How do you determine what a wall is made of?

[kulle]

It sure does look like a plank wall as you mentioned, justus,
Plank wall - several layers of wallpaper - treetex - drywall
Quite a common combination

 

[Oxymoron]

Thanks for all the answers. Went to Bauhaus yesterday to try to buy longer screws but they had 80mm as the longest, which is what I already have. Do you think 4.5x90mm will be enough for these brackets?
https://www.hornbach.se/shop/DURI-Konsol-Hjuvik-furu-180x180/7693006/artikel-detaljer.html

 

[Martin_B]

Then it's a plank wall with plaster and gypsum on both sides. 13+15+50+15+13 = approximately 106 mm plus some old layers of wallpaper.

50 mm plank in 1920? More likely 3-inch plank in that case. However, it doesn't seem to be the case here either.

Without having seen the house itself, I don't think that floor plan looks completely original either. My wild guess, based on the drawing, is that the original house is what is now the Dining Room, Kitchen, Living Room, and the part with the staircase.

It looks on the plan that the Bathroom, Cloakroom, Family Room, and Bedroom were added afterwards.

In that case, the yellow-marked wall on the plan should be a heartwall, and should be plank unless the rest of the house is brick, in which case it should be a brick interior wall, but it certainly doesn't seem to be considering how thin the wall is.

My guess is that the wall has been remodeled over the years and maybe studded and filled with lightweight concrete or some other very peculiar solution.

The easiest way is to knock on the wall and you usually hear which way it leans. If it's really solid then it's some form of brick/cement story. If there is some resonance in the sound, then it's most likely plank for most of the wall.

 

[Martin_B]

Moreover, it's completely useless when owner after owner adds layers upon layers to the walls. Eventually, there's literally tons of extra material on the walls that doesn't belong there at all.

To do it properly, it's best to strip down to the planks or at least to the nearest reasonable base, such as what's directly after the planks and old wallpapered cardboard, which is usually treetex. Then apply renovation wallpaper, and you'll get good internal soundproofing. Treetex absorbs sound waves instead of bouncing them back into the room as gypsum does, being as hard as it is. The planks behind the treetex then allow you to screw anything up without worrying about it coming loose.

 

[mugatu]

Measure the hole where the phone jack is supposed to be. That way you can see how long the screw needs to be to just drill through the wooden plank/sheet. Then it should fit.

 

[RoBo]

Hi, that's exactly what we just did. Here's what it looks like.
[image]

The moldings are not original but were installed by the previous owner. This wall might be original or recently installed. I simply do not know.

Cut away the paper that belongs to the back of the gypsum so you can see what is behind the gypsum. In the hole, that is.

 

[Maledictus]

Living in a house built in 1925, the walls are made of 3-inch planks with reed mat and plaster on the outside. The plaster layer itself is a few centimeters thick, and if you additionally have gypsum/tretex on top, it goes even further in.

I've been using the method of driving a nail where I intend to hang something. Hammer it until you hit solid resistance (the wood planks) but don't drive the nail in so hard that you can't easily pull it out with the hammer or pliers. Once it reaches the plank, you can measure on the nail how far it is to the plank.

 

[elpaco]

Go to a real hardware store and you can get screws up to 150mm. With justus's excellent explanation, I would at least screw 80mm + the thickness of the bracket. You hardly have a TV mount that is 35mm thick, right? It's usually steel at 2mm ...

 

[Huddingebo]

As far as I know, the first plank frame houses were built with 3" tongue-and-groove planks (until around 1940, after which 2" was also used there) in the load-bearing exterior walls, while interior walls, heart walls, and other stiffening walls were in 2" of the same.
But I have been wrong before.

 

[justusandersson]

My experience is that it is difficult to formulate clear rules for the occurrence of different plank thicknesses. I believe that the year of construction, house size, and location (city or countryside) are important variables. When it comes to the difference between the thickness of interior and exterior walls, I also find it hard to see any pattern. Just as common as interior walls being made of two-inch planks and exterior walls of three-inch, is that the same thickness has been used throughout. In fact, I believe that the lack of systematics is what best characterizes plank houses.

 

[Martin_B]

As far as I know, the first plank frame houses were constructed with 3" tongue-and-groove planks (until around 1940, thereafter also 2") in the load-bearing exterior walls, while interior walls, cross walls, and other stiffening walls were made of 2" of the same. But I have been wrong before,

It is indeed true that it was generally 3" in both exterior and interior walls from the turn of the century until about the late 1930s. These could be both horizontal and vertical, but if I have understood correctly, it was mostly vertical towards the end of this period. Then around the 1940s, 2" planks took over, both as exterior and interior wall frames. Practically only vertical if I have understood it correctly.

Then, of course, there are exceptions.

Why they had horizontal 3" planks in the past instead of only vertical, I don't really know. But there is surely a good explanation for that too. Horizontal planks are actually a much more uncertain construction than vertical ones. Sure, it becomes more stable laterally, but the forces that load the house in that length cannot be compared to the weight load which is constant due to the laws of gravity.

 

[Huddingebo]

Of all the houses from the 1920s-1940s (10-15 of them) that I have been in for various reasons or have demolished, it has completely matched.
3" in load-bearing exterior walls, 2" in all interior walls up until around 1940.
Always standing tongue-and-groove and often mixed widths, often spliced along the length a bit here and there. My house, for example, is from 1946 and has standing tongue-and-groove 2" walls throughout the house, in all original walls.
My friend's house from 1929 has 3" in the exterior walls.

But I should point out that all these houses are in Uppland and the surrounding area.
In rural areas, it's much more varied.
My relatives' houses in Dalarna from the 1920s have all sorts of frames, plank frames, post frames with sawdust in between, and so on.

 

[Martin_B]

Of all the houses from the 20s-40s (10-15 in total) that I have been in for various reasons or have demolished, it has matched entirely. 3" in load-bearing exterior walls, 2" in all interior walls up until around 1940.

Interior walls of 2 inches? Wow. Yes, it's probably different in various parts of the country then. Most houses I've seen from that time also had 3" interior walls, just like the exterior walls. Even here in mixed widths, sometimes jointed, all only tongued and with loose groove.

From 1940 onwards, the 2" plank had both tongue and groove, so there were no loose grooves there. But it could certainly occur that way too.

I have seen 2" with only tongues and loose grooves in older 1910s and 1920s houses, etc. but then only for lighter separations like built-in wardrobes and so on. That is, as wardrobe frames and such. Nothing load-bearing and not room-dividing. But then there's sure to have been some of that in certain parts of the country as you write.

 

[eal]

Our house from 1933 has 3" on the long sides and the south gable, and 2" on the north gable and interior walls. Built by a Norwegian, though, so it is quite different from all the other houses in the area (outside Gothenburg)

/Andreas

 

[Martin_B]

Our house from 1933 has 3" on the long sides and the south gable, and 2" on the north gable and interior walls. Built by a Norwegian, though, so it is quite different from all other houses in the area (outside Gothenburg)

/Andreas

Oh, yes, he probably used whatever was at hand