I used a 3/32 drill bit for a pilot hole into my dry wall, directly in between 2 wooden studs that were about 32 inches apart, and about 18 inches from the ceiling (of a 1 story house). I mistakenly thought that there was another stud there because the magnetic stud finder was picking something up there. I immediately hit metal behind the drywall, and when I ran my magnetic stud finder along this line, I realized that almost the entire length of this vertical line was metal. What did I hit, and do I need to open the drywall to see if I caused any damage to anything important?
Drywall – What did I drill into
drilldrywall
Related Solutions
You likely hit the DWV (drain waste vent) stack. This is the drain plumbing for the bathroom and is commonly black ABS plastic.
This pipe is typically empty except when waste is moving though it. Depending on the size of hole, you may find small water spots that gradually get larger or notice a sewer gas odor in that room or nearby rooms.
It is not too hard to apply a patch material to the puncture to fix, but you'd need to cut a good size hole in the drywall to access it. The other option would be to enlarge the hole enough to get the tip of a caulking gun in to fill the hole and then patch the drywall.
It sounds like you may have metal studs. That would explain the difficulty drilling through, followed by the void beyond.
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Best Answer
If the magnetic stud finder is showing response across a good part of the stud cavity then there is probably a metal duct in the wall. This could be a stove hood vent, a dryer vent or a heating duct.
If the magnetic finder is showing just a narrow range near where you drilled the hole then the item in the wall might be a metal pipe such as a sewer vent stack, an iron water pipe or an iron gas pipe. Since the first two examples would be pretty rare to use iron pipe I would put biggest odds on a gas pipe.
There is another possibility that you ran into a metal electrical conduit.