'You don’t even need a drill': Noida man hammers wooden pencil through Rs 1.5 crore flat wall

A Noida resident’s video showing him driving a wooden pencil through the wall of his Rs 1.5 crore apartment has ignited a discussion online about the quality of construction in high-end residential complexes across the Delhi-NCR region.

The clip, posted by Instagram user @kabeer.unfiltered, showed the man using a hammer to push an ordinary school pencil into the wall of his flat. The pencil pierced the surface easily, prompting him to demonstrate it further for viewers.

In the video, he explained, “This hole in the wall was made using a pencil. I placed the pencil against the wall, hit it with a hammer, and it went right in. When I first tried using a drill, and then used the pencil, the pencil went straight through the wall. It’s a wooden pencil with graphite, which we used in school. That’s how the house has been built — so weak that you don’t even need a drill. You can make a hole in the wall just with a pencil.”

The short video quickly went viral, triggering both alarm and debate. Viewers expressed concern that a flat worth over a crore could have walls this fragile, calling it an example of poor construction practices. Others, however, offered a technical explanation.

Some users pointed out that such walls are often made of AAC (Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) blocks — a material commonly used in modern high-rise buildings. They noted that AAC walls are non-structural, designed to be lightweight to reduce the building’s overall load and improve seismic stability. These blocks, they added, are different from traditional brick walls and are not meant to bear structural weight.