In recent years there’s been a significant shift away from traditional Green Star Plugs to the likes of Qscrews. Let’s do a quick comparison of the key differences between these two options & see which one comes out on top!
Qscrews:
Pros:
- One piece anchor
- Only a 2 step installation, drill hole then simply drive in
- 5/16 roofing screw driver size (same as 10 & 12g screws), already in most tool boxes
- R1000 galvanised coating making them suitable for indoor & outdoor applications
- Fully removeable, simply undo and the screw can be re-used in a new hole at least once
- Superior pullout & shear strength to green plugs
- Less stress on brittle base material as Qscrews simply cut into masonry rather than expanding in the hole
- Suitable for brick & concrete, twin thread guarantees a good bite regardless of brick or concrete
- Faster installation time reducing labour costs significantly
- Inexpensive compared with Screwbolts, Sleeve Anchors
- Can even be used as a wood screw if necessary
Cons:
- Not suitable for tiles
- Slightly more expensive compared with green plugs & screws
- Not suitable in situations where you need a smaller screw head size (although the Qscrew head is quite small & inobtrusive)
Green PVC Plugs
Pros:
- Trusty traditional fixings, been around for years
- Low cost
- Versatile, used in most masonry applications concrete, brick*, tiles*
- Can be used with a variety of different screws
- Strong hold when using the correct screw gauge & drill size
Cons:
- 3-step install process, drill, hammer in, then screw
- Recent years PVC quality has dropped since they’re now mostly imported, harder plastic which can tend to be brittle
- Although they’re widely used in bricks & tiles, they’re actually only meant for solid masonry e.g. concrete
- Not suitable in hollow brick (there is many other plugs that do bricks & tiles better
- Due to poor performance in brick many contractors revert to fixing into the mortar which is actually the softest part of the brick & will pull out under load
- Difficult, if not impossible to remove from hole
The verdict:
Green plugs work, but Qscrews are faster, safer, and stronger. They cut labor costs and are perfect for many trades. Electricians, air conditioning installers fixing saddles, junction boxes to brick & concrete. Builders are also switching to Qscrews instead of pins & charges or gas nailers to fix timber to concrete as they are a low cost but higher strength option.
Should you throw out all your green plugs & go only Qscrews?
Certainly don’t go that crazy! Green plugs will still get you out of trouble for a lot of your everyday projects however we’re finding our customers using Qscrews everywhere they possibly can due to the time saved installing.
Needing technical data sheets or just some realtime advice from fixings experts? Call our team today, we love talking project applications, practical solutions & all the technical stuff that most people prefer to avoid!
