brickdrilldrywallrepair
I live in the UK. I drilled a hole to hang a mirror and it’s slightly off, I’d like to shift it over to a new location, the new location will be half over the old hole.
So I’d like to fill the existing hole but fill it to be able to bear the weight of a heavy mirror still.
It’s plasterboard and breeze block as it’s an external facing wall.
How can I fill the hole to a strength strong enough to bear load?
Thanks!
There are a few possibilities; without knowing more about the layout of the house makes it harder to say for sure.
The internal wall in the garage might be constructed in normal blocks for fire performance reasons. (Without looking, I'm not sure about the fire performance of thermal/lighweight blocks). Also, normal blocks might have been used for structural reasons - for example if the wall is load-bearing (normal blocks generally have a higher compressive strength than thermal/lightweight blocks).
Likewise with the bathroom and en suite - there might be a difference for structural reasons.
Or there might be no firm reason for the difference at all, other than the builders using what they had available - it's not unusual for builders to use what they have as long as it meets any specific requirements for the particular element of the structure.
Though you might be able to mud over them, you're looking at 1-2' of mud (feathered) around each screw to make it not noticeable, which basically means you'd be covering the entire piece of drywall with mud. Like pretty much everything in construction, it will be much easier to do it properly now rather than try to fix it later.
If your driver is slipping out, you are probably not using the right bits (or your bit is worn out) or are not pushing hard enough on the drill to prevent the bit from slipping out. Make sure the bit fits well in the screw head: it should not have any room to wiggle in any direction, and should not slide around. #2 Philips is the usual here, but depending on the screw head it may need to be a sharper/longer or blunt tip.
It could also be that your screws are not the right type. If you're going into wood studs, generally you should use coarse thread screws. If you're going into metal studs, it should be fine-threaded screws.
Since the board is also 5/8, it may be that the screws are not long enough. Try longer screws, which should get a better grip on the studs behind so once they start going in, they'll go in as deep as you need.
Best Answer
Another option is to use a pair of holes. I often do this for larger pictures and mirrors, it spreads the load over two fixings and helps stabilisation, no tipping out of plumb or level when the door slams or such like.
Re. the original hole, you're going to struggle to fill it well enough to be able to drill half of it out again, especially if it's more than 50mm deep. Difficult to picture half a hole making such a difference without seeing the location.