Installing skirting boards to a brick wall

[ErrolFlynn]

I have some buggered (termite damage) skirting boards on the wall. I’ve never installed skirting before. The existing boards are timber with a bull-nose profile. The walls are brick. Old place – built 30 to 50 years ago. One small section of the wall doesn’t exist as yet – brickie is coming in next week.

I suspect I’ll be okay with mitre joints. I was thinking MDF only because it doesn’t warp. But I’m no expert. My concern is fixing it to the wall. I was thinking of using screws and rawlplugs to secure it (the minimum number possible). And if the wall wasn’t straight I’d use more screws and rawlplugs to pull it in. When happy with the appearance I was going to take it off, slap some glue on, then screw it back.

Am I off the rails with this? I'm not going to nail into brick - I'm not that good with a hammer.

Glue – what do people use for this sort of application?

[Hodgo]

I had to replace the skirting boards in my federation house after rising damp rectification

I used a product called "spaghetti" made by ramset

it comes in a small roll to be cut as you use it (goes a long way)

you drill thru the timber and into the masonry with a 5.5mm masonry bit to a depth of about 60mm, push the spaghetti in all the way, with draw slightly and cut with sidecutters, you then drive a 4mm bullet head nail thru the centre and punch in

it works really well, even taking up slight contours and has never become dislodged, I never bothered with any glue, just no gaps before painting

hope this helps

Hodgo

[Camelot]

How you have described sounds ok, if your using mechanical fixings there is no real need to glue, but if you want to then use a good quality construction adhesive. I would not use mdf because it swells if water gets to it and does not shrink back to it's original size.

[ErrolFlynn]

That's interesting. I dare say the spaghetti might be a long roll of what people buy as rawlplugs before they've been cut to 25mm, or whatever size they are. Thanks for that. It would certainly make the process of nailing so much easier (than punching some masonry-piercing nail into the brickwork).

The thing with rawlplugs (or any other similar type of device) is being able to get it where you want it. Particularly if there are a lot of such things. And the big thing is that generally, the hole of the rawlplug needs to be larger than the hole running through the piece that's being attached. Easy/tedious solution is to drill through the timber into the masonry, remove the timber, then widen the hole in the masonry to fit the rawlplug. Tedious. Your solution would avoid that.

[Hodgo]

That's interesting. I dare say the spaghetti might be a long roll of what people buy as rawlplugs before they've been cut to 25mm, or whatever size they are. Thanks for that. It would certainly make the process of nailing so much easier (than punching some masonry-piercing nail into the brickwork).

The thing with rawlplugs (or any other similar type of device) is being able to get it where you want it. Particularly if there are a lot of such things. And the big thing is that generally, the hole of the rawlplug needs to be larger than the hole running through the piece that's being attached. Easy/tedious solution is to drill through the timber into the masonry, remove the timber, then widen the hole in the masonry to fit the rawlplug. Tedious. Your solution would avoid that.

I started out on the rawl plug path and became totally frustrated with it until a carpenter buddy enlightened me to spaghetti

I have used it many times on architraves and skirting boards on 3 differebt houses I've owned with 100% success
you just have to make sure you are drilling into the brick rather than the joint, you can mark the wall above the skirting for the drill hole

its not shaped like the rawl plug profile, it actually a very tight "C" section

I always use galvanised nails just in case rust leeched thru the paint over time

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

:whs:

Just position the skirting, drill a hole through and into the brickwork, fit spag and drive in a nail.No need to remove the skirting after predrilling all the holes in the skirting to accurately fit rawl plugs.

If you're not confident in your judgement you can drill all the holes, remove the skirting and ensure they all go into brick, not mortar, then reposition and start fixing. I prefer to simply start at one end and work my way along, fixing as I go. This avoids any possible misalignments that may occur as the skirting is pulled in. (Or out.)

If the wall is so curved that the skirting needs to be pulled in a long way over a short length it's not the best method, but jobs like that are always a PITA and never come out looking good.

[jack620]

I agree with the spaghetti suggestion. That's what I used to attach hardwood skirts to brick walls in a reno. Skip the glue. It will only make any rectification later a nightmare.



I was thinking MDF only because it doesn’t warp.

No, but it will swell if it gets any moisture in it. I would only use it if I was sure there was no rising damp in the walls.

