That looks like it’s for a hollow wall. The middle looks like it’s meant to bend to a huge diameter. If that were inside a brick hole, wouldn’t it just make around 1mm of contact at the point where it bends?
The load is a bicycle. The bike is probably around 15kg. It’s at a 45° angle so the load would be a little more than half the weight (assuming it’s the cosine of 45°, not sure), plus the rack.. all of which is well supported by cabinet hooks that take the sheer load. So the anchor in question is just holding the 45° angle of it all. After drilling deeper and adding a metal toothpick (effectively), it’s holding. But it does not feel solid so I am still looking at options.
The metal anchors you show would take on much more load. I’m not sure if I need them. How removable are they?
(edit) to give an idea of what I rigged up, the bike hangs like this:
My setup is slightly different because I have some wood on the wall and under the wheels.
It was not a freshly drilled hole. I would always use the same size bit as the anchor diameter so I remembered that. A 10mm anchor in a 12mm hole would also be very loose which is not the case here.
I just now drilled a bit more after realising that the anchor should probably be flush with the brick, not the 10mm of plaster layered on top of it.
You’re using a masonry bit with a hammer setting right?
Yeah, and in fact it’s not just a hand drill with a hammer setting but a proper ~10kg hammer drill with a shock absorber, a grease reservoir, and STS mounted bits (or whatever they are called). Before I bought this big gear that makes me feel like Rambo, I used a standard drill with hammer setting on poured concrete and it melted one of my bits because it had a weak hammer and spun fast enough to make the bit molten red hot.
I wouldn’t re-use this thing. This is the cheap type that comes free with things that need to be fixed to a wall.
Maybe too late to change now but I might consider a different anchor if it fails to hold my bicycle. I ended up drilling 10mm deeper so that I could push the anchor to be flush with the brick (thus 10mm recessed below the plaster layer). I also added a metal shard about the size of a toothpick between the anchor and brick. It’s holding for now but does not feel rock-solid.
Sounds like chemical anchor, which is a 2-component epoxy. I used that when installing anchors on my roof to use for abseiling. Did that because my life depended on it. But otherwise I try to avoid chemical anchors indoors because they cannot be removed later. I could get out an angle grinder at that point, but there may be a day when I decide to remove all the render to expose the natural brick, in which case the anchor would always be an eyesore.
Otherwise I quite like chemical anchors because there is less stress on the wall, and yet they are stronger than mechanical anchors.
Plastic ribbed anchors will work on concrete/brick/masonry (though I assume only solid brick, which is what I have).
The difference is load. One of the charts I linked gives a quite low load rating for plastic anchors compared to metal ones. I think they have incorporated a big safety factor but in any case I am below the load limit.
Worth noting that pro scaffolding installers drilled holes in my brick and used this same shape of ribbed plastic to secure scaffolding that workers’ safety depends on. Those were very long 12mm anchors IIRC.
Using these plastic anchors is basically a destructive process, so I don’t see an issue with the screw cutting into the plastic.
I don’t care about the plastic but my concern is that I would make it so tight that it cracks the brick.
Another issue is often that you have hollow core bricks a
I’m sure the bricks are solid; likely 150+ years old, back when all bricks were solid. But since they are old, they are probably fragile despite being solid.
The substrate is brick (and I think it’s solid brick not the modern day hollow bricks). But brick seems to not have the ingrity of concrete as it crumbles. So after I drill I vaccum out the debris. There are no instructions because I am in fact reusing an anchor (in the same hole). I had a 6mm screw in it before and I think it spun freely before until screwed. I removed the screw to hang something slightly heavier (and thicker, thus need a longer screw). The two little wings are a bit out of shape which I think is why it spins. But I suppose that’s just to ensure it doesn’t spin while screwing and likely does nothing w.r.t pull-out strength.
Now that you triggered me to think on this more.. I suppose that’s my problem. I either need a new anchor or I need to pack something in to stop it spinning when screwing. Since 6mm worked previously I suppose it should continue to work.
I appreciate all the advice! I still have to dig up the exterior but there is no growth of any kind on the interior side of the beam. It’s drying out and getting less soft as it dries, but still soft enough that I can stick needles in it ~2cm. The bottom side is the softest. I used a syringe to squirt in some wood hardener.
