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  • Author Author: dubbie
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How Many Tools Does it Take To ....... Remove a screw from the wall

dubbie

I've always known that it takes many more tools than you think to do even the simplest of jobs and today I was able to confirm that. One of my bedrooms is being redecorated and this involved removing some box shelve units, which in itself was very straight forward, but it did leave the screws still fixed into the wall. I think the shelves were put up some 20 years ago so have had plenty of time to fuse into place. Additionally, they were also unusual screws as they were much longer than expected, being 5 cm long. Fortunately they were crosshead and I managed to remove 3 of the four using basically brute strength. How I put them in I cannot imagine - I must have been much stronger 20 years ago.

 

For the last screw every cross head screwdriver I used wasn't good enough and I ended up stripping the screw head. So, I used a junior hacksaw to cut a slot, then a standard hacksaw to make the slot wide enough for a flat blade screwdriver and eventually managed to remove the screw. The tools I used are shown below - and I used them all (except the hammer)! Plus a step ladder.

 

image

 

 

So from top to bottom:

 

1) Junior hacksaw.

2) Large pliers (a gift from Element14 - thanks very much) Tried to use these to rotate the screw - they didn't work.

3) Small pliers (for trying to remove the wall plug - didn't work)

4) Small wooden handles flat blade screwdriver (Not big enough)

5) Ratchet screwdriver flat blade (Not big enough)

6) Large wooden handled screwdriver flat blade (Finally did the job once a slot was cut into the screw head)

7) Rubber handled flat blade screwdriver (a gift from Element14 - thanks very much) Just not big enough.

8) Ratchet screwdriver cross head. (Worked for three of the screws just not for the last one)

9) Standard hacksaw.

10 Drill bits for drilling out the wall plug.

11) Set of screwdriver bits (Used with tool 8.)

12) Hammer (Actually I don't think I did use this)

13) Cordless drill (Used to remove the wall plug - mostly)

14) Step ladder (Not shown.)

 

So I had to use 13 tools (I haven't counted the hammer) to remove one screw from the wall, along with it's accompanying wall plug.

 

Below is the hole I ended up with. Parts of the wall plug are still inside this hole but I thought this hole is big enough as it is so I stopped.

 

image

 

I was surprised at how many tools I did need for this seemingly simple task.

 

Dubbie

Parents

  • You can never have too many tools, or use too many tools on a single job.  I seem to have been involved in a life time mission to collect as many tools as possible.  My mission is based on the simple fact that I tend to have somewhat poor organizational skills and at any given time I may only know the rough location of a fraction of my tools.  I have on many occasions bought tools that I own bu can't find at the time that I needed them, or bought because at the time when I was in the store I was unsure if I already owned the tool that I was thinking I might need.

     

    Good on you for having the tools that you needed and getting the job done!

  • in reply to genebren

    Gene,

     

    Part of the room decorating will consist of painting the walls so they will need to be as smooth as possible. Previously wallpaper was used which covered up the imperfections. So I was immediately thinking of large flat hand planes and probably an electric flat sander, unfortunately my wife's first comment on hearing my view that the walls would need sanding was that I could not buy anymore tools - I don't know why as I do not have any tools for making walls flat and smooth. Secretly I think she doesn't want me to do it!

     

    Dubbie

  • in reply to dubbie

    Now this sounds like a job for a decorating robot...

     

    I have encountered a similar problem here in that the previous owner scored the plaster before wallpapering. Unfortunately two coats of filler basecoat hasn't managed to smooth it over enough.

Comment Children
  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Dave,

     

    We had a very good decorator for our living room - from Romania although I'm not sure if that is relevant. He spent days getting the walls really flat. He filled the big holes, machine sanded, then painted with undercoat and used some big sander thingy to find out where the slight dips were, then filled all those, sanded again, painted and eventually finished. The walls are lovely and flat.

     

    Dubbie