Wall types

[firelass77]

I have lived with plasterboard walls all my life till now when we moved house.
The walls here are horrid, I tryed puting in metal wall plugs they make there own threads just screw in and they come with a screw. They just crumbled the wall in to big holes. So my question is what sort of walls do I have. When im looking on line at wall types no one seems to say yeah stone or Concrete walls trun to dust when you try and put screws in them. Its like compressed sand! even the original fittings that were in the house keep comming down. The extracter fan fell off the wall and the shower curtain pole keeps comming out.

[Count-A-Strong]

Is it an old house? Have you drilled the wall and used Rawl plugs?

[The Builder]

Yep ......... age of the house will tell us alot ............ also .... are they outside walls or interior partitions (between rooms)? ........ if outside walls, how thick are they (look around window reveals to tell) ............ cavity walls do you think?
Is it cob?

[AlBags]

Sounds like Thermalight blockwork to me (lightweight blockwork) light grey in colour.
You need proper rawlplugs (at least red, best brown) and pproper screws.

[heathfield]

Three types of wall surface - plaster direct on stone, lath and plaster, and plasterboard. In all cases, savings could be made by adding more (cheap) sand to the (more expensive) lime. Even early plasterboard had a sand content, unlike today's gypsum boards. The extra sand makes the plaster more crumbly with age. Check that it isn't the wallpaper that's holding the plaster to the wall, as is often the case!! Otherwise, you can harden the whole surface by sloshing on a 5:1 water/PVA mix and letting it dry thoroughly. This will allow you to fill in dents and holes with E.G. Polyfilla, giving you a smooth surface for papering. But this won't solve the problem of the crumbly underlying stuff. The only real answer to that is strip it off and have it all renewed, alas.
BTW, Fischer wall plugs from most DIY stores are far superior to Rawlplugs...

http://www.tooled-up....roduct.asp?PID=159258

[Vagrant]

There is a 4th type - Stramit - compressed straw.
I had this in my last house.
It's terrible - almost impossible to fix to.

[AlBags]

I am a professional builder .. old/period work only ..
and there are a lot more than three surfaces.
Lime and cowhair is most common in old places. This has a stone gap-filler of mud .. then lime coats.
There is sand/cement render plaster... which became popular post Victorian.
There is Clay pot construction (hollow)
There is Wallboard on dabs.

Yes ... grey nylon are best to use .. Wickes, etc.