I am tempted to use pro-grade hydro PVA and plasticizer in the exterior concrete then finish with a waterproofing clearcoat that claims to still allow breathing. I believe that will mitigate rain saturating the facade. But on the inside wall I am tempted to not even plaster and just leave the brick and wood exposed. I would then expect water to not penetrate from the outside, but if it does so anyway then at least it could breath on the inside. I can also monitor it that way.
Are you sure all that humidity is coming from the outside? It looks like a really weird spot for that to happen
I did not post a pic of the whole facade, but to the right of the plant is an overhang that prevents water from getting on the facade. This section has no overhang so rainwater runs down the facade. A few years ago part of the facade was cracking and I re-rendered that part of the facade. After a rain, the new part of the facade remains bright in color which indicates water does not penetrate. But in the bad area, the gray surface becomes notably darker, which suggests water is penetrating.
Why can’t you access the upper floor? Is this an apartment building and someone else lives above you?
I have access to the whole house. The interior pics are of the top floor. What I meant by not accessing the top of the beam is just that the ceiling is in the way. I could remove the drywall on the ceiling corner to get access to more of the beam. I will first dig up the exterior facade and see if that exposes the top of the beam. If not, then I would remove a bit of the ceiling.
What’s in the black tube?
I’m not sure what you are referring to. My exteriour pic is terrible (bad camera). On the interior pic, there is a grey cable, probably a/c to the ceiling light. The blackness to the left of that is not a tube but simply a missing brick. It had plaster and insulation foam before I got to it. But now it is just a hole. If you mean the exterior, it’s just a terrible pic. Above the plant is a wood panel that is really warped from getting wet. I installed it new a few years ago but got something wrong. It may not have been treated wood, I don’t recall. I thought painting it would be sufficient but clearly not in the section that has no overhang.
Perhaps you have already checked, but I’d try to rule out any infiltration coming from above, otherwise it will keep happening and it could get worse.
I will know more after I dig up the facade. But note that the roof is right above and just to the right of the plant (off picture) is the downspout. It’s clear, but I suppose I have to wonder if it’s possible that water puddles at a bottleneck right where the downspout is.
Floor-mounted toilets in the EU put their outflow out the back of the toiletbowl parallel to the floor, not below the bowl into the floor. Even if you have a bad mount that causes the toilet to wobble, it won’t leak. But if it did leak, it would be trivially detectable.
Is the US design putting cosmetics above function? Is it that they want to hide the sewer pipe entirely? I suppose if I were installing a toilet in the US, I would look for a wall-hung toilet. But another comment suggests those are rare in the US too.
pure silicone, the clear stuff that smells like vinegar
I believe the stuff that smells like vinegar is special sanitary caulk for bathrooms which comes with anti-fungal properties. Pure silicone is odorless, not for bathroom use, IIUC.
To be clear, if I do the work myself, I would likely renovate the existing problematic bathroom. I would try to do a curbless design out of concrete or a wedi kit, but I am not sure yet if I have enough area for curbless. I would add a shoulder height wall and try to avoid having a door or curtains for the shower stall.
If I hire a contractor, I guess I will consider the house extension since the costs are crazy anyway, in which case I would simply abandon the existing shower until I figure out later what to do with it.
I have no interest myself, but if I wanted a home assistent I would take an Amazon Echo (either from a dumpster, or 2nd-hand), and put lineageOS on it to liberate it. The more Amazon hardware that gets converted to a liberated platform, the better. People have done this successfully with the Echoes that have a screen, but the headless Echoes need the same motivation and effort so we can liberate those too. Otherwise they are going to waste.
If I have a device that needs 12v at 8 amps but each pin is rated for max 5a I can deliver 12v at 4-5 amps through two pins and tie them both to the power rail on the pcb to get a full 8a capacity
That’s interesting and perhaps it explains why there would be two 12v pins (so they can be combined to give double the current). But the question remains as to whether “5A max” on the label implies 5A max per pin, or 5A max total when combined.
This image below is not the PSU I have, just something I dug up, but it suggests a purpose for 4-pin connectors that I can understand, as there are two different voltages supplied:
Although I don’t understand what it means to have prohibited signs on two of the pins. Is that a suggestion that they be used as negatives, despite being called “gnd”?
The outlet probably turns outward, so it’s not just vertical movement.
Ah, I did not think of that. So I need to scrap the idea of a rigid pipe going into a rubber bushing. I guess an accordian pipe would be the viable cheap hack, apart from some way to add support just around the drain.
