DIY Project, wiring in walls: What is this?

[destrekor]

So, I'm in the process of dropping some Cat6 into my office wall from the attic, and now I'm making the hole for the wall plate.

But, here's a mystery: there's 5/8" drywall, and then? Then there's something like 1.5" drywall behind it! WTH? (see photo below)

This is OK to keep going, right? I mean, there are already other wallplates in this wall, one power and one for telephone. And to be clear, this is an interior wall between two bedrooms.
And this place was built in the '70s (condo complex, townhouse-style).

At first once I cleared the drywall, I thought it might be a plywood backer. Started drilling a test hole, and it was chewing up plaster. Triple confirmed I wasn't losing my mind and drilling into the opposite room, but it just kept getting deeper. I removed the phone's baseplate and confirm that there is a bit of thickness to whatever is behind the drywall but otherwise is hollow beyond that. Finally saw darkness in the hole and punched through carefully. It's clear behind it, but... I think I'll struggle to cut through that with the drywall saw I'm using. Might be able to break out a pocket knife to score deeply enough if I need to.

Moved from OT.
admin allisolm

 

[NoTine42]

Strong, Solid walls like that would probably be great for subwoofer response!

I've heard of plaster guys using a ton of plaster as fill to make something level.

How thick are the studs? (Before the drywall starts again?) was that a 2x3 framed wall and someone added a bunch of extra drywall so a pre-fab door frame casing (meant for 2x4 walls) fit?

 

[MrSquished]

I would just call a dude.

This ain't like building a PC from scratch

 

[John Connor]

Tear down the wall as there might be a dead body in there. I seen this on Miami Vice once, trust me.

 

[rommelrommel]

Is that a shared wall? Some kind of fire break?

 

[herm0016]

If it is a shared wall, it is fire rated and has double drywall on both sides.

 

[twinrider1]

Load bearing drywall.

 

[destrekor]

If it is a shared wall, it is fire rated and has double drywall on both sides.

Shared wall as in shared between units? No, this is an interior wall, shared between two of my bedrooms.

 

[destrekor]

Strong, Solid walls like that would probably be great for subwoofer response!

I've heard of plaster guys using a ton of plaster as fill to make something level.

How thick are the studs? (Before the drywall starts again?) was that a 2x3 framed wall and someone added a bunch of extra drywall so a pre-fab door frame casing (meant for 2x4 walls) fit?

Well the exposed studs in the basement utility room are standard 2x4s. And the one wall between the living room and kitchen does NOT have this extra material behind the regular drywall there, at least not where the one wall plate is for the coax termination I opened to take a peek.

 

[John Connor]

Well the exposed studs in the basement utility room are standard 2x4s. And the one wall between the living room and kitchen does NOT have this extra material behind the regular drywall there, at least not where the one wall plate is for the coax termination I opened to take a peek.

Like I said, look for body.

...or gold!

 

[Exterous]

So the hole for the phone has the same thickness? How far away is that from this hole? Maybe they used the material as a backer to attach a piece of replacement drywall to for a wall repair

 

[nakedfrog]

Good excuse to buy a borescope? Pretty cheap these days.

 

[destrekor]

So the hole for the phone has the same thickness? How far away is that from this hole? Maybe they used the material as a backer to attach a piece of replacement drywall to for a wall repair

It appears to, the one side appears to be a stud but the other appears to have the same thickness of material cut away. The phone wall plate is in the hollow (between two studs) to the left of where I'm cutting, so there is one stud between them. It's about 12" or so to the left.

I'll have to see if I can measure the one stud, it seems weird for there to be 2x4s and yet have this much material on both sides of the wall. The wall doesn't appear to be anything other than ordinary thickness, which would lead you to assume it's one sheet of 5/8" drywall on either side of the stud, and that's it. Perhaps they are 2x3s and the combo was used to provide extra sound dampening while keeping the walls relatively standard depth so doors mounted well?

 

[John Connor]

Good excuse to buy a borescope? Pretty cheap these days.

I bought one of these when I detected a high amount of EMF in the wall. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Endoscope-W...hash=item3f56bda44e:m:mXtU2FcgbT84z-PL27Qk4HA

 

[Scarpozzi]

I bought one of these when I detected a high amount of EMF in the wall. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Endoscope-W...hash=item3f56bda44e:m:mXtU2FcgbT84z-PL27Qk4HA

That's awesome. I remember about 15 years ago when my office paid a ton of money for one of those things, but it was made by Fluke...so I'm guessing the quality was better.

