Help on drilling into an old crumbly wall

memorex

Hiya,

I am currently trying to anchor some wardrobes to an internal wall in my house. Problem is the house is old (build 1890 approx). I don't really understand what the composition of the walls are.

When I drill into them (5mm bit) about 1" of deep plaster coating starts to come crumbing away. Behind that, seems to be something more solid, but I am not sure what it is.

Here is a pic of my first attempt. The wall itself is about 20cm thick.



As you can see drilling leaves a pretty unworkable big hole.

The only options I can think of are:

1) keep drilling as deep as I can (until I hit the hard stuff), insert a long raw plug and then polyfilla around the raw plug. Then finally screw in my screw.

2) polyfilla the hole and drill into that.

I wish I could knock the wall down but that's not an option unfortunately ;-)

If anyone has any tips or have encountered this sort of wall themselves I'd love to hear from you!

Cheers,
-mem

311

Is the wall an outside wall or a dividing wall between bedrooms ?
If it is an outside wall ,what kind of brickwork is your house finished ,red or yellow/grey brick ?

Edit : Heres a quick diagram of the oldest trick in the book.
Cut a piece of wood into a 3 or 4 inch triangle shape and hammer it into the wall.

memorex

Hi 311,

It's a dividing wall between a bedroom and the upstairs landing. I like the idea of the wood trick - thanks! I am going to try one last attempt and drill into the wall with a long fixing. But failing that I might try to plug the hole with the wood wedge and drill into that.

Damn these old houses! It is such a love hate thing.

Cheers,
-mem

311

All you have to do ,once the wood is stuck fast in the wall. Screw straight into the wood for your support.

Hammering timber into a wall is fine when it's a thick outside wall ,be careful you don't bust through the internal wall.

If the wardrobes are tall enough ,you might be able to support something from the ceiling joists ?

Also ,if a wall is really bad for me ,I use a much smaller drill bit than I need ,drill down at an angle (about 35 degrees).
This way you end up with a hole the size you need and the angle means you don't actually have to rely on a very tight bite with the screw.

shazzyb

If the wall is really old and crumbly then Hilti do a product - chemical anchor - its a chemical you pump into the hole before putting in your bolt / screw. The chemical goes hard and trust me there is NO moving your bolt / screw short of knocking the wall.:)