Maybe there was some kind of metal support that got left out during installation?
The toilet fell through the floor at one point because (I’m told) the house flippers neglected to use backer board wherever they layed tiles (kitchen and bathroom).
That looks like it’s for a hollow wall. The middle looks like it’s meant to bend to a huge diameter. If that were inside a brick hole, wouldn’t it just make around 1mm of contact at the point where it bends?
This shows ribbed plastic as suitable in masonry.
The load is a bicycle. The bike is probably around 15kg. It’s at a 45° angle so the load would be a little more than half the weight (assuming it’s the cosine of 45°, not sure), plus the rack.. all of which is well supported by cabinet hooks that take the sheer load. So the anchor in question is just holding the 45° angle of it all. After drilling deeper and adding a metal toothpick (effectively), it’s holding. But it does not feel solid so I am still looking at options.
The metal anchors you show would take on much more load. I’m not sure if I need them. How removable are they?
(edit) to give an idea of what I rigged up, the bike hangs like this:
My setup is slightly different because I have some wood on the wall and under the wheels.
It was not a freshly drilled hole. I would always use the same size bit as the anchor diameter so I remembered that. A 10mm anchor in a 12mm hole would also be very loose which is not the case here.
I just now drilled a bit more after realising that the anchor should probably be flush with the brick, not the 10mm of plaster layered on top of it.
Yeah, and in fact it’s not just a hand drill with a hammer setting but a proper ~10kg hammer drill with a shock absorber, a grease reservoir, and STS mounted bits (or whatever they are called). Before I bought this big gear that makes me feel like Rambo, I used a standard drill with hammer setting on poured concrete and it melted one of my bits because it had a weak hammer and spun fast enough to make the bit molten red hot.
Maybe too late to change now but I might consider a different anchor if it fails to hold my bicycle. I ended up drilling 10mm deeper so that I could push the anchor to be flush with the brick (thus 10mm recessed below the plaster layer). I also added a metal shard about the size of a toothpick between the anchor and brick. It’s holding for now but does not feel rock-solid.
Sounds like chemical anchor, which is a 2-component epoxy. I used that when installing anchors on my roof to use for abseiling. Did that because my life depended on it. But otherwise I try to avoid chemical anchors indoors because they cannot be removed later. I could get out an angle grinder at that point, but there may be a day when I decide to remove all the render to expose the natural brick, in which case the anchor would always be an eyesore.
Otherwise I quite like chemical anchors because there is less stress on the wall, and yet they are stronger than mechanical anchors.
what instructions?
If there had been instructions supplied, do you think they would cover the scenario of 10mm of gypsum plaster rendered over brick?
Plastic ribbed anchors will work on concrete/brick/masonry (though I assume only solid brick, which is what I have).
The difference is load. One of the charts I linked gives a quite low load rating for plastic anchors compared to metal ones. I think they have incorporated a big safety factor but in any case I am below the load limit.
Worth noting that pro scaffolding installers drilled holes in my brick and used this same shape of ribbed plastic to secure scaffolding that workers’ safety depends on. Those were very long 12mm anchors IIRC.
Thanks! That answers my original question. 6 or 7mm will work according to this spec.
I don’t care about the plastic but my concern is that I would make it so tight that it cracks the brick.
I’m sure the bricks are solid; likely 150+ years old, back when all bricks were solid. But since they are old, they are probably fragile despite being solid.
The substrate is brick (and I think it’s solid brick not the modern day hollow bricks). But brick seems to not have the ingrity of concrete as it crumbles. So after I drill I vaccum out the debris. There are no instructions because I am in fact reusing an anchor (in the same hole). I had a 6mm screw in it before and I think it spun freely before until screwed. I removed the screw to hang something slightly heavier (and thicker, thus need a longer screw). The two little wings are a bit out of shape which I think is why it spins. But I suppose that’s just to ensure it doesn’t spin while screwing and likely does nothing w.r.t pull-out strength.
Now that you triggered me to think on this more.. I suppose that’s my problem. I either need a new anchor or I need to pack something in to stop it spinning when screwing. Since 6mm worked previously I suppose it should continue to work.
I have some on hand. Maybe I’ll try it. Thanks for the suggestion.
I appreciate all the advice! I still have to dig up the exterior but there is no growth of any kind on the interior side of the beam. It’s drying out and getting less soft as it dries, but still soft enough that I can stick needles in it ~2cm. The bottom side is the softest. I used a syringe to squirt in some wood hardener.
