How to drill into steel frame - pantry?

cbranch

Hi, I’m at my wits end. We are wanting to attach pantry shelves into the pantry with support beams underneath flush against the wall. Trying to get screws into the wall has been a nightmare. It seems like about 19mm in the wall are steel plates all over. Tried drilling hole first and using Buildex Tek Screws hex head higrip with impact driver. So far only one screw has caught on to the steel, it seems really hard for the other locations to drill into to expose the steel. Please help! Thank you. 

JacobZ

Hi @cbranch,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

I understand the frustration and I hope I can help.

Firstly, do you have any photos of where you are trying to install the shelves?

This will help me understand the issue a bit better.

Are you positive there are steel plates behind the wall? Is your home built with a steel frame?

Do you have any building plans you could look at that would show what the wall is made of?

When you try putting the screws in, do they just spin and not bite into anything? Or is the issue that they are hitting something but not pulling through? Did the one screw that bit in take a long time to bite?

When you take the screws out of the wall, is there any swarf (steel shavings) or something that resembles concrete dust?

I am sure we can work it out, but I'll need a few details to narrow down what it is we are dealing with and propose a solution.

Let me know what you think.

Jacob