Mounting a Sign onto Masonry: A Step-by-Step Guide
Brick's hard surface makes hanging a sign trickier than working with wood or metal. Standard fasteners aren't up to the task—their tips heat and wear down before they can even scratch masonry. The right approach calls for masonry-specific screws with hardened alloys and a specialized tip, some of which install much like self-tapping sheet metal screws.
By Rowan Davis5 steps
Brick walls hold signs securely with the correct fasteners.
Because brick is so hard, putting up a sign on a brick wall isn't as straightforward as it might seem. If you try to use fasteners meant for wood or metal walls on masonry—brick included—the tip of the fastener will heat up and lose its edge before it can even leave a mark on the surface. Fasteners made specifically for masonry, brick among them, feature a special tip built to bore into hard materials, along with hardened alloys, so they can hold items against a masonry wall. One type of these fasteners installs in a way that resembles a self-tapping sheet metal screw.
Step 1
Use a carpenter's pencil to draw a horizontal mark at the height where the bottom of the sign should sit. Then draw a vertical mark for one side of the sign. Line up the top edge of a 4-foot level with your horizontal mark, and adjust it until the bubble shows it's level. Draw the pencil along the top of the level. Do the same thing to create a vertical plumb line at the second mark.
Step 2
Press the sign flat against the brick wall's face. Match the bottom and one side of the sign to the horizontal and vertical lines you drew. Insert the pencil through each mounting hole on the sign to transfer its position onto the wall's surface. Take the sign down.
Step 3
Put a masonry drill bit into the chuck of your drill motor. At every pencil mark, drill a hole going as deep as the masonry screw instructions call for. Swap out the masonry drill bit for the tip adapter that came with your masonry screws.
Step 4
Reposition the sign so its screw holes line up with the holes you drilled into the brick.
Step 5
Drive one masonry screw through each of the sign's mounting holes. Check that every screw is snug so the sign stays firmly attached to the wall.
