No Vertical Studs in Garage Wall?

[Kevo]

I'm kinda stumped by a lack of vertical studs in one garage wall in my new (to me) house.

I'm looking for studs to drill into to hang stuff. My stud finder can find studs on all other walls in the house. This wall (between garage and house) is coming up completely empty. The stud finder can't find anything, even after replacing the battery.

There are outlets on the wall, so I figured there must be studs in/around the outlets. Drilling pilot holes reveals just drywall. There is some stuff hung on the wall by the previous owner. I removed several things- all just drilled into drywall (no drywall anchors either, previous owner apparently didn't know what those were).

I ran the stud finder up and down and there are some horizontal supports made out of unknown material placed very far apart.

What is going on with this wall? Any ideas as to how it is constructed. Literally every other wall in this house is 2x4 studs 16 inches on center.

[John_B]

Any chance the wall is a SIP? Structural Insulated Panel. Compressed foam between two pieces of OSB. Do you get any wood chips on your test holes?

It seems unlikely that only one wall is a SIP but otherwise it beats me? Sell the house and hope the buyer doesn't notice?

[Djongo Unchained]

Maybe there's a solid wall between garage and house for safety barrier. Something like a cinder block wall with horizontal furring strips holding the rock up?

can you find any studs from the other side? Or take off a cable plate and see if you can see what's in there.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Most likely some ghetto ass furning wall. If it is exterior, there is probably a concrete knee wall down low. What is the exterior finish? Can you see the nail pattern? What is the thickness of the wall (my guess 8" inside to inside)? Can you find top and bottom plate? Do you care?

Oh...just to make you look good...if it doesn't go from top plate to bottom plate it isn't a stud.

[Gepeto]

find the seams on the gypsum. Is the sheet rock railroaded - 8' on the horizontal. Compress these areas with your hands or a lump hammer to determine how the rock is attached. Follow the seams to a corner. Work your way up and down the vertical support.

I can come up with at least 10 questions. Short of a field inspection by someone in the know - turn the wall into a pin cushion with ever blunter objects until you know what the fuck is up.

[MTT]

Overbuilt car port. Probably started life as a carport and someone just slapped some side's on it.

[Kevo]

This is an attached garage that was built with the house. The wall in question is the back wall of the garage between the house and garage.

Maybe it is a SIP for extra insulation between the house and the garage?

All holes have come up empty of wood chips. Maybe it is SIP, furring strips and air gap and then drywall? It feels pretty damn empty behind the drywall when drilling through it, although I haven't drilled through the horizontal strips yet.

[dannynoonan]

Grab a sawzall and just start cutting around until you hit some shit, then look in. It will be enlightening, no doubt

[warthog]

Any chance it is just doubled up sheet rock due to fire barrier reqs?
Take one of the device plates off and pull the device out- see if you can tell what is going on. The device box has to be attached somehow. If it is a rework box, you should be able to loosen the 2 screws and easily get the box out- that will give you a look inside the wall a couple 6 inches in each direction with a flashlight.
If the box is super shallow, you probably have concrete block with furring strips. You should be able to tell with just a drill bit though. If concrete, just tap-con it or drill an oversized hole and use a good concrete anchor.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Sounds like it is the fire wall. Codes can be weird for that, my guess is still that it is a no structural furring wall. Is the curiosity killin' ya? You are gonna need to learn how to patch drywall one day, how about now?

[warthog]

Grab a sawzall and just start cutting around until you hit some shit, then look in. It will be enlightening, no doubt

Multi tool is better- cut at a 45 degree angle clean so it goes back in place easily. Pretty easy job to throw some wood strips in to tap into, mud it back up and paint the fix, especially in a garage. Maybe do it behind an area that is not seen.

[ex-powderbroker]

you could start tapping and listening and follow it up with small holes to verify. most stud finders suck. if you can find two manually you’ll have a good idea. if not, proceed to sawzall. most likely there are studs there too.

[Dee Hubbs]

2 layers of 3/8 drywall, and plywood sheeting, then studs, then interior drywall.
Stud detector will not pick up the studs.

[RootSkier]

Luckily for you it is Monday. On Tuesday, call the *_______ building inspector and ask what they required for garage/house firewalls when your house was built in **_____. Go from there.

* Bumfuck, ID.
** Assuming they had a permit.

[Kevo]

Alright, well I've pulled off one of the outlets covers. The box is screwed in at an angle on both sides, presumably into dry wall. It's deep as well.

Whatever the horizontal material is that the stud finder is finding is placed at random intervals. From the ground up, I measured 21 inches between the bottom one and second one and 26 inches between the second one and third one. Drilling into it came back clean with no wood chips.

[Dee Hubbs]

Code requires minimum 5/8" drywall for fire wall that separate the garage to the living quarters. Its cheaper to use 2 layers of 3/8 or 1/2" because the material is already on site because it's what is used for the rest of the house.

[BmillsSkier]

You know what you need to do.

[Jethro]

Maybe it’s a lesbians house

[splat]

Sounds like a combo fire wall and some soundproofing behind or on the rock on the wall. Might be a horizontal metal channel you screw the rock to. Because it holds the rock away from the studs, it's supposed to reduce the direct connection much sound travels through. But I dunno nothin'.

[DJSapp]

FUCKING MAGNETS! HOW DO THEY WORK!!!

Get a powerful magnet and find the screws/nails in the sheetrock and there lies your answer.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[Gepeto]

A couple things to look at:

The pass-through from garage to house... how thick is the wall? Is there an elevation change? Is the door prehung or cased? How is the sheetrock terminated at the base? Molding/edgecap/rough?

Knowing the code would be nice.

The needs to your end of getting stuff hung on the wall is only going to come by discreetly punching through to find what you need (studs) or put in what you want.

Preferably something you can repair with a fist full of spackle.

Is your workshop going on this wall? Just sheath it in 1/4ply - glue and screw

[dannynoonan]

Too many questions, it's fuckin sawzall time!!!!
Bmills gets it

[Kevo]

Code requires minimum 5/8" drywall for fire wall that separate the garage to the living quarters. Its cheaper to use 2 layers of 3/8 or 1/2" because the material is already on site because it's what is used for the rest of the house.

Well, with this suggestion and a closer look inside the outlet box I came to the conclusion that there is some very thick drywall on the wall. I did some more exploratory drilling around the outlet and found some wood chips pretty far in. Maybe there is also some kind of insulting sheeting under the drywall between the drywall and the studs? Not sure, but the studs are deep.

A couple of pilot holes later and some 2.5 inch #10 screws (I'm hanging bikes) and the first stud was drilled into. Went 16 inches on center to the side and found another stud. Rinse, repeat for 4 bikes.



Yes, I could have potentially used drywall anchors and I know bikes don't weigh a ton. I'll be hanging other stuff that is a lot heavier, so this was a trial run finding studs on this wall.

Thanks for your help, everyone!

[Gepeto]

how disappointing - no sawzall

[mattig]

Using drywall anchors will make your dick smaller, or possibly turn inside out. Not sure, never risked it.

Anyway, I'm sure next time you'll go deeper in search for studs.