What helped us a lot was that someone else in our building had renovated, and had pictures of the "inside" of the walls (there isn't an inside, really). I *did* however hit a gap and the brick (which I couldn't drill through w/ my wood bit). (I thought I had found a stud, drilled into it, and discovered it was the BX cable for the electrical wires-fortunately, I was acting sort of gingerly and didn't pierce the BX) To install Elfa-type shelving, we used a hammer drill to drill into the brick (about 3 inches below the surface of the plaster) and Tapcon screws (intended for installation in concrete) to fasten things to the brick itself. Don't ask me why, or how it all hands together, but it's been standing quite sturdily since 1921 and there are NO studs. No brick on the INSIDE walls I think those are either true plasterboard or plaster brick, and they hold themselves up again, no studs. It's plaster (about 3/4" to 1" thick) over metal, over brick. ![]() Have you found the studs, using a stud finder? If your building has them, that's what you want-the studs.Īlso, to throw another idea into the mix, my 1921 apartment building (a co-op, which means I own my apt, which means i don't need my landlord's permission to put holes in the wall) does not have studs OR wood lathe. If you do, then the job would be easier than just drilling or nailing at random. Most of the time, electrical boxes will be found mounted to the side of a stud.so you may want to look directly to the left of right of one to eyeball where one actually is and then go about sixteen inches horizontally to give it a trial run at finding another. Things of light weight, like pictures can be mounted directly into the plaster using anchors.but shelving really shouldn't be, as it is likely to eventually fail. A house of that era does typically have the studs on 16" centers, because that is before they started cheapening up to 24". It's just harder to find the studs under plaster, because you can't do it easily by "knocking" and listening to the dull sound. As he said, typical plaster of that era is lain over lath, and the lath is mounted to studs, just like drywall is mounted to the studs. You are likely hitting the dead space behind the plaster and lathe. If the walls are filled with concrete, you might be able to use concrete anchors to mount your shelving.Īgreeing totally with ericwi. You might have to spend some time tracking down a maintenance person, who knows how the walls are constructed, and ask some questions. ![]() I can't be certain that your building is constructed as described above. When shelving is mounted on a wall, a "stud-finder" is used to locate the studs. This method of construction is called "lath and plaster." The lath is nailed to vertical wooden supports, typically 16 inches apart, called studs. When the plaster has cured, it is now very well attached to the lath, and cannot be easily separated. The lath strips are nailed up, with about 1/4 inch separation, and some of the plaster is forced between adjacent pieces of lath, and allowed to harden. Usually the plaster is applied over horizontal strips of wood, called lath. ![]() The plaster coating, generally between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch thick, constitutes a "firewall." The plaster itself does not burn, and it also protects the wooden structure behind the plaster from heat. ![]() I am unsure of the method of construction used in your apartment building, so I will describe typical construction.
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