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Will a molly bolt expand or just shatter when it's thirty below zero?

Some idiot tried to steal my mail today and in doing so accidentally ripped the mailbox off my house and broke it into about 40 pieces. Some parts are ruined beyond repair, so I'll have to go out and get a new mailbox.

I know that attaching the mailbox will mean I'll have to drill holes in my stucco with a masonry bit (the old holes were destroyed when idiot ripped it off the wall), then put in two molly bolts, then screw in the screws, then hang the mailbox on the screws.

Problem: it's the dead of winter. It's -28 right now not including wind chill. I won't get my mail without a mailbox. But won't the tines of the molly bolts just shatter when I screw the screws into them? Is there something I can do to stop this from happening? Or should I use another form of attachment?

I can't afford to be going back and forth to the hardware store: it's a 20-minute and $2.30 bus ride away. So it would be a big help to know whether I should be using something else to attach it.

(Incidentally, I live in Canada; in my neighbourhood, having a mailbox on a post (like in the US) is actually against regulations and I would not receive mail. The mailbox has to be attached to my house. I don't even have a post.)

Thanks!

Update:

It was a steel mailbox. I think it shattered partly because the idiot had his hand in it when I surprised him by looking through the window (I thought it was the mailman), partly because it dropped on the concrete, and partly because it was -30. I think it was just cheaply made.

Update 2:

He ripped it off the wall with his hand stuck in it, then shook it off. I think he got a piece of junk mail for his efforts.

4 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Toggle bolts.

    You want to use toggle bolts.

    You can probably use the same holes that the old bolts left..

    Source(s): Gen Contractor
  • Don
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    I think the above posters are probably right about fastening into stucco with toggle bolts. However, you say this mailbox broke into 40 pieces. That makes me suspect you had a plastic mailbox, and plastic shatters very easily at cold temperatures. I know where I am, when the snow plows run, it's very common for pieces of snow to go flying, and break these kinds of mailboxes. There might be an innocent explanation for this box being broken (here, the county will even reimburse you for your mailbox if you claim their snow plow broke it while plowing snow).

  • 1 decade ago

    Try a butterfly or wing bolt. You drill a hole large enough for the collapsed spring loaded wings to fit through. Once inside the wall the wings open.

  • 5 years ago

    No I just walked over it, there were way too many pieces to pick up, the pieces had spread into all 50 states. I just waited for a new better and improved one to grow in its place. It did.

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