[rwbuild]

Exactly what Hodgo said but DO NOT USE MDF, use Ezitrim bullnose

[Hodgo]

Exactly what Hodgo said but DO NOT USE MDF, use Ezitrim bullnose

I used fingerjoint pine, for its lower cost and the fact I was painting it

[ErrolFlynn]

I would not use mdf because it swells if water gets to it and does not shrink back to it's original size.

That's good to know. Thanks. I was considering MDF because I thought it would be immune to the effects of moisture. Have to say, I don't really know what it is. It sounds as though it's not much different from chip board. Much obliged to you.

[ErrolFlynn]

I used fingerjoint pine, for its lower cost and the fact I was painting it

I assume Ezitrim is a trade name for a particular company's fingerjoint pine.

[tonzeyd]

Skirting at my place was attached purely with liquid nails, had been in place since we moved in so atleast 10 years old with no issues. We replaced our flooring about 7 years ago had to pull them off and surprisingly the plaster on the walls came off first. The skirting was reattached them to the walls using the same method, liquid nails along the skirting and brad nailed to the wall. Given that they will probably stay till the next owners decide its time to replace its plenty good for me.

If you wanted a more less "permanent" solution the spaghetti is the way to go, but is more time consuming to install.

[Hodgo]

I assume Ezitrim is a trade name for a particular company's fingerjoint pine.

I'm not sure about the trade name, I bought it from Crescent timber in Sydney

they have/had a good range of profiles for architraves and skirting boards

mine were 200mm skirting boards, I don't think I would rely on adhesive only to hold them to the wall

[david.elliott]

use it all the time with MR MDF skirting. MUST be MR. Just for fun I left an offcut outside for a few weeks last year in the rain. No discernable swell, although it was wet through...

[ErrolFlynn]

liquid nails along the skirting and brad nailed to the wall.

I take it that your wall (and the skirting) must have been good and straight. When you say 'brad' I guess you mean those very tiny nails and you used them to hold the skirting in place while the glue set. Were they removed afterwards or countersunk?

I've got a brick wall. I'd have trouble using glue alone unless I was able to brace the boards somehow, from the opposite side of the room, maybe.

[tonzeyd]

yes, brad nails, the small ones used in trim work. Yes nails are used to hold to wall till liquid nails took hold. When driving in nails, i set the gun so it deliberately sinks the nail slightly below the surface. Once set, nails are puttied and painted.

[ErrolFlynn]

MUST be MR. Just for fun I left an offcut outside for a few weeks last year in the rain. No discernable swell, although it was wet through...
I'm not so good on abbreviations. Is MR = marine rating? If so, it could have been expensive.

[droog]

I'm not so good on abbreviations. Is MR = marine rating? If so, it could have been expensive.

Moisture Resistant

[jack620]

yes, brad nails, the small ones used in trim work. Yes nails are used to hold to wall till liquid nails took hold. When driving in nails, i set the gun so it deliberately sinks the nail slightly below the surface. Once set, nails are puttied and painted.

OK, but why bother with the liquid nails then? If the brads are sufficient to hold the skirt to the wall while the liquid nails dries, then they ought to be sufficient to hold the skirt in place indefinitely. My skirts are only bradded to the walls and haven't moved in 20 years.

[david.elliott]

The problem is there's not enough penetration into the brickwork with standard brads. You can purchase concrete brads, I explored this when re-installing my daughters skirting, but they are not held in stock, so far as I could find in WA, and the minimum order (2000?) was expensive.

Last time I looked the MRMDF was still quite a bit cheaper then FJ Pine in skirting, ans came in 5.2m lengths, but now, who knows..

[jack620]

The problem is there's not enough penetration into the brickwork with standard brads.

I doubt there's ANY penetration by a brad into brick. To clarify my view- you use spaghetti and nails to secure skirts to brick and brads to secure skirts to timber. In neither case is liquid nails required.

[david.elliott]

Just had to do some skirting for a customer, on the cheap getting ready for sale, so not prepared to pay the time to drill and nail. I did manage to get most of the 35mm C brads into the white set and render to hold while glue dried. Sometimes I was lucky and hit the mortar course. When some brad was left out I trimmed with sidecutters and nail punched the rest down then filled.

