Can a condo interior room walls have steel studs that are paper thin?

Question

I'm a bit puzzled about what's behind the drywall in my high rise condo built 3 years back. When drilling into an interior room wall supposedly where a stud should be(found by a stud detector and yes I am using it properly), my drill goes through the wall with barely any resistance.

It's a fairly lengthy wall, about 10 feet connecting my living room to my bedroom. However, when I drill into the wall connecting to the neighbours, I feel a lot of resistance and definitely hitting a stud.

Could it simply be that the studs are paper thin and weren't meant to handle extra load besides the wall?

Answer 1

Even though you found the stud with your stud finder, you may have missed it. Even steel studs will offer a bit of resistance to drilling, and you should see some metal filings or twists following the bit out of the wall. You may have to try again with a very small bit 3/4 inch one way or the other to find the stud. Use your stud finder to give yourself a better idea what side of the original hole you should try. Of course, you can use the hole you already drilled by inserting a drywall anchor rated for the load you want to attach. I prefer the corkscrew type anchors to the expansion type.

There is a difference between the interior private walls and the common wall in condos. Common walls are always thicker, usually thicker sheetrock or two layers of 1/2 inch rock. This is for a longer fire time rating and soundproofing between units.