and patch the hole.

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