[419]

I have some buggered (termite damage) skirting boards on the wall. I’ve never installed skirting before. The existing boards are timber with a bull-nose profile. The walls are brick. Old place – built 30 to 50 years ago. One small section of the wall doesn’t exist as yet – brickie is coming in next week.

Bricks next week is your first problem. Fresh mortar = damp until dry (No, I don't know how long it will take to dry enough, but think in many weeks if not some months at least) = timber whether natural or man made like MDF may - probably will - swell and later contract and be out of shape when everything is dry. Don't even think about using water sponge MDF for this.


I suspect I’ll be okay with mitre joints. Maybe not. If you're going to pull skirts into the wall to follow it out of a straight line you're going to open your external mitres unless you cut them to allow for pulled skirts. If you have internal mitres you're better off with scribed joints as they can accommodate movement. scribed joint on skirting board - Google Search (https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=scribed+joint+on+skirting+board#kpvalbx=_jVKxZNnmLcPs-AaC9rGoDg_35) If you're not too good with or don't have a coping saw as in the video you can do it with a thin wood scrolling blade on a jig saw. If cost is no object you could buy a Collins Foot to replace the standard flat foot on your jig saw as it's a bit better for this type of work, but for a small job as a new user it'll probably create more problems for you than it solves with its ability to follow changing shapes. I have one I could probably sell you if I could be bothered to find it after being somewhat disappointed with its supposedly brilliant performance in these situations.



I was thinking MDF only because it doesn’t warp. MDF is stable in average steady dry atmosphere, but it sucks up moisture like a whale if you have it against an available source like fresh mortar or more slowly from even seemingly dry bricks that are siphoning up tiny amounts of moisture from your slab or piers.


And if the wall wasn’t straight I’d use more screws and rawlplugs to pull it in. When happy with the appearance I was going to take it off, slap some glue on, then screw it back.

Ditto what I said about opening your external mitres. Glue is unnecessary, unless you have future movement in the bricks that you screw into. If you're going to use an adhesive you need one that bridges gaps, so get the appropriate version of Liquid Nails or similar.


Am I off the rails with this? I'm not going to nail into brick - I'm not that good with a hammer.
There are fixings that are probably easier to nail into brick than screw into plugs. Just a moment... (https://www.bunnings.com.au/ramset-6-5-x-75mm-brick-nylon-anchor-20-pack_p2260191) Plus it's easier to fill over nail holes than screw holes and the smaller the fill the less they pop when painted over and the less touch up sanding required.

The primary issue that hasn't been addressed isn't how to fix the skirt to the brick but what brick you're putting the fasteners into. If they're hollow brick you're better off fixing into the mortar instead of punching into a thin brick wall with a hole behind it. And how do you know if they're hollow brick? If the house is 30 or less years old and not built by someone with lots of money, they'll be hollow brick, in Victoria anyway. They might be solid brick at 50 years old. As a very rough guide, the younger the house is over the last 40-50 years, the more hollows the bricks will have in them. If you want to know how frequent and thin the hollow walls are, just drill along a horizontal line in a course of bricks at about 20mm intervals.

If the brick wall deviates from straight by only a few millimetres in places, it would be much simpler to fit the skirt at the high points with fixings or adhesive and fill the gaps with No More Gaps or similar, which is what usually happens in new builds and renovations when skirts are a bit out on plasterboard.

This all assumes that you've dealt with the termites.

[419]

I doubt there's ANY penetration by a brad into brick.

Purely on the basis that for many years until now I thought they were just for using on timber (apart from the specialised thin steel ones), I haven't tried using my Paslode bradder or framer or an equivalent air nailer, or even my crappy old battery bradders, into brick. But it sounds like a good experiment for a callous uninsured employer to try with an unsuspecting apprentice. Probably best not to video the experiment as it could be unwanted evidence in the ensuing legal proceedings.

[419]

OK, but why bother with the liquid nails then? If the brads are sufficient to hold the skirt to the wall while the liquid nails dries, then they ought to be sufficient to hold the skirt in place indefinitely. My skirts are only bradded to the walls and haven't moved in 20 years.

Makes sense to me. But I'm a bit old school in being satisfied with a tight nail fix.

Which on skirts and other trim I tend to do with opposite angles on alternate brads, to resist pull out.

[419]

use it all the time with MR MDF skirting. MUST be MR. Just for fun I left an offcut outside for a few weeks last year in the rain. No discernable swell, although it was wet through...

