Installing shelving on a brick wall

[smidsy]

A lady friend has asked me to install some shelving for her on a brick wall.
The shelving is the slotted vertical peices about 1800mm high that the shelves clip in to which she got from bunnings.
I have an 18v cordless hammer drill, and a keyed chuck 240v hammer drill - both Makita.

My concern is that the uprights have to be dead level and straight or the shelves won't clip in - it has to be mm perfect.
I'm an ex man arts teacher, I've drilled brick & concrete before but I've never had to be as accurate as I'm going to need to be on this job.
Would I be better off screwing timber to the walls (bunnings sell non structural 35x70x2400 for $3.50 a length) and screwing the shelving to that?
Has anyone got any hints on how I can drill in to brick/concrete dead accurate - I'd just be putting plugs in the wall to screw in to and I'd be aiming to get them in to the joints where the solid concrete is.

This lady has been a good friend to me, so I'd like to do this for her if I can - but that said, I'd rather not do it than try to and make a stuff up of it.
Cheers
Smidsy

[Handyjack]

First up, relax.
There are bricks and bricks. Some are easy to drill, others a pain. Hopefully you drill into the solid brick and not hit a soft mortar line where the plug is likely to fail.
Work out where one horizontal row of holes need to be. Depending on your drill, just start off slow, turning your dill on and off to get your hole started. Try and hold your drill as steady as you can to be as accurate as you can. Once you have the hole started, then you can drill to the required depth. If need be clean the dust out of the hole put in your plug and then screw your vertical to the wall. Repeat for each other vertical.
Now possibly with a smaller drill, set each vertical, vertical with a spirit level of laser and mark each other hole to get it started with the drill. Move the verticals away from your marked holes, drill them out, put plugs and then finally screw each vertical to the wall.
I would try and do either a top or top half hole first as it makes it easier to mark the rest.
When you say you have a hammer drill, a rotary hammer drill taking SDS bits such as this, Just a moment... will make the job easier.

Good luck, I know you can do it.

[Wrongwayfirst]

Something like these
Ramset 10G x 45mm HEX Tapcon Ankascrew - 100 Pack | Bunnings Warehouse

from BGS. If these are too big then check out what is available in the size you need.

if you have a spirit level then you have all the tools you need. If you don’t have one buy a good one it’s one of those buy once kinda tools.

vacuum cleaner hose held under when the hole drilling collects the dust making cleanup easier.

Cheers

[ian]

I have an 18v cordless hammer drill, and a keyed chuck 240v hammer drill - both Makita.

my suggestion - DON'T use either drill's hammer function.
Get yourself a Bosch multi construction bit from the Big Green shed -- use the bit without the drill's hammer function to drill the holes needed for the shelving unit.
With a level and a bit of care, you'll easily achieve the +/- 1 mm accuracy you are chasing.

[smidsy]

The drills I have aren't construction drills, my cordless drill is a Makita DHP481 18V hammer drill I bought last year - absolute overkill for the little bits I do but I wanted the cordless impact wrench so I bought that kit.
My powered drill is a plane jane Makita hammer drill with a 13mm keyed chuck which I have had about 15 years - power wise it's superceded by the cordless drill but it sits in its case and gets used once every few years.

[ian]

A lady friend has asked me to install some shelving for her on a brick wall.
The shelving is the slotted vertical peices about 1800mm high that the shelves clip in to which she got from bunnings.
I have an 18v cordless hammer drill, and a keyed chuck 240v hammer drill - both Makita.

Has anyone got any hints on how I can drill in to brick/concrete dead accurate - I'd just be putting plugs in the wall to screw in to and I'd be aiming to get them in to the joints where the solid concrete is.

What solid concrete ?? (sorry to be so blunt)
as I read your description, the wall is made from brick held together with [softish] cement mortar, not "solid concrete". Almost any sort of plastic plug will hold in solid brick. Extruded bricks -- those made with three or four holes through them -- will be more of a challenge for locating the plugs in the solid parts of the brick.

If you are really worried about achieving sub mm accuracy, you could drill a very oversized hole in the mortar (a hole that includes a bit of the brick above and below the mortar line), fill the hole with an oversize timber plug (oversized so the wood fibers compress when you drive it in) and then use a wood screw into the wooden plug. That is a builder's trick that was used centuries before carbide drill bits were available and walls were made with stone blocks -- though in those long ago days, builders drove cut nails into the timber plug.


I don't think Makita have ever made a "hammer drill" that doesn't have a means of turning the hammer function off. (Perhaps there is no such "beast" on the planet.) So if you use a normal masonry bit and just grind your way into the brick for say 15mm to get the hole started, you will have a pilot hole to guide the drill bit when (or perhaps if) you switch to using the hammer function.

[Sterob]

I've pre-drilled holes with a small masonary drill bit first so there is less chance of wander and one can correct any drift, to a certain extent.
if you drill the top hole first, the rails will hang vertical. You just need to drill the bottom hole spot-on...ish.

[Pagie]

Is the wall straight and plum? Is it solid ie. not loose or cracked? Is it fixed to something behind the bricks? Sorry I used to be a brickie and not all walls are equal. People are all the time putting basketball hoops on walls over garages and pulling down the bricks on top of themself. Be careful how much weight is on the shelfs. Use the hammer if the wall is hard brick, some are softer than others. As Sterob says drill the top hole first but not closer than 3 or 4 courses from the top of the wall as it is easy to loosen the top bricks. Good luck.

[smidsy]

Thanks for the tips and information guys, I appreciate you taking the time to reply.
This is well within my ability level, I was just a bit wary of the drilling brick aspect as it's something I rarely do.
This lady is a good friend, she has been there for me many times and I want to this right for her - she is a lady who gives a lot of herself to me and others, and I don't get many opportunities to give back to her.
Thanks again guys.

[Handyjack]

How old is the building?
The only reason I say this as a couple of times I have been caught with very old soft bricks (building probably 100 + years old) where you make a little hold and end up putting in a big plug.
Start with a small hole as it is easy to make bigger.
If the building was built in the last 60 years I am sure the bricks will be fine.

[ian]

How old is the building?
The only reason I say this as a couple of times I have been caught with very old soft bricks (building probably 100 + years old) where you make a little hold and end up putting in a big plug.
Start with a small hole as it is easy to make bigger.
If the building was build in the last 60 years I am sure the bricks will be fine.

The house I lived in when I was living in Sydney had soft bricks.
They were not really a problem as they could easily be drilled with a masonry bit with the drill's hammer function switched off.