best way to deal with lead wall anchors?

[Dan-Ark]

The wash I am dismantling has most of the panels (tri foam, spot free, etc) attached to the brick wall with what looks like a lead anchor with a steel nail in the center. I have used by 4" grinder on a few, tried to drill but that didn't go so well. tried to melt the lead(?) with a propane torch but lost my patience before I could tell if it was going to eventually work. I have gotten some great advice here, hoping for yet more.

 

[MEP001]

Nothing is easy. Drilling them sometimes lets you reuse the hole, but I only attempt that with mat clamps now since there's a lot of leeway and I enlarge the 1/4" hole to 5/16". I mostly grind the heads off now, still slow and messy (Had a chunk burn a hole right through my shirt and into my chest last time) but it gets them flush with the wall. I tried cutting into the steel pin with a cutoff wheel and chiseling off the rest, but it took about as long as just grinding. I don't know what the material is but it's probably not lead or it would melt pretty easily.

 

[Dan-Ark]

thanks, grinder it is....

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

A 5lb hammer and a pry bar I can pull 95% of them out. Actually been pulling some out the past 2 weeks at my wash.

 

[Dan-Ark]

I am salvaging the panels I'm removing for future use, i'm afraid the pry bar would bend up.

 

[OurTown]

I think they are called drive rivets and the bodies are aluminum. They can be nasty to get out and are just a quick and dirty way to hang things. Someday that thing will have to be removed from the wall and someone will have to deal with them. Other than what has been suggested you can just use a cold chisel on them but can be damaging to the item you are removing. Sometimes the head comes off and other times the whole thing will pull out.

 

[OurTown]

I remember another way I got them out. Using the claw end of a small cat's paw pry bar I was able to pry the pin out a little ways by hammering it in between the pin and the anchor head. Then removing that and using a large heavy duty pry bar I wedged in the claw end behind the head of the anchor and pried them out. Still a booger to get out but it is something else to try.

 

[DiamondWash]

When we were remodeling our self serves all of the signs had those lead anchors we just chiseled the head off then used the claw end to pull the nail out and fortunately it pulled the body out as well. But I will NEVER use those again at my wash.

 

[OurTown]

We use the white plastic ones made for FRP panels for hanging signs.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

We use the white plastic ones made for FRP panels for hanging signs.

The white ones never come out after years unless you drill them out and have tons of holes in the wash

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

I am have been ripping down the FRP panels at my place just looks worn and tired way way way too many holes from the plastic anchors and I am going back with just brick stainless anchors no plastic or lead anchors, to me nothing beats clean brick and extutech in a automatic bay and brick in self serve

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Looks so much better to me maybe I am the odd ball

 

[OurTown]

The white ones never come out after years unless you drill them out and have tons of holes in the wash

Yes you must drill them out but but much easier to get out than the aluminum bodied ones. Use a standard twist drill and not a masonry bit but it will be sacrificed. What do you hang signs with?

 

[OurTown]

I am have been ripping down the FRP panels at my place just looks worn and tired way way way too many holes from the plastic anchors and I am going back with just brick stainless anchors no plastic or lead anchors, to me nothing beats clean brick and extutech in a automatic bay and brick in self serve

Clean brick over FRP any day.

 

[Ghetto Wash]

What do you hang signs with?

I use caulk

 

[Randy]

There called “Metal Hit Anchors” or “Metal drive Anchors” the body is made out of zinc. The easiest way I’ve found to get them out is to use a chisel on each side of the nail and break the zinc body in half and then pull the nail out and the rest of the body of the anchor should come out. We use plastic anchors now with a plastic center nail.

 

[MEP001]

The last time I put up signs on brick I had some strips of stainless cut and used plastic sleeves and stainless countersunk screws to mount the strips, then used outdoor rated double-stick adhesive to mount the signs on the stainless strips. I marked and drilled the holes in the strips so all the holes were drilled into the mortar so it can be patched easily in the future.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Yes you must drill them out but but much easier to get out than the aluminum bodied ones. Use a standard twist drill and not a masonry bit but it will be sacrificed. What do you hang signs with?

304 stainless sleeve anchors from confast 5/16 on signs and 3/8 on mat clamps from confast not your typical Lowes/home depot hardware took me a long time to figure that out

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Our town here ya go

 

[pgrzes]

I rehabbed a place that had about a million of them in the concrete decked ceiling. Tried pulling, drilling, grinding beating them. The end result for my location was a propane torch. A minute on each one and they just dropped out, with a nice clean hole left behind. Might be a pita on walls if your trying to save signs, but if you can chop the heads off then follow with a torch to get the remaining lags out?