I'm not disputing your short term experiment, but my experience in dealing with / removing / repairing water damaged old mdf skirts and other MDF / MR MDF and HMR particle board is that in long term wet or just faintly damp environments such as bench or vanity tops moisture resistant [NOT moisture proof] MDF and particle board don't hold up anywhere near as well as properly coated hardwood when the moisture problem has been going on for years and even decades.

Unlike trades who install new stuff with confidence about what the supplier says it will do, my work was often fixing up failures many years later. That's not to say that the original manufacturer or installer assurances were wrong, but 10 or 20 or 30 years later the product failed and generally the man made products, despite the massive amounts of chemicals and glues in them, didn't hold up to natural timbers.

[ErrolFlynn]

If they're hollow brick you're better off fixing into the mortar instead of punching into a thin brick wall with a hole behind it. And how do you know if they're hollow brick? I

You've made some excellent points. A lot to consider, thank you. I had thought of the holes in brickwork. I've had that experience before, in other places. Annoying. I was planning on carefully noting/marking places to drill before I got started. Bricks are solid at their periphery. Therefore, if I know where the mortar is, and drill about 10mm to either side I'll probably hit something solid.

The new brickwork You make a good point regarding moisture. I was considering leaving that section for another reason. And glue might be the best choice (when the brickwork dries). There will only be two courses of bricks. I've had an aluminium window fitted. The brickie (not here yet - got sick) will soon place the bricks under the window. So, there will be little strength in them, even when dry. My experience is that much of the strength of a brick wall comes from what's above resting on top of it (ie. the roof). No hammer will come near that section. Glue.

[419]

You've made some excellent points. A lot to consider, thank you. I had thought of the holes in brickwork. I've had that experience before, in other places. Annoying. I was planning on carefully noting/marking places to drill before I got started. Bricks are solid at their periphery. Therefore, if I know where the mortar is, and drill about 10mm to either side I'll probably hit something solid.

Yeah, I've tried that with a brick known to be the same as the ones in the wall. It works more or less okay if there's only a few holes along the face of the brick and plenty of meat between the holes, but it gets progressively less effective the more holes there are as there's less meat between the holes and at the ends. It's easy to end up drilling into a void that's too thin on the face of the brick to hold any fastener. At least with what you're doing that won't matter as you can cover up any unwanted holes with the skirt.

[ErrolFlynn]

I was surprised by how difficult it was to tackle skirting boards. Though, I won’t hesitate, as I did before starting this task, next time. I almost called a carpenter. The whole affair has been quite a learning experience, for sure. I’ll relate some of my troubles should anyone be in my situation. That is, new to the process.

My job was one room, only. Three walls. There was a fitted wardrobe on the 4th wall. It was a small room. So, I was able, and wanted to, use a single length of board on each wall.

I have a mitre saw. It’s a GMC that I bought from Bunnings over 20 years ago. It wasn’t the cheapest, but pretty close to it. Actually, it has served me well throughout that time. It has the original blade and still cuts well.

While considering my mitre saw, its limitations were one of my problems. I mitre cut the skirting. There are other methods, but considering I had the saw decided to cut mitre joints. Perhaps I shouldn't have. The saw has a range between 0 to 45 degrees in one direction. At one point I was wishing it could have had a range between 45 to 0 to 45 degrees. Though, not a huge problem. You just need to flip the board upside down to get the desired angle. You just have to be very careful of what and how you are cutting things. Though, I found that the saw cut very cleanly, though sometimes it chipped off little bits of wood which was going to ruin the appearance. Going slowly helped prevent that.

The real problem with this saw was that 45 degrees was the maximum the machine would tilt. I really needed more. Maybe up to 50 degrees. Using packing may have done the trick but it would have been a dodgy method. I didn’t try.

Had the room been built square? That is, with corners having right-angles (ie. 90 degrees) setting the saw at 45 degrees would have resulted in a perfect mitre (in theory). However, two of the corners in my room must have been at angles more like 95 degrees. Maybe more. I don’t know. The result was that when the two pieces of skirting were in place I have a gap because the angle wasn’t cut correctly. Possibly, the more expensive mitre saws extend past 45 degrees. I must look out for that aspect if I need to buy a replacement machine. So, for me, this is a job for some wood filler.

