Fixing TV in a timber framed house to a connecting wall General problems, solutions, information and advice on fixing to walls of all kinds

[witzy]

Hi,

I'm fairly DIY competent and although I have lived in a brick built home for 4 years and have now moved to a timber framed house I have a good idea of the things I need to do for fixing things to these kind of walls.
I have a 19" LCD that I have (already) fixed to the wall. Using a stud detector on the wall that I have fixed it to gave no results, it either detected everywhere on the wall or nothing at all. At one point I was convinced that I had found a stud, marked accordingly and drilled pilot holes. There was very little resistance as though I had drilled into a hollow wall. I decided to see if attaching the bracket gave any good results. (Did I say I was competent :) ) I was surprised that the screws bit, and that my torque driver locked. I assumed that as this wall is a connecting wall between properties that it is a "solid" wall. My question is two fold, what is the wall that I have drilled into and is the TV installation safe, before mounting the TV I pulled with all my weight on the bracket and it did not move at all.

[thedoctor]

No idea from here what the wall is but very likely a lightweight (Thermalite or Durox) block wall with plasterboard fixed to it with dots of plaster about 25mm from the surface of the block. Whether your bracket is safe or not remains to be seen but we would not chance a TV on it unless we were 100% sure we had a good fixing. If the TV is definately to go in this position then cut some board out to see whats behind it, get the construction of wall and re-post, we can then offer sensible advice

[witzy]

Thanks for the advice, after many nights of thought, and days of dread (half expecting to find the TV on the floor) I have decided to take down the TV and move the bracket on to the edge of a corner. where I can physically see the joint. My stud detector works properly on that wall and there is a stud, as expected there. The wire and pipe detector, however, also gave a slight result, but there are no plugs, switches or plumbing in the area, and it is a new (3 year old) house so I don't think that this is a pre-existing installation. Given this, is fixing to the stud directly or with redidrives the best course of action?