Walls and Ceilings - 1.5 inch holes on dry wall

I recently found a row of strange holes on the dry wall of my house. The holes were already patched up, but are still noticeable. They are about 1.5 inch in diameter, same size, 1 foot apart, and about 3-4 feet above the floor. I suspect they were left by some kind of remodeling or something, by one of the previous owners. Could somebody give me some hints on what kind of remodeling it could be? I just feel curious.

Many thanks,

Tony

Hi Itony,
- they may have been anchors for a heavy duty shelf, and when somebody left they took tha anchors along with the shelf. Big drywall anchors are not cheap. :cool:

Sounds like nail pops to me. Back when sheetrock was nailed the hanger would damage the drywall around each nail with his hammer. The head of a drywall axe is about 1 1/2".

I agree with Coops, can't see anyone moving out taking the time to remove & patch over drywall anchors. :rolleyes: Sounds more like dents made by a drywall hatchet.

One other option for these holes could be blown in insulation. Not sure why they would be in that location though. You didn't say how many or how much of the wall they covered. Good luck.

Many thanks for the inputs from the experts.

I am not so sure if it is caused by any kind dry wall axe damage, because they run across the whole west side wall of my living room, and they are ordered in the same height and size. There are about 7-8 of them. They could be left by dry wall anchor, but I do not see why someone will put a shelf along the longer side of one's living room...

Some additional facts I missed in my first post: the house is about 40 years old. Our neighbor's house with the same floor plan has a supporting beam running across the ceiling but ours has not. In addition, we have a flat living room floor while our neighbor's house has a step down living room floor. Could the holes be used for some of those remodeling?

Again many thanks for any comments

tony

Well I've never heard of an insulating contractor cutting holes inside the house in order to blow in insulation. They drill holes thru the outside of the wall to blow the insulation thru.
If your home is in a subdivision where all the homes were built at roughly the same time it would be fairly common that footprints of the homes would be alike, but the floorplans slightly different.
I'm guessing that possibly the wall has a textured finish and these patches have a shiny look since they weren't textured? If that's the case you could make them less noticable by using a sponge and dabbing some joint compound over the areas to blend it in with the texture better.
Or possibly the patches were just not feathered out enough of they were poorly sanded. If that's the case you will feel a high spot on the wall when you run your hand over them, and you should be able to just sand them down smooth & then spot primer over these areas and repaint.
As far as what caused them, who knows, but maybe that will help you make the patches less noticable.

I don't think blown in insulation would produce holes 1' apart more like 16". Is there blown in insulation in the walls? People who rent the machines to do the work themselves may do it from the inside though. Do the holes run the length of the wall.Do you know there are holes there or do you think there are holes there because of the patching.

It's possible it might had been electrical work.

Adding another electical line or phone jack possibly. These size holes would leave enough room to use long bit to reach studs to each side of holes.

Patch things up right, paint and relax!

Just a thought.

"Patch things up right, paint and relax!"

I think Ed Norton once said "May I echo those words"

Joneq,

Thanks!