Brick and plaster - hanging things

thanks, judy. I decided to go with the shallow anchors, and that's working so far, but it's good to know about the hammer drills.

rh

If you do a fair amount of DIY work around the house, get yourself on the Screwfix catalog mailing list:

http://www.screwfix.com

They stock just about every type of wall plug, toggle bolt, and masonry anchor you will ever need for most light-duty DIY, as well as drill bits, power tools, screws, plumbing, electrical, and gardening supplies. 

Just a warning as I am not sure what you are intending to hang up with shallow anchors. When we bought our first terraced house, built in 1880's we used these on the walls. It wasn't a month before most of what we had hung up ended up on the floor. The toilet roll holder, curtain rails, kitchen towel holder and so on! Being an old house the plaster wasn't in the greatest of shape and eventually the stress of use even for something as light as toilet roll caused the hole to get bigger. The only thing that stayed put really was some of the pictures. We have since taken to doing what the others advised here and drilled and anchored things that will be in use on a regular basis, into the brickwork instead. Saved a lot of frustration in the end!

thanks for the tips, paul and mwyn. The shallow anchors seem to be doing OK. I used a peculiar product to help set them in place - a piece of fiber paper with plaster powder on it, you get it wet then wrap it around the anchor before putting it in. It seems to have helped.

i've only used the shallow anchors for pictures. So far (touch plaster) so good. And it has been 6 months.