On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:27:40 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

I took down a couple of pieces of beat-up sheetrock and found that many
of the cavities were almost completely full of pieces of sheetrock.

Any good reason why a builder (or remodeler, perhaps) would have done
this? The only thing I can think of is that it saved them the trouble of
carting the offcuts away and perhaps paying to dump them.

I suppose they haven't been doing any harm, but they are a pest if I
want to install an old-work outlet box in a section of wall where I do
not remove the sheetrock.

Perce

You got it in 1. Easier and cheaper. The space above my basement
stairs is almost completely filled with offcuts. I discovered it when
doing some remodeling. Doesn't really hurt anything, but can be a
pain as you said. And it sure confused the stud finder I was using.

After rough calculating how many trash cans the heap would fill, I
left mine right where they were.

Paul F.