I bought some spaghetti. Thanks for suggesting it. And thanks Hodgo for suggesting pulling out, snipping, then pushing back in. I might have done this, but your tip was welcomed and utilised on the first attempt. Nice. I’m now a fan of spaghetti.

I screwed the boards rather than nailing them. Which was just as well because I had to remove two of them and refit. Removing the boards with the spaghetti running into the brickwork and skirting made for difficult removal, particularly with the carpet in place, but not impossible. The task certainly would have been impossible had I used nails.

The spaghetti was a Ramset product. The pack stated hole dia 5.5mm (that was spot on). The pack instructions advised using a 3.75 mm min dia nail (they are huge and I have to wonder if that was a misprint), or a 6 gauge max screw size (wrong, they should have said 7 gauge). I bought some 6 gauge and tested it out by drilling into an old brick I had lying around to fix a scrap piece of wood. I was able to pull the wood away from the brick with minimum effort. When I used the 7 gauge screw the board held firmly. The lesson here: don’t rely on the written instructions. I’m inclined to write to Ramset telling them of their lousy instructions.

So, why was I removing the boards?

The first board down had to match an existing board that was going to remain in place, that had been mitre cut. This wall wasn’t at 90 degrees. Something like 160 degrees, actually. Unusual, I know. Finding the correct angle was a process of using a scrap piece of wood and cutting it on the mitre saw, checking the fit against the existing skirting, re-cutting at a slightly different angle, and rechecking, over and over until the angle looked perfect. When I was happy I cut my skirting board at the same angle, assured that it would fit. And that worked out perfectly. Using scrap like this is a great way to check things. The tricky bit was to follow.

How long would this board be? So I measured the distance, added a bit, and then cut the board a little longer than I’d measured. I assumed the corner of the room was at a right-angle, and set my mitre saw at 45 deg and cut it. Try the fit: too long (of course). Trim a bit more (a tiny amount) off the board, test in the room, cut a bit more, test, cut, test, cut. This is tedious, but eventually, the board slipped into position. I screwed it in position. Happy with a job done well. Wrong!

So, what went wrong? Well, when I cut the next board that was meant to meet up with the first I found that one edge wasn’t meeting particularly well. And why not? I could see that the corner of the first board was positioned neatly into the extreme corner of the brickwork. However, what I didn’t consider was that the bricks may have been laid by a human rather than a machine. The variations meant that my first board was too long. For the perfect match to the second board, the first would have to be shortened. Only by about 3mm to bring the two into alignment. It was at that point I was so glad I had used screws rather than nails. Trimming the board a little fixed it. I should have attempted to match the second board to the first before screwing it down.

Yeah, and while that’s a good plan it doesn’t account for discrepancies in the floor or the angle the first brick runs off vertical, or any gobs of cement that happen to have pushed out from between the bricks that seem to have one purpose but to ensure you can’t get your boards fitted squarely. There’s a huge number of things all trying to prevent you from getting that perfect mitre joint.

Masking tape was very useful when trimming the boards. A strip of tape on the edge of the board and another on the mitre saw; positioned so that they are next to one another. A pencil mark on each to flag the spot of the last cut enabled me to confidently adjust the board on the saw if I had to remove another few mm or less. It’s better to make tiny cuts than risk making one that overshoots the mark leaving you with a board that’s way too short. Tedious, but worth the effort in my opinion.

Anyway, it’s done and I’m celebrating. The filler and painting will come later.

[droog]

There is a good reason that skirtings are scribed for internal corners.
You will find it much easier for your next room.

[ErrolFlynn]

Yeah, I can see that. Though, I'm happy to have gone through the experience. And with a few drinks in me, I can laugh about it.

[r3nov8or]

Re your holes for the spaghetti, drilling into masonry almost always results in a hole slightly larger that you intended. So probably accounts for you needing a larger screw than specified. As you did while sawing, always err on the side that allows you to take a little more away...

[ErrolFlynn]

The 5.5 mm drill bit that was recommended seemed appropriate.

Drilling into cement can sometimes cause bits of mortar to fall away which tends to result in a larger hole than intended. I've usually found that drilling into brick results in a very neat hole. Because of that I prefer to drill into brick rather than mortar on a brick wall.

Whenever I've used rawlplugs I've used the drill size noted by the manufacturer. That generally means the plug has to be hammered into place.

