Anyone have any tips on hanging stuff on a wall inside the house. Trying to put a screw with anchor into these concrete walls seems impossible. I am using a masonry drill bit but perhaps not the right one. Thanks.

What type of wall? Plaster, masonry, concrete?

You need to check the drill bit you are using is appropriate for the material of the wall, and is also not overly worn. In the DIY store they will be labelled for the type of wall. If in doubt, take the better one. Personally my experience is that its best to avoid the entry level range and go for the more up market ones. But if you are only going to use it for a handful of holes and then never again, a cheap will will probably be good as well.

For concrete you need a hammer drill as a mimimum. For plaster and brick you can probably get away with a more simple one.

If you're driling into tiles, disactivate the hammer function, use a very sharp and hard drill bit, and drill slowly.

Something like this?

If it’s a light-weight picture, I suggest a Hilti Boy/Hilti Handschlaggerät. Simply put, it’s a special nail holder, that allows you to focus 100% of the force of each hammer blow onto the tip of the nail, so you can effectively drive it into concrete up to C30/35 (which is medium-strength concrete), at literally 0 risk of hitting and hurting your hand, thanks to a hand guard. The set looks like this:



I worked at Hilti for some 15 years (not anymore, I’m not endorsing it out of any particular interest), and have owned this thing for 14 years or so. It works on just about every normal concrete wall. The kit comes with 3 different nail sizes, and a few accessories (hooks, tips, covers).

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Yeah, my post was tongue-in-cheek, but it illustrates what you're up against in European houses. This is our toilet/shower room that became one big bathroom. We NA folk are used to papier mache walls--not done here. And this was just an interior wall...the exteriors are thicker.
And Hilti is the best!

So you just use a normal hammer with that?

We have concrete walls in our apartment, which are a beoootch to drill through (and my hubby hates doing it for me). I've actually resorted to using double-sided tape before, to hang canvasses. First I put down regular painter's tape on the wall and then put the double-sided tape on top of that, which makes it easy to remove, since it's only the painter's tape that is actually stuck to the wall.

Yeap, a regular hammer. To drive a nail in concrete I’d recommend a hammer 300g or heavier, but even a small 200g may do just fine. Or a tiny 100g hammer if you can swing it well.

No, they’re not. Plus it’s not surprising that you found it hard to demo a CMU wall with a medium sized combi hammer (TE50 or TE70, can’t tell from that pic). For that job I’d suggest a dedicated demo hammer, like a TE800, or even a TE1000 for the bottom half, and a TE800 for the top rows.

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Interesting, thanks! Do you know about how much one of those kits cost (the one in your photo)?

It looks like there are Hilti stores in Oerlikon, Winterthur and Adliswil, but I can't seem to find a price anywhere for those kits (the Hilti website is currently down).

Many a drill has suffered. My quickest tip: ask your neighbours what they do. In some buildings, there is someone who has the right kind of power-drill (or Hilti) to do the job, and the long-termers know who that is. Or ask the caretaker.

This. I purposely got myself an Einhell one to rightfully call it "a Hell" in a good way. It gets the drilling done in seconds instead of minutes. Just make it at the right time: https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/pd/de/i...uarbeiten.html

Also, for some extra hard bricks or concrete with high basalt, quartz or other hard mineral content carbide or other hardened bits will likely be necessary.

It’s not cheap (nothing branded Hilti ever is), but it does last a lifetime. Should be around Fr. 75 or so. There are some for sale for €50 in Germany.

We have a Bosch hammer drill and masonry bits.

There are also hooks you can use to hang pictures on this stuff. Bildhaken für Beton.

I have plastic ones, but here are also metal. You have to check and make sure they’ll hold the weight.

https://www.gerstaecker.ch/Rahmung/B...SABEgJAk_D_BwE

It wasn't hard; our Serbian demolition guy did it. Gone in a couple of hours.

The Hilti set is brilliant. Wife got it as a corporate gift from Hilti.

Before anyone recommends dynamite... how heavy is the picture? I fixed several with “poster straps” glued to the wall and made good experience removing them without a trace...

Thanks for the feedback. I am using the right masonry drill bit but not a hammer drill which I suspect would help. The picture is very large and heavy so drilling is necessary. I found a trick that seemed to help (although I suspect some experts would tell me otherwise). I dipped the drill bit in ice water every 30 seconds or so to cool it down (it would sizzle from the heat every time). Same concept as a ceramic tile saw which uses water to cool the blade. Still was challenging but seemed to help.

Unsurprising it doesn’t work, once you know how drilling in concrete works. As opposed to drilling into plastic, steel, or wood, where the drill bit’s tip literally cuts into the base material, the concrete bits chip away at it, due to the drill’s hammering action. That’s why they need a special head, one that can withstand the constant hammering. The bit chips away concrete tiny pebbles and dust, which is carried outside the hole via the bit’s flute.

Dipping the bit in cold water will help you prevent softening the bit due to overheating. But it will not significantly improve it’s very poor performance. The problem is the drill, not the bit.

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Not only help, you need it. I just moved in a new apartment and here everything is made of solid concrete. It is the first time I actually use the drill/hammer functionality of my Bosch and even with that it is not always easy.
So far I've made 20-25 holes and for half of them I had to really suffer since they were on the ceiling...

You need enough power and hammer action. If you hit a bit of metal, you need to switch to a metal drill, otherwise a masonry drill (beton) is a must. Sometimes it helps to use a smaller bit. More pressure - but a greater risk of breakage.

There are strong double sided sticky tapes that can work nicely.

OP, sorry to go off track, but I do hope you own the house and/or have checked in with your landlord first? I know of too many folks (myself included) who assumed it was ok to hang some pics, only to be told by the landlord at the end of the lease that the wall needed to be returned to "original state". In our case, because the apartment was new when we rented it, the landlord insisted on that wall being replastered (not patched) and repainted entirely...(and was trying to get us to repaint all the other walls to ensure the paint match was perfect throughout the room (but luckily our "push back" on that was successful).