Hey guys.

I was over a customer's house today pulling wires for surround. The 50" Panasonic Plasma that HE installed, just fell off the wall. No one was near it. No one touched it, it just happened to fall off while I was in the house. I inspected the fasteners and he used the usual metal masonry anchors and lag bolts, likely what was supplied with the bracket. It was attached to a brick wall. The fasteners were in the brick, not the mortar.

This got me to thinking, I have never installed a plasma on brick. I have installed lighter LCDs but not heavy plasmas. I can't say I would have used anything different.

What does everybody here use for a secure mount for a heavy object to a brick wall?

Thanks, Craig

3" tapcons with Concrete Construction Adhesive

lags with lag shields. hung 60" pdp's off of brick this way & never had one fall

red head sleeved anchors! i have quite a few heavy ass plasmas without issues, even some on articulating mounts!

that is dumb serious, lucky the dog or kids werent near it!

+1 for the red heads...only way to go in my book

Any pictures? I'm guessing the drill bit used was too large, and that the plastic anchors were not snug as a consequence.

He likely over-drilled the lag holes or over-tightened the lag bolt and broke down the structural nature of the lag.

I've used red heads for solid surface such as brick over concrete or cinder block. If it's brick veneer over an air gap then hilti snap toggles thru the veneer, air gap and structural support behind which is often wood.

As this guy has found out, it pays to not only know the surface, but what's behind it and use the appropriate fastener AND install it correctly; i.e. don't drill your lag hole so big that it can't spread far enough to clamp the masonry.

This is exactly what happened.  I wasn't there, and this is 100% true.  Simple case of the holes being too big, and not using the proper anchor. 


We've hung 100's of TV's into brick fireplaces.  Use redheads, read the instructions, use a good drill bit, don't bore the hole too big, and you can hang a Buick off those things.  They're not going anywhere.  

Let's see....Brick fireplace, it's getting cold,  plastic anchors,  fireplace gets lit, plastic anchors chnage their composition because of the heat, TV falls off the wall.  Makes sense to me.

Yup, thats what happends when people are to cheap to call the pro's, or when a dude that sells underwear thinks he can ask the 20 year old home depot guy what will work. Plus even if he did get the right stuff who knows what tools he used, he may have stripped over drilled did something.

I always do over kill and it pays off.

Yep. I'd also put money on this DIYer not owning a hammer drill which is the proper drill type/setting to use. The novice with his Dad's hand me down Black & Decker single speed drill will egg that hole out because he's trying to force the bit into the masonry, no doubt about it.

If its worth doing, its worth over doing :)

He used lag bolts and the metal "lag shields" I guess is the proper term. The metal ribbed ones that split in two and preass out against the hole as the lag bolt srews in and expands them.

I know it's incredibly serious. He says the TV was hanging there for four years. I can't believe it just dropped like that. Crazy.

Thanks guys.


Craig

We call those split anchors....Those things are pieces of garbage.  I hate those things.

These things craig? God these are such pieces of shit


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Hasbeen says it right.


This is a perfect expression of the way amateurs approach making a hole, not understanding that a hole has to not only be large enough, it has to be small enough. (Although next time you see a "pro" pushing against a drill with all his might, work out how to tell him he doesn't understand the process and he should let the motor spin the drill rapidly and let the front edges of the drill do the work instead of plowing out the material with force.)


The amateur does overkill and it can ruin things. It has to be informed overkill! Drilling out the hole and letting the drill wobble to be sure the hole is large enough; that's bad overkill.

Overtightening the bolts is bad overkill for more than one reason: If it's a lag in wood, you can actually spin the head off the bolt -- that was a rude surprise! You have to learn to feel the resistance of the bolt against your tightening force and stop when it suddenly gets much tighter. With a lag shield, you can strip out the lead and end up with a bolt that is not bolted in, but sitting in place.

In general, I dislike lead shields anyway. As you tighten the bolt, the lead spreads because of the pressure against it, and tightens up in the hole, deforming because it is soft and it can deform. Here's my caveat: you then leave it properly tight, but the lead now has pressure against it and it can deform. Seems to me it can loosen over time, especially if there's vibration; think apartment over a subway or house near a railroad track or even road with a bus route.

I prefer the harder steel mounts that do not depend on their own weakness, which is the ability to deform.