With the spaghetti, using a hammer is not so easily possible. Given that the product comes on a continuous roll, so to speak, the hole size would have to be such that an easy push fit (ie. slightly loose) is required. Particularly as one has to push it through the board and then into the masonry. There's also the natural curve of the product that kind of requires a loose fit.

The hole size wasn't too loose. When I removed the board, on a few occasions I had to use pliers to remove the plugs. Though, that could have been the result of brick dust locking it in position. Then when refitting the board using new spaghetti I had to use a sharp knife to taper the leading edge of the spaghetti to ensure I got it home.

[r3nov8or]

Yeah, I guess your one day matches Ramset's combined 100 years of experience with their product :D

I'm just suggesting there are variables

[ErrolFlynn]

one day

That's so funny. You should consider going into comedy.

I've actually drilled a few holes in my time. I really know how it's done. Way more than a day's experience doing that. So, you slinging off a smart-alec remark without cause is not so clever. My comment on this product was to provide advice to newcomers.

The product was made in China. Whoever made it would unlikely have been dealing with Ramset for a hundred years. China isn't an English-speaking country. They struggle with English. It's pretty impressive that they do so well with the language but they get things wrong. You must have seen the jokes people are always putting on the web about their misused words and poor grammar. It's a typo.

My point was and remains: don't always trust what you read. The screw size specs on the packaging is wrong. Not so sure about the nail size, but that may be wrong too.

[r3nov8or]

So you don't think Ramset has any interest in its good name here, never did any R&D on the product, and has left it up to everyone to get frustrated and to just work out on their own? Makes sense :)

[ErrolFlynn]

I think Ramset has an excellent reputation. But whoever did the printing on their packaging (and that would be someone in China) made a mistake.

[Chief Tiff]

What screws did you use? If you’re using deep thread timber screws from Bunnings then the central wire is too skinny to expand the plug walls into the hole and you have to up at least one size.

[ErrolFlynn]

I suspect almost everyone might have lost interest in this, but since you ask: The recommended screw size was stated as 6 gauge. I went to Mitre 10, actually, and bought Zenith Timber Screws 6G x 40mm. They held nothing. I then bought the same in 7G x 40mm, and they were perfect.

What you say sounds reasonable. Though, I would have hoped the size (ie. 6G, 7G, 10G etc) would be fairly universal irrespective of manufacturer. Just noticed: the screws were made in China as well as the spaghetti. :cool:

[419]

. When I removed the board, on a few occasions I had to use pliers to remove the plugs. Though, that could have been the result of brick dust locking it in position.

Before the invention of handly little battery operated blowers, I spent what is now pretty much wasted money on Ramset and other mini bottle brushes and a Ramset pump blower which does the same job as a much cheaper throwaway bike pump with a football needle on it. Naturally, I worked that out some time after buying the Ramset pump when blowing up one of the kids' balls or something.

But they weren't wasted money at the time and the blower isn't now when inserting dyna-bolts as fractional differences caused by remaining dust can be enough to trap the expanding sleeve when trying to remove it after a test fit and wasting time getting it out. Or can stop the bolt bottoming.

[419]

What screws did you use? If you’re using deep thread timber screws from Bunnings then the central wire is too skinny to expand the plug walls into the hole and you have to up at least one size.

And conversely with wall plugs into mortar, I drill the hole one bit size smaller than recommended to get a good purchase on the flutes. The recommended drill bit size can result in the plug spinning because you don't know how soft the mortar is.

Also, depending upon how things are going, sometimes it's much better to take a bit of extra time installing the screw into the plug by hand as power drivers can apply too much torque and spin the plug.

I always install Wall Mates into plasterboard by hand for the same reason, and the same with the screws going into them despite them generally having stupidly fine threads. Most of the time I could get away with a power driver on the lowest torque setting and low speed, but occasionally it strips the plasterboad. Experience taught me that this invariably will be for a fixture that isn't big enough to cover a new hole.

[419]

Whenever I've used rawlplugs I've used the drill size noted by the manufacturer.

That's usually the starting point unless experience tells you something different.

One of the things experience tells me is that impact drills tend to bounce around on a narrow rotating axis for a long time to make a hole so that you can end up with a less accurate hole with a coned entry than a rotary hammer. Something else experience tells me is that a cheap rotary hammer like an Ozito is much better than an impact drill in concrete but it can be too aggressive in mortar and brick because it has less fine control than a better quality one.

