Drilling and securing a fixing / screw very close to other holes in Brick

[steveoelliott]

Hi all,

 

Today, I had a go at being a little practical / hands on myself and put up some Ben Simpson floating shelves... I had my Dad help me but I did make a fundamental error with the second shelf... I got the measurement 2cm out and ended up with 2 shelves that were not aligned with each other. A schoolboy error but I'm sure it happens more than most will admit. In future I'd actually make a template first to avoid the scope for my ineptitude hampering my own progress.

 

Anyway... to correct this my father said just drill the holes you want 2cm to the right... Now these are 10mm holes with plugs that hold the floating screws; my thoughts were that this is very close to the original hole so opted to drill 5cm higher and 2cm to the right to afford a "reasonable" gap.

 

My question is, although of course there is no exact science, but how close can you go to an existing hole / fixing in brick? I guess this would be breeze block actually but still.

 

Thanks...

Edited July 31, 2021 by steveoelliott
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[SuperPav]

You can go right up to it, technically.. you just need to do it carefully.

 

Step 1 would be to plug the existing hole with some strong mortar, next you'd get a piece of ply or similar with a tight hole of the correct diameter drilled through it to use as a guide/support, locate it so it's exactly where you want the new hole to be, then fix the ply to the wall using plugs/screws in one of the other holes you've got around you (or worst case drill some new ones which you'll fill after). Then get a nice sharp drill bit and start drilling through the ply into the new hole, keeping the drill straight or slightly angled so you're drilling away from the old hole. Once your hole is done, remove the ply.