I am tempted to use pro-grade hydro PVA and plasticizer in the exterior concrete then finish with a waterproofing clearcoat that claims to still allow breathing. I believe that will mitigate rain saturating the facade. But on the inside wall I am tempted to not even plaster and just leave the brick and wood exposed. I would then expect water to not penetrate from the outside, but if it does so anyway then at least it could breath on the inside. I can also monitor it that way.
I did not post a pic of the whole facade, but to the right of the plant is an overhang that prevents water from getting on the facade. This section has no overhang so rainwater runs down the facade. A few years ago part of the facade was cracking and I re-rendered that part of the facade. After a rain, the new part of the facade remains bright in color which indicates water does not penetrate. But in the bad area, the gray surface becomes notably darker, which suggests water is penetrating.
I have access to the whole house. The interior pics are of the top floor. What I meant by not accessing the top of the beam is just that the ceiling is in the way. I could remove the drywall on the ceiling corner to get access to more of the beam. I will first dig up the exterior facade and see if that exposes the top of the beam. If not, then I would remove a bit of the ceiling.
I’m not sure what you are referring to. My exteriour pic is terrible (bad camera). On the interior pic, there is a grey cable, probably a/c to the ceiling light. The blackness to the left of that is not a tube but simply a missing brick. It had plaster and insulation foam before I got to it. But now it is just a hole. If you mean the exterior, it’s just a terrible pic. Above the plant is a wood panel that is really warped from getting wet. I installed it new a few years ago but got something wrong. It may not have been treated wood, I don’t recall. I thought painting it would be sufficient but clearly not in the section that has no overhang.
I will know more after I dig up the facade. But note that the roof is right above and just to the right of the plant (off picture) is the downspout. It’s clear, but I suppose I have to wonder if it’s possible that water puddles at a bottleneck right where the downspout is.
The American wax ring designs seem like a good candidate for crappy design post in one of these places:
!asshole_crappy_design@slrpnk.net
!crappydesign@discuss.tchncs.de
Floor-mounted toilets in the EU put their outflow out the back of the toiletbowl parallel to the floor, not below the bowl into the floor. Even if you have a bad mount that causes the toilet to wobble, it won’t leak. But if it did leak, it would be trivially detectable.
Is the US design putting cosmetics above function? Is it that they want to hide the sewer pipe entirely? I suppose if I were installing a toilet in the US, I would look for a wall-hung toilet. But another comment suggests those are rare in the US too.
I believe the stuff that smells like vinegar is special sanitary caulk for bathrooms which comes with anti-fungal properties. Pure silicone is odorless, not for bathroom use, IIUC.
American wood frame stucco.
To be clear, if I do the work myself, I would likely renovate the existing problematic bathroom. I would try to do a curbless design out of concrete or a wedi kit, but I am not sure yet if I have enough area for curbless. I would add a shoulder height wall and try to avoid having a door or curtains for the shower stall.
If I hire a contractor, I guess I will consider the house extension since the costs are crazy anyway, in which case I would simply abandon the existing shower until I figure out later what to do with it.
Would love to find a strong lanyard that uses kevlar/aramid for the string. I use one for keys and the string breaks every 18 months or so.
I have no interest myself, but if I wanted a home assistent I would take an Amazon Echo (either from a dumpster, or 2nd-hand), and put lineageOS on it to liberate it. The more Amazon hardware that gets converted to a liberated platform, the better. People have done this successfully with the Echoes that have a screen, but the headless Echoes need the same motivation and effort so we can liberate those too. Otherwise they are going to waste.
That’s interesting and perhaps it explains why there would be two 12v pins (so they can be combined to give double the current). But the question remains as to whether “5A max” on the label implies 5A max per pin, or 5A max total when combined.
This image below is not the PSU I have, just something I dug up, but it suggests a purpose for 4-pin connectors that I can understand, as there are two different voltages supplied:
Although I don’t understand what it means to have prohibited signs on two of the pins. Is that a suggestion that they be used as negatives, despite being called “gnd”?
Ah, I did not think of that. So I need to scrap the idea of a rigid pipe going into a rubber bushing. I guess an accordian pipe would be the viable cheap hack, apart from some way to add support just around the drain.
The toilet fell through the floor at one point because (I’m told) the house flippers neglected to use backer board wherever they layed tiles (kitchen and bathroom).