Zinc plated sleeve anchors should be used in indoor dry areas, stainless steel sleeve anchors should be considered for use in outside applications. All sleeve anchors come pre-assembled and ready to use. The hole that is required to be drilled into the brick is the same diameter as the sleeve anchor being used.
The sleeve anchor is the most common male expansion type anchor for brick walls. It provides the most consistent holding values. By design the sleeve anchor expands over a greater surface area than other types of expansion anchor.
Base material: Sleeve anchors work well in a variety of base materials, including drywall, brick, and block. Wedge anchors, on the other hand, are best used in solid concrete.
Tapcon screws into the brick is the best way for hanging things. Anything into the mortar will eventually work it's way out. Be sure to use the size drill bit that's recommend for the tapcon. And a hammer drill is the best way to drill threw brick.
These light duty Ribbed Plastic Anchors are used in concrete, hollow block and brick, solid brick and wallboard applications. The anchor expands to grip the wall as you tighten the wood or sheet metal screw (not included).
As a general rule, always drill into the brick unless you're hanging something very light (under two pounds). Mortar is much softer than brick and doesn't have the strength to hold significant weight. Mortar deteriorates faster than brick, which could compromise the stability of your installation over time.
The hole was not drilled deep enough and the masonry screw is bottoming out in the hole. Make sure that the hole is a minimum of 1/2” deeper than the screw will penetrate the base material. In some cases, using a generic imported masonry screw may be inferior to using the American made Tapcon brand masonry screw.
Both diameters require that the tapcon screws be embedded into the brick a minimum of 1”. Tapcons into brick also have a maximum embedment depth of 1-3/4” and, because brick is an abrasive material, maximum embedment depth is very unlikely to be obtained.
Concrete screws or a masonry screw as they're also commonly known as, are specially designed to fix materials to masonry surfaces such as concrete or brick. They feature a full thread from head to tip, which is deeper than a normal screw thread to ensure a high pull out resistance.
For this reason, sleeve anchors are recommended by their manufacturers for use in brick masonry more often than wedge anchors. Drop-in and self-drilling anchors (see Fig. 8) are two other types of expansion anchors available, but are typi- cally not recommended by their manufacturers for use in masonry.
LDT (large diameter tapcon) by RED HEAD with 5/8" diameter and 3.5" embedment has an ultimate cap. of 7972 Lbs on tension and 10224 Lbs on Shear. Trubolt (Wedge Anchor) by RED HHEAD with 5/8" diameter and 5-1/8" embedment(note that it is 1-5/6" more) has a ultimate capacity of 6580 Lbs. in Tension and 9600 Lbs.
Wedge anchors can only be used in solid concrete.
They cannot be used in brick, block, and mortar joints. While natural base materials such as stone and granite may be solid, they are inconsistent and their holding values have not been tested.
Wedge anchors are one of the strongest anchors available. They come in nine different diameters and several different lengths. The larger the anchor, the more holding power it has. They also come in several different materials, so you can use them in areas with or without the possibility of corrosion.
Zinc plated sleeve anchors should be used in indoor dry areas, stainless steel sleeve anchors should be considered for use in outside applications. All sleeve anchors come pre-assembled and ready to use. The hole that is required to be drilled into the brick is the same diameter as the sleeve anchor being used.
Tapcons can be installed in concrete, brick, block and in the mortar joints between the brick and block. The harder the base material, the less embedment is required to attain sufficient holding values. The minimum embedment for a Tapcon® concrete screw is 1” and the maximum embedment is 1-3/4”.
Firmness: Brick is generally harder and denser than mortar, which means that it requires more force and a stronger drill bit to drill into it. Porosity: It is far easier to drill into mortar as it is much more porous and therefore may require less force.
When you use cement between bricks, you push the brick onto the wet cement. The wet cement is pushed into the small holes and crevices in the rough surfaces of the brick. When the cement dries and hardens, the two bricks are stuck together.
Whenever possible, drill into the brick, not the mortar. If you plan to drill into the mortar, use a plastic expansion anchor and make sure that anything you hang is lightweight.
You can try beginning your hole in non-hammer drilling mode to stop your drill from skipping across the surface. Place your drill bit in the right location, and with pressure on the drill, start drilling slowly.
Because mortar is softer than brick, using this location could cause deterioration of the anchor's grip over time so you always want to drill directly into the brick.
A regular drill can still drill holes in bricks without the hammer motion. However, it is slower and requires the use of masonry drill bits. Masonry bits feature an arrow-like form and larger tips than the remainder of the bit and are designed to cut through solid materials like bricks.