Half brick - half plasterboard.

[Joncr]

A friend of mine moved into a new house, a standard two up-two down pre-war terrace. I volunteered to put up a TV bracket in her daughters room. The adjoining wall was the chosen place. Its been plastered quite well so I put in a top screw and drilled into solid brick but 3 inches down I drilled into plaster board with a void behind it. It's ok as it's a light TV and still fine with a mix of decent wall anchors for the brick and plasterboard plugs for the bottom but it got me thinking...

I've never come across a wall which had plasterboard at the bottom and solid brick from about 5 foot up. There's no chimney recess so it's not been boarded up so why would it be both on the same wall? I could drill another hole and get a snake camera in there but thought I'd ask here if anyone has any ideas?

[pochisoldi]

Damp proof course installation?

[csearle]

Hi Joncr, welcome to The Lemon Fool!

I've sometimes found walls like this where a window has been removed, the gap studded out and boarded over. Usually where an extension had been made on the other side. Also, where a serving hatch has been lost in a similar way. C.

[Dicky99]

My guess is that the party wall has been plaster boarded on dot and dabs and the first drill attempt went through a plaster dot into solid brick and the second went in where there was no dot.

[modellingman]

Now you know why builders and others go around tapping walls with their knuckles. It is to get some idea of what lies beneath: stud walling, lath and plaster (up to late 40's), dot and dab or plaster on brick/block work.

There could be any number of reasons why you found what you did. If it was me I'd probably be looking at several things if I felt the need to know. Is there plaster board present in both locations? How deep is the void? What's on the other side of the wall? In an old terrace I wouldn't rule out repairwork in response to plaster having fallen off the wall at some stage in the past.

modellingman

[bungeejumper]

I take it that this bedroom was on the first floor, and not a loft conversion? It wasn't unknown for all the loft spaces or rooms in a terrace to be interconnected via kick-down panels that could serve as fire escapes in case of need. Insurers don't like them, for obvious reasons. Although burglars do.

But if you've got three feet of brickwork hanging over five feet of fresh air, it's legitimate to ask what's holding it up? A nice strong RSJ, I would hope. Send that snake camera in and report back. Best of luck.

Knuckles are a good way to start, but another non-invasive way of investigating would be to use an electronic stud detector, which will find every nail, especially in straight lines. Even an electronic damp meter probe (the kind with two prongs) would be able to give you some useful pointers as to which areas are (dampish) double brick brick and which are (bone-dry) plasterboard.

BJ

[DrFfybes]

Only one way to find out...



my own pic, taken after MrsF got bored this afternoon.
https://imgur.com/DVGOQ4i

The bit to the side and the clear bit was plaster on brick, around the window and the Genuine Branded Catnic lintel above is dot and dab board.

A friend of mine moved into a new house, a standard two up-two down pre-war terrace. I volunteered to put up a TV bracket in her daughters room. The adjoining wall was the chosen place. Its been plastered quite well so I put in a top screw and drilled into solid brick but 3 inches down I drilled into plaster board with a void behind it.

Have a look outside, if this is your standard 20s/30s terrace I would hazard a guess there were back-to-back fireplaces on the adjoining walls, and that theirs has been removed at some point. Therefore not unlikely for a lintel to be inserted and a void underneath, although I would have expected some residual recess either side unless they boarded forwards the full width of the room.

Certainly some sort of repair if it is plasterboard, as that wasn't around when the house was built.

Paul