How to retrieve something dropped down a wall cavity
Dropping a screw or phone inside a hollow wall cavity or foundation leaves people worried about electrical and fire hazards or losing irreplaceable photos. Common improvised tools like coat hangers, taped rods, and grilling tongs frequently fail to reach or recover the items.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Leaving the screw inside the wall cavity where it sits harmlessly
- 2Using a magnet run along the bottom of the wall to retrieve the dropped screw
- 3Inspecting the inside of the wall with a flashlight or borescope to check for wire damage
- 4Using coat hangers, duct tape on a rod, or grilling tongs
- 5Trying a large magnet on a string or magnetic wall fishing tool
- 6Using a shop vacuum with a long hose
- 7Using a flexible claw grabber tool
- 8Knocking out a brick or cutting a hole in the masonry wall
- 9Using a loop-and-wire tool or glued cord
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I was working in my crawlspace replacing a hose faucet when I propped my phone in a ventilation well to shine the flashlight on the pipes I was working on not thinking about the fact it’s a cinder block foundation and therefore hollow. Well, sure enough my phone fell in there.”source ↗
“I’ve tried coat hangers, duct tape sticky side out on the end of a rod, a long pair of grilling tongs, all to no avail.”source ↗
“I stupidly did not have iCloud set to higher memory and the phone has the last photos of my Dad before he passed on it. I don’t care about the phone itself so much as retrieving the photos somehow.”source ↗
“I was removing this Ethernet wall plate and accidentally dropped a screw through the large hole at the top. It fell completely inside the wall. Probably a stupid question, but I tend to overthink these things 😭 Is it safe to leave it there, or could it cause an electrical/fire hazard?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How to fill a deep concrete void under a slab or wall
- 2Can you move a waste pipe inside a wall near outlets?
- 2How to run cables through a wall without cutting drywall
- 2Hit metal when drilling into a wall. What is it?
- 2Water leaking out of the wall during a shower
- 4How to run ductwork through a load-bearing wall without weakening it