In reply to:
I'm moving into a new home with dry-wall on brick walls
Usually they'll Hilti (trade name for a gunpowder fired nailer) furring bar or strips (not WhatFurrer strips - *shudder*) onto the brick, then screw into that. But you have no idea what direction they ran them, how often or anything else.
Of course, building codes, especially for finishing are wildly different between Canada and the US (and even in different areas of the US) so who knows. I was absolutely appalled watching a home improvement show from the states (one of Bob Vila's) and they showed them air nailing 1/2" board to a ceiling with 1 1/2" coil roofing nails, you could see the gypsum shatter around each nail, holding it to the joists by pretty much just the face paper. Code here is for 5/8" fireguard on 16 in. centres, no less than 4 (5?) screws over the 48" width.
Bren R.