So, the accuracy of the hole and the fit of the plug isn't guaranteed just by faithfully following the plug manufacturer's instructions.

[ErrolFlynn]

When fitting rawlplugs (eg. to hang a painting) at a location where I can get close to the hole I’ve blown into it. (I used to play the bagpipes, so I have a good set of lungs.) And where the hole size is crucial I’ve started with a tiny drill size and built it up in dia using progressively larger drill bits. I find that bricks are a delight to work with compared with mortar.

I take your point on drill size and making holes in mortar. I generally try to avoid mortar when possible. Mortar also has the problem that there can be air pockets left by the brickie when laying the bricks. Holes in bricks can be a problem too, but generally not toward the edge.

Love your idea of a bike pump. I must try that myself.

With the skirtings, I used a vacuum cleaner after drilling each hole. It was pointless. I know this because when I removed the skirtings, as noted above, I spotted a neat little pile of brick dust on the ground below each hole. I needn’t have bothered using the vacuum. Though, your idea of the bike pump gives me an idea. An attachment to the vacuum cleaner (eg. a funnel and plastic tubing) that is small enough to be inserted into the hole might work well.

[419]

With the skirtings, I used a vacuum cleaner after drilling each hole. It was pointless. I know this because when I removed the skirtings, as noted above, I spotted a neat little pile of brick dust on the ground below each hole. I needn’t have bothered using the vacuum. Though, your idea of the bike pump gives me an idea. An attachment to the vacuum cleaner (eg. a funnel and plastic tubing) that is small enough to be inserted into the hole might work well.

Not sure if we're on the same page, but if you use a vacuum cleaner just attach the hose to the exhaust and by all means improve its efficiency by reducing the hose to a size that can fit in the drilled hole but leave space around the hose to blow out dust. Easier to blow dust out than suck it out because there's not much scope for necessary sucking airflow in a blind hole largely filled with the hose.

I've made devices like this for other purposes where I needed a narrow hose to get into an opening, like an oil filler hole on a small engine, with progressively smaller short lengths of clear (so I can see if it's working) vinyl tubing from scrap or Bunnings and wound with plumbing Teflon tape and maybe hose clamps where necessary to get a good seal. Works fine for sucking oil out and should work fine for blowing air in.

And here's a fun fact. Vacuum cleaners in normal operation don't suck. The fan creates an area of low pressure (a vacuum) and the higher external air pressure pushes air into the low pressure / vacuum area and dust etc along with it. Won't work well if the hole in the brick etc is plugged at the entry by the tube.

Discovering this scientific reality will be a major disappointment for a vacuum cleaner seller in Ballarat whose slogan is "Everything I sell sucks!".

[r3nov8or]

I'll just leave this here...


...
I'm just suggesting there are variables

[florry]

Not so sure about the nail size, but that may be wrong too.

I just did a reinstall of a jarrah skirting board on a (fixed) rising damp brick wall.

I can confirm that 75 x 3.75mm bullet head galvanized nails work perfectly with the spaghetti in the 5.5mm masonry hole.

I used a Bunnings Full Boar 5.5 x 160 4 cut SDS drill bit using just an ordinary hammer drill. This was because the traditional 5.5mm bits were too short to cut a hole for a 75mm nail. The SDS bit base fits easily into domestic grade hammer drills.

The instructions to insert the spaghetti full depth then cut slightly shorter are spot on. Not mentioned was blowing out the hole. I found it wasn't necessary to blow it out. The spaghetti seems more tolerant of dust than rawlplugs

The only variation I did was predrill the skirting board with a 5.5mm HSS bit as the masonry bit made a mess and smoke on the jarrah.

For punching I used a 5.5mm pin driver but it was unsatisfactory as it slid all over the place. I couldn't find anything at Bunnings that would be better though

[ErrolFlynn]

I couldn't find anything at Bunnings that would be better though

If I ever do skirtings again I might try these (https://www.essve.com/en/products/construction--and-wood-screw/skirting-screws/skirting-floor-screw-for-wood--and-steel-joist/mouldingbasefloor-screw-small-head-for-wooden-and-steel-joists.-yellow-chromate/). The head size is amazingly small compared to other screws. Probably more expensive.