Powdery walls....

[Toppy247]

<<<Hoping this is a better location for my thread>>>
Amateur DIYer and first time poster here. Have put up dozens of mirrors, shelves, other wall fixtures etc without issue.

This time, expecting the usual hard work going into solid brick wall, not only did the drill bit sink straight in but the wall practically fell apart around it.... mounds of powdery dust, holes ended up a mess, raw plug useless etc. Tried two (of three) holes and happened both times.

Clearly not going into the red brick I was expecting. It's the chimney breast of a 1930s house. Breast in the room above was fine when hanging a tv bracket.

Anyone got any ideas a) what the problem is? And b) how I proceed from here...??

Thanks, T.

 

[JohnD]

Maybe thick plaster, maybe you hit a (lime) mortar joint.

How deep did you drill, what colour is the dust?

To me that looks like modern plaster, it may have been redone.

Are you on the front or the side? Has it been blocked up?

 

[Toppy247]

Hi John, thanks for the really quick response. Whole room was re-plastered a few months ago. I didn't get the plasterer back again because he laid it so thick in places and occasionally uneven. I've drilled 60mm deep - hence I assumed I would have gone well through any new plaster and into brick by then.

I did wonder whether I had just hit a mortar joint too but I tried two holes and the issue was identical. Was I just unlucky?!

Not sure if the powder colour comes out on the picture but it's light (i.e. not a hint of red brick dust), maybe yellowy-brown if that makes sense.

 

[JohnD]

are you in London? Or some other place that has yellow mud bricks? Internal brickwork used to have poor quality bricks, including wrongly fired ones, because they would be hidden behind plaster and not seen.
if you have longer drills, try going in 100mm and see if you hit anything harder.

if you are going into the front, where a fireplace has been bricked up, i might have been done with more modern foamed blocks (light grey) or with abnormally thick plaster or filler.

Lime mortar is a creamy white, when clean.

The dust in your pic looks sandy, might be a very poor quality mortar.

 

[Toppy247]

Yep, good guess!!

If it helps, picture attached from when the new fireplace was installed but before the re-plaster.

 

[Nige F]

can't see brickwork but did all the paint come off in sheets ?

 

[Toppy247]

can't see brickwork but did all the paint come off in sheets ?

Paint is fine. It's the plaster behind and then, I'd hope, brickwork which makes up the chimney breast. The drill bit just sunk straight through and very powdery stuff came out of the enlarged hole. No hard resistance of red dusk of the brick I was expecting.