 

[twinrider1]

Wondering if there's a vent stack or hvac ducting in one of the corners. Might have created an awkward corner so they just built out one wall with the drywall. Normally I'd think they'd fur out the 2x4 with shims, but maybe they just had some extra drywall to use up. Or maybe it was an attempt at sound deadening.
Is it the whole wall? How are the other outlet boxes mounted?

 

[destrekor]

Wondering if there's a vent stack or hvac ducting in one of the corners. Might have created an awkward corner so they just built out one wall with the drywall. Normally I'd think they'd fur out the 2x4 with shims, but maybe they just had some extra drywall to use up. Or maybe it was an attempt at sound deadening.
Is it the whole wall? How are the other outlet boxes mounted?

When I get a chance I'll check out the phone plate in the other room opposite the one I looked at. Not sure if I care to open any of the power receptacles, I'm clumsy and liable to hurt myself lmao. That I haven't yet is actually quite remarkable! Could open a light switch and be careful.

There's a duct vent near the ceiling on the wall I'm cutting into, two studs away. But that's close to the door.
Can you share a photo of what you're describing, in regards to an "awkward corner" ?

 

[TennesseeTony]

1970's build equals remodel to me, as the blood kept showing through all the layers of paint they tried first.

I'm usually wrong about most things, but remodel seems like an easy explanation.

Your picture isn't showing for me, but another thought is that if it were a much older home, you could be looking at old school wood slats, with a ton of plaster smeared onto them, and oozing into the hollow of the wall, making it appear ridiculously thick...with a modern sheet of drywall on top when they remodeled.

EDIT: I can't imagine a 1970's dwelling being built this way (1800-1930 maybe), but here's more info regarding my second thought. If you managed to bore in-between the wood lathes/slats, it would certainly seem like an abnormal thickness of plaster. Especially with a modern sheet of drywall on top during the last remodel.

 

[Stopsignhank]

Sounds like someone just put another sheet of drywall up in an attempt at sound proofing. Especially if it is between two bedrooms. Is one of them the master bedroom? Maybe on midget night (Sorry, little people night) the crowd got too loud and someone tried to find a way to keep the fun going.

I can't see the picture FYI.

 

[destrekor]

Fixed - I thought I was doing something wrong but couldn't be bothered to fix it at first. Apparently it worked fine but not permanently. Now, it should work permanently.

 

[destrekor]

1970's build equals remodel to me, as the blood kept showing through all the layers of paint they tried first.

I'm usually wrong about most things, but remodel seems like an easy explanation.

Your picture isn't showing for me, but another thought is that if it were a much older home, you could be looking at old school wood slats, with a ton of plaster smeared onto them, and oozing into the hollow of the wall, making it appear ridiculously thick...with a modern sheet of drywall on top when they remodeled.

Not sure I'd be thinking remodel, because the units were truly built from the ground up in the mid 70s. Most of them have been owned by the original owners until they passed. And this unit appears otherwise as a mirrored image of another unit that I've been in a lot (my parents, who took over my grandparents' place after the last one died).

 

[TennesseeTony]

See the pic now. Eeeeew, yuck. Scratch all my ideas, that stuff looks like it has been there since day one, no remodel, and no idea why they did all that except to bump and grind without waking the kids.

 

[Humpy]

Mom was a screamer.

 

[destrekor]

See the pic now. Eeeeew, yuck. Scratch all my ideas, that stuff looks like it has been there since day one, no remodel, and no idea why they did all that except to bump and grind without waking the kids.

This wall is between the two smaller bedrooms! lol There's a bathroom between this room and the master bedroom.

 

[destrekor]

So it turns out it was a total of three sheets of 5/8" drywall, the top layer and then two sandwiched behind that. They were shifting around when I was cutting them though... and once I finally broke through them, I saw a loose piece (broken? left over?) sitting against the other side.

I also found that, well, the fish stick I dropped down there is nowhere to be found as of yet. I'll have to play around with that from the attic and see if I can get at it from the wall. What makes this slightly more challenging is the fact that there is so much drywall stacked up that I can't easily peer around the cavity, oh... and it turns out I am closer than I would like to a power outlet in the other wall. I'll terminate the wires in this hole I cut and check performance to see if I'm getting any noise from the power lines. It wires won't be running along conduit or anything, but sitting there at the gang with the outlet about 6" away... closer than I wanted that's for sure. Honestly, I thought I measured that the outlet in the other room was in the same stud cavity as the outlet in the office. Should have used the damn stud finder in that room instead of trying to measure! Stupid.