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I recently bought a new house and it has this kind of panel wall everywhere.

wood trim in the house

There was a table that was mounted with some l-brackets onto it and I would like to move it to the other room. However it seems that the gap between the panels and the concrete is smaller in the other rooms and the screws will just hit the concrete wall. I tried drilling into the concrete behind to fit the screws but seems like my drill can't make much of a dent.

This brings me to a question, do I actually need to go through and fasten the table into the concrete? Can I just use shorter screws? Can the panels on its own bear the weight of the table?

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    You need a masonry drill bit to drill into cement/concrete type walls. It is not so much as the weight of the table as it is the weight you put on it. I would not trust MDF to hold too much. It is better than drywall, but less than real wood/concrete. The size of the table will matter also.
    – crip659
    Commented Apr 25, 2023 at 10:03
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    See diy.stackexchange.com/questions/270725/… - you really want to be fixing into the solid wall behind. Don't use a DIY drill, rent an SDS.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Apr 25, 2023 at 11:37
  • Wouldn't these panels be attached to studs? Or are you saying the paneling is glued directly to the concrete wall?
    – Huesmann
    Commented Apr 25, 2023 at 12:53
  • I used byggmakker.no/produkt/betongbor-30x60/7311662129668. Might really be the drill (I did drill into concrete with it before but with 5mm and up drill bits) AFAIK these panels are attached on top and bottom only and I am pretty sure it's straight into the concrete so studs are not a thing there.
    – pfulop
    Commented Apr 25, 2023 at 17:43

1 Answer 1

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Depends a TON on what's behind the panel.

The house I bought had two "out rooms" on the other side of the garage. Both had shelving installed and had been used by the previous homeowner for some level of storage. We wanted to combine the rooms, so we cleared everything out and removed the shelves. When I went to demo the wall, I found the entirety of both rooms subsisted of nothing but the wood veneer (maybe 1/8" thick). The shelves were screwed into studs. I wouldn't trust this to hold anything significant by itself, and it had only a few penny nails holding it on. Came off super-easy (great for renovations, not so much for anything else).

In my den, there's a different story. The wood veneer was put over drywall. The drywall itself will support whatever drywall will hold (probably a bit more with that veneer glued to it).

Your question here seems to imply that there's concrete some short distance behind the wall

I tried drilling into the concrete behind to fit the screws but seems like my drill can't make much of a dent.

Wrong tool for the job. You're almost certainly using a wood drill bit. What you want here would be a masonry drill bit. They make them for normal drills, but be sure not to use a hammer drill bit in a normal screw driver. I would buy something like a Tapcon here (or other masonry fastener) to fasten to the concrete.

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  • Hey I used this drill bit byggmakker.no/produkt/betongbor-30x60/7311662129668 . Pretty sure that's a masonry one. My drill is Metabo SB 18 L Mobile which does have a hammer drill switch but not sure how powerful it is. I used it to drill into concrete before, but it was always drill bits that were 5mm and higher, not sure if drills preform badly with smaller bits.
    – pfulop
    Commented Apr 25, 2023 at 17:45
  • That is a masonry bit - but domestic 'hammer' drills are absolutely useless in concrete. See my other comment & link above.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Apr 26, 2023 at 7:54

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