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I used to have some (guitar) hooks which were screwed into a brick wall, but 2/3 of them have fallen out. My only guess is that (since they are all at the same vertical height) they all went into a line of mortar rather than brick? Anyway would like to put them back up, and for them to stay up this time. I don't think the original holes are salvageable, they've become quite enlarged, and unhelpfully filled by yours truly.

My plan is to screw and silicone adhesive a wooden batten to the wall and then screw the hooks into the wood. I'm thinking sand and varnish a 18x69mm spruce batten, use 4 chunky screws and wall plugs and a healthy dose of silicone adhesive to hold the batten to the wall, and finally some small screws to hold the hooks to the batten (the holes in the hooks are small, and the wood is thin, so the screws have to be both small and short).

I just want to check that I'm not missing anything before I permanently butcher my wall, and ask whether it's okay for the screws holding the hooks to the batten to go all the way through the wood, because the screws that came with it are just slightly too long. 3 guitars would weigh about 10kg in total for reference.

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I think you have a nice project idea. The type of masonry anchors/screws you choose will be important. I recommend Tapcon screws long enough to use a washer, penetrate the wood/cleat, and go 1.5" into the wall. So that'll probably be 3" in total length. Get the recommended masonry drill bit when you purchase the screws; and install them approximately as described, below:

  1. mark the desired location of mounting cleat on the wall

  2. mark the desired screw/anchor locations on the cleat

  3. drill holes in the cleat

  4. place the cleat against the wall again, and use the drill holes to transfer marks to the brick wall (spray paint with a thin nozzle works well)

  5. pre-drill holes in the brick using the recommended masonry drill bit; this will be slightly thinner than the tapcon anchors. A hammer-drill helps a lot here. The needed hole will be around 1/4" deeper than the fastener, so for a 1.5" fastener installation depth, hole depth 1.75". The instructions that come with the tapcon fasteners will indicate this, too.

  6. hold the cleat back up to the wall.

  7. install washers and tapcon anchors through the cleat and into the wall. An impact driver with the correct hex bit will help.

The trick with this is if you don't already own a hammer-drill and impact driver (and bits) you may need to rent or borrow them, or the job will be more difficult. That's half the reason for paying handy-men is if you don't want to accumulate expensive tools that you may not use often.

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  • Thanks for taking the time, very helpful for someone new to this. Two questions: is there any advantage to using masonry screws as opposed to wall plugs and wood screws? A standard wall plug is about 1.5" in length in the wall which should work (although i suppose standard screw lengths might mean you end up with slightly less). And the second question is when securing things to wood, should the screws go all the way through the wood, or stop inside it?
    – Mr_Random_Guy
    Commented Sep 27, 2020 at 16:46
  • Wood screws will wear themselves down before penetrating very deep into a masonry wall, and that's if they don't just break during installation. Masonry screws are harder/stronger than wood screws. The shank is generally thicker. This is a 5-minute read with some of the differences: resources.tannerbolt.com/articles/… Expansion/sleeve anchors are available for brick, too. I like Tapcon-style screws because they're cheaper, user-friendly, work in more materials, and are roughly as good.
    – Jeff Wheeler
    Commented Sep 27, 2020 at 17:59
  • Regarding securing the guitar-holders to the wood cleat, I'd buy screws about 1" long. Just one of those will hold dozens of kg and your guitar hooks have three mounting holes, so they'll be totally secure with two or three 1" screws. If you are curious, you can search online for screw pull-out strength charts; they vary by type of screw and species of wood. The way I think of it, though, is kitchen cabinets; they're very heavy with dishes and it only takes a handful of screws at 1.5" deep in a stud to hold them forever.
    – Jeff Wheeler
    Commented Sep 27, 2020 at 18:22
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Three individual vertical battens about 4 inches wide by 8 inches tall, each with a top and bottom screw. Cut each shape with a guitar motif, maybe echoing the outline of a guitar head. Mount the clamp two-thirds up the batten, to handle the gravity forces, and for a better look. A horizontal batten would look too much like a rack of coat hooks..

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