Picture hanging hooks for solid walls

[Mrs Pingu]

We've got an incredibly solid wall I'd like to hang some pictures on. Currently using command hooks but the frames aren't really wide enough to stick an entire command strip to and after a few months the picture falls off the strip. (They are not heavy picture frames)

Has anyone had success with these type of hooks like the Toly? https://frankshaw.co.uk/collections/hard-wall-hooks-toly-hooks/products/small-hard-toly-wall-hooks?variant=31975089209390
I'm worried I just won't be able to get those nails to go in the wall.

Or should I just admit defeat and use a hammer drill and a proper wall plug fixing¿

[Jurek]

The latter will give you peace of mind, and absolve you from having to repeat the job.

[robgul]

They're useless - these https://www.toolstation.com/picture-hook-with-pins/p65565  are much better as the pin goes in the wall at an angle so a downwards pull (the pins are hardened steel and pierce plaster and render)

That said I prefer to fix pictures on the wall using very small mirror plates https://www.toolstation.com/mirror-plate-round-hole/p64663  screwed to the frame on either side and into the wall with a plug and screw (you can get the picture dead level and it wont move)

[Jurek]

^This.

[chrisbainbridge]

We are in a vicarage with absolutely solid plaster with rounded corners as it predates modern stuff. The plaster is like concrete.
I buy those multi pin hooks of Amazon or screw fix and they are brilliant. Hardened steel pins. Reasonable size hammer to cover all the pins. Relatively light taps but reasonable frequency. They will hold anything.

[Mrs Pingu]

They're useless - these https://www.toolstation.com/picture-hook-with-pins/p65565  are much better as the pin goes in the wall at an angle so a downwards pull (the pins are hardened steel and pierce plaster and render)

We used to have enough trouble getting them into the lath & plaster walls at the last place, I doubt we'd get them in the breeze block.
Maybe I should go and have a bash in the bathroom being as it's getting gutted next month anyway. 🤔
(Which reminds me I still need to fill the big hole in where I ripped the pelmet off the wall)

[Feanor]

If the wall is really hard brick or the like, you won't manage to hammer anything like that in.
I had to use an SDS drill and wall plugs or multi-monti screws in Junior's flat in Edinburgh for exactly this reason.

Small wall plugs are suitable for light loading like most pictures etc.
Multi-Montis make a very good alternative to sleeve anchors for heavier loads, like your collection of heavily-framed Gainsboroughs.

(The nice thing about multi-montis is you don't need to drill an oversized hole for the sleeve anchor, you drill a skinnier tapping-sized hole which you can drill *through* the mounting holes of whatever it is you are fixing.)

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

They're useless - these https://www.toolstation.com/picture-hook-with-pins/p65565  are much better as the pin goes in the wall at an angle so a downwards pull (the pins are hardened steel and pierce plaster and render)

We used to have enough trouble getting them into the lath & plaster walls at the last place, I doubt we'd get them in the breeze block.
Maybe I should go and have a bash in the bathroom being as it's getting gutted next month anyway. 🤔
(Which reminds me I still need to fill the big hole in where I ripped the pelmet off the wall)

The trouble with hammering into lath and plaster IME is that the laths just bounce when struck with the point of a nail.  I've had some success drilling a small pilot hole first.

Breeze blocks are much easier. We have them here and I can knock picture hooks into them all day and every day.  For anything weighty I would use a small rawlplug and screw.

[chrisbainbridge]

These are the ones we have https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NQ6PWR7

[jsabine]

If it's proper hard bastard concrete render, the kind that scoffs at your puny human efforts to make a hole in it, then the little white multi-pin jobs are spot on - they'll go in firmly, and not move. Trying a normal picture hook will, IME, result in the supposedly hardened pin bending, or fracturing suddenly, or (very occasionally, probably if you've hit a pre-existing flaw) causing the render to dinner-plate and flake away.

In mere plaster, of course, no matter how hard it may seem to be, the wee white ones will fail and pull out. Might take ten minutes, might take ten weeks, but they will fail, normally embarrassingly.

[Keef66]

If you otherwise like using command strips you can staple the strip to the back of the picture frame if it looks like the adhesive won't be enough

[Mrs Pingu]

If you otherwise like using command strips you can staple the strip to the back of the picture frame if it looks like the adhesive won't be enough

Oh, that's a good idea!

[rafletcher]

Breeze blocks are much easier. We have them here and I can knock picture hooks into them all day and every day. 

May I respectfully submit that you probably have Thermalite or similar PFA based blocks - which can be sawn to size if necessary. Breeze blocks comprised of cement and clinker are, at least in places where the glassier material is, bastard hard.

[Mrs Pingu]

Handily I already had the staple gun out for refurbing the cat plucker so I bought a new cheapo frame at Dunelm while we were out getting cat litter. Let's see how long that stays on the wall this time.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Breeze blocks are much easier. We have them here and I can knock picture hooks into them all day and every day. 

May I respectfully submit that you probably have Thermalite or similar PFA based blocks - which can be sawn to size if necessary. Breeze blocks comprised of cement and clinker are, at least in places where the glassier material is, bastard hard.

It must depend on the materials as our breeze blocks are too old to be any kind of insulating block.  However, they are certainly not hard and scarcely need hammer action to get into them.  Our bricks make up for it and can be penetrated only with SDS hitting it with plenty of joules.

[Keef66]

60s council house I grew up in had breeze-block inner walls.  Hard as nails and granular so unpredictable when drilling. Once you were through the plaster a drill bit would wander quite erratically; it was kind of pot luck where the hole would end up going.  I often preferred to use a Rawlplug triangular chisel thing which predated hammer drills.  Easier to keep it centred and whack with a hammer.