How to use resin fixings

Resin fittings and fixings can make a job simple.

Here are a few points about these fittings and how they can be used:

• you may be looking to put some fixings into a masonry or brick wall etc;

• in theory this is easy. In practice, it can sometimes be very tricky in situations where the quality of the masonry isn’t what it should be or perhaps the fixing just happens to be falling close to a joint or an edge;

• in these situations, what you don’t want is a classic expansion fitting approach – in other words, you don’t want your fixing to push outwards the bore hole of the fixing area in order to bed itself in. If it does, it may crumble or damage the surrounding areas and if they’re already in poor condition or close to an edge, that could be a problem;

• that is where resin fixings come into their own;

• the basic idea is relatively simple and starts with the traditional drilling of the hole for the fixing. Once done, you need to make sure you have got as much of the dust out as you can – a basic air pump might be very useful;

• at that stage, your approach might look slightly different depending upon the type of resin you’ve purchased;

• some solutions come in pre-mixed tubes others in tubes that are mixed as you squeeze them through a standard applicator gun;

• make sure your hole is drilled a little larger that the stud you plan to fix then squeeze or inject the resin mixture into the hole.  Before you do so, squeeze a little onto a piece of card to make sure it’s mixing well, is of even colour and doesn’t have any obvious air bubbles in it;

• wearing gloves and eye protection is a smart idea as the resin can be difficult to remove;

• push the stud fixings into the resin filled hole, giving them a little twist as you go. Try to make sure all of the thread inside the wall is covered;

• the resin will have a published gel and full cure time – usually on the tube.  You can fix nuts and perhaps very light loads to the studs once the resin has gelled but wait until the full cure time has elapsed before putting the stud under heavy load.

That’s it! These fixings can be a real gift in awkward situations and avoid you needing to start cutting out and replacing masonry.