I have no idea what my wall is made of, but I can't get into it with a
standard drill and bit or with a "self-drilling anchor". All I
managed to do is gouge out a hole in the wall. Any idea what it may
be made of, or how to get into it?

Another wall has a similar problem: I can't hammer a nail into it
deeper than a coupla mm. Presumably made of the same stuff, but this
time I didn't try much harder than that to get into the wall.

Thanks,

Michael Hamm
not much of a DIYer (obviously)

http://www.math.wustl.edu/~msh210/

wrote in message
ps.com...
I have no idea what my wall is made of, but I can't get into it with a
standard drill and bit or with a "self-drilling anchor". All I
managed to do is gouge out a hole in the wall. Any idea what it may
be made of, or how to get into it?

Another wall has a similar problem: I can't hammer a nail into it
deeper than a coupla mm. Presumably made of the same stuff, but this
time I didn't try much harder than that to get into the wall.

Thanks,

Michael Hamm
not much of a DIYer (obviously)


How old is the house, and where is it located?

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
wrote in message
ps.com...
I have no idea what my wall is made of, but I can't get into it with a
standard drill and bit or with a "self-drilling anchor". All I
managed to do is gouge out a hole in the wall. Any idea what it may
be made of, or how to get into it?

Another wall has a similar problem: I can't hammer a nail into it
deeper than a coupla mm. Presumably made of the same stuff, but this
time I didn't try much harder than that to get into the wall.

Thanks,

Michael Hamm
not much of a DIYer (obviously)


How old is the house, and where is it located?

And what does the texture seem like where you tried drilling?

My guess is it's lathe and plaster, but other possibilities exist...

--

wrote in message
ps.com...
I have no idea what my wall is made of, but I can't get into it with a
standard drill and bit or with a "self-drilling anchor". All I
managed to do is gouge out a hole in the wall. Any idea what it may
be made of, or how to get into it?

Another wall has a similar problem: I can't hammer a nail into it
deeper than a coupla mm. Presumably made of the same stuff, but this
time I didn't try much harder than that to get into the wall.

Thanks,

Michael Hamm
not much of a DIYer (obviously)

http://www.math.wustl.edu/~msh210/


Post a picture someplace. Could be plaster, could be brick or block behind
it. Could be a lot of things. When was the house built?

I have no idea what my wall is made of, but I can't get into it with a
standard drill and bit or with a "self-drilling anchor".

Concrete ?

On Sep 16, 10:22 am, dpb wrote:

snip

My guess is it's lathe and plaster, but other possibilities exist...

Nobody can hammer a nail into a lathe. After all, most of them are
made of cast iron. OTOH, he may have plaster over lath, which could be
rock lath, metal lath or wood lath strips.

Joe

This is from an old thread. I'm using Google Groups (alas) which was
acting up, so I couldn't see (at that time) that my post even went
through to Usenet. I assumed it didn't until I just came across it
now and read the responses. Here's my followup.

Me, back in September:
I have no idea what my wall is made of, but I can't get into it with a
standard drill and bit or with a "self-drilling anchor". All I
managed to do is gouge out a hole in the wall. Any idea what it may
be made of, or how to get into it?

Another wall has a similar problem: I can't hammer a nail into it
deeper than a coupla mm. Presumably made of the same stuff, but this
time I didn't try much harder than that to get into the wall.

JoeSpareBedroom:
How old is the house, and where is it located?

1948 (I think), and St. Louis County, Mo.

dpb:
And what does the texture seem like where you tried drilling?

Sandy. More precisely, like a rock that's been pulverized. Perhaps
like concrete or cement that's been pulverized, but I don't know
enough about them.

People have answered what they think it may be -- and thanks -- but
any idea how I can get into it?

Michael Hamm