I am trying secure a vertical 10ft 2x6 into the wall of a small landing between floors on a duplex stairwell as a support for a pull up bar, with the 2X6 spanning the top 5ft of the wall of the lower floor, and bottom 5 ft of upper floor.
I got a Franklin ProSensor M210 stud finder with electricity sensor and tried it out over the entire house, and every inch of the section I intend to mount to. It seems that when the center green LED lights up in a grouping of 5 leds it is fairly reliably a stud, which leads me to believe I have mapped out a vertical wood stud which starts at the floor of the upper level (about mid way up the 10ft 2X6 on the stairway landing) as it is basically perfectly straight and mirrors the exact placement of another apparent stud on the opposite side of the landing. However, additionally the Franklin's electrical sensor lights up about 2 out of 6 LEDs for most of the length of the right stud. There is no electrical reading on the opposite side stud.
I tried the electrical sensor on other walls of the house, finding zero LEDs readings on some areas that were obviously hot, like next to the fuse box, while getting consistent 6 LED readings on other areas that I clearly shouldn't drill. Since the line on the right side was so straight and perfectly mirrored on the other side, I kind of imagined that the low grade electrical reading might be a cable running vertically along the length of the stud, so theoretically the wood of the stud should be safe to drill into. But when I tried to drill a pilot hole I hit what seems to be a metal plate.
Is there any chance it might be an actual electrical conduit that looks like a stud to the Franklin? What could be causing a 2/6 led electrical sensor reading for most of 5 ft of a vertical wall stud? Btw, I am planning on using 2.5" screws to go through the 2X6, 1/2" drywall and about 1/2" into the stud. Is that ok?
