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What is the layer of plasterboard inside the wall?

Hi all,

Just a quick and maybe silly question, but I was just mounting something on the wall and one of anchors I tried to insert actually bumped into what felt like another layer of wall inside. I ended up using a shorter anchor at that particular location which worked enough for my use case.

Anyway, does anyone know what this is? I was guessing maybe it could be an additional layer behind the wall to protect something else like pipes/wires but hoping you have an idea.

Thanks!

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Comments

TedBear

Hi @barydos , great question... but your guess is as good as any. There are always risks when drilling through a wall. You never know what happened in there during construction. Water pipe, electrical cable, timber support, the back of a power point box (is there one on the other side?) ...It could have even been a bit of fallen debris that the builder didn't bother to retrieve. I'm curious as to what others may guess from their experience.

EricL

Hi @barydos

@TedBear is spot-on regarding what's behind the wall. The only way to find out is to remove the panel and having a peek behind it. However, the good news is that no water came out and your lights did not flicker when you hit that area. My best advice is to get a stud finder that has the ability to detect copper pipes and live wire to give you a general idea of where the utilities are behind your wall.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

Jason

Hi @barydos,

Just to quickly add to the advice shared, you might like to invest in a stud finder for future projects to ensure safety. Eric has previously shared a simple step-by-step guide How to use a stud finder that you should find helpful.

Jason

JDE

Barydos

How old is your house. New (first saw it 5 years ago) framing practice here in Tamworth is that they put in noggins (cross pieces in wall frame) that are thinner than the frame studs. This means that plumbers and sparkies dont have to drill holes through them when roughing in (running pipes and wires in walls). So you may have just hit one of them. Its a pain when hanging things as there is a gap between the gyprock and noggin so a screw risjs crushing and its hard to get a toggle in. JDE

MitchellMc

Hi @barydos,

It's a bit hard to tell, really. Could it have been a pipe in the wall cavity, or the back of a powerpoint in the adjacent room?

Grabbing yourself a stud detector might allow you to determine what going on in the cavity.

Mitchell

Dave-1

Afternoon @barydos

ahhh and just to add to what you can find behind plaster 🙂

I was hanging a plus 50kg old LCD touchscreen monitor on my wall, tapped the wall and yeah it sounded solid so presumed it was brick behind the plaster. Did my 4 holes into brick, (red dust came out) and then went to the other end and using my hammer drill punched straight through into space!

Turns out there use to be a door there.... Insert some unkind words lol

Solution, drill some more support holes in the center of the bracket into the brick wall and then some plaster anchors I used for the far end (most of the strain will be taken by the brick anchors) But it taught me a lesson, never think I know it all 🙂 (Super heavy monitor still attached to the wall 4 years later)

Dave

barydos

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/33008#Comment_33008

Great story @Dave-1 haha! Good to hear it's still hanging on.

Thanks everyone else for their experiences too, it's always good to know what other people see and do.

It's also reassuring to know that it's not always possible to know exactly what's there!

And FYI, I generally use this stud finder around the home: https://www.bunnings.com.au/franklin-prosensor-t9-stud-finder_p0045181

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