how to find wall studs
Last Updated on September 18, 2021 by
Why do you need wall studs for mounting a TV?
Wall studs are the vertical timber support in your home's wooden frame. They're often found in the center and edges of your drywall sheets. When you're attaching a TV bracket, you'll need to locate wall studs to do it securely. That's because drywall can easily snap if anything mounted is too heavy for it. Wall studs solve this problem and they can take the weight caused by TVs.
They are strong and made most commonly out of solid wood or metal. That means they'll hold the weight required for a TV bracket.
Understanding studs, their spacing, and your bracket
When it comes to finding wall studs for a TV mount, you'll need to know a couple of basic details, like the wall stud dimensions and spacing. They are 2 inches by 4 inches and are vertical. When installing wall studs, the spacing should be the same between each one.
The distance should be between 16-24 inches. The precise distance should be carefully chosen so that the plasterboard edges align with each stud. The plasterboard provides a surface for the bracket to be fixed to.
Where do studs hide?
When locating wall studs, you'll want to look in several places to start, like next to electrical box switches, and the tops and bottoms of walls, the sides of windows and doors, at wall lining sheet joints, and in the middle of wall linings.
You'll want to check each of these so that you're aware of where each wall stud is located. This makes it easier for inserting the screws or nails when fitting an extendable TV bracket and ensures you don't damage your wall.
Ways to find studs without a stud finder
Locating studs in a wall doesn't have to be difficult or with a stud finder. In this section, we'll show you how to find studs without a stud finder. There are 7 ways to do this, and each one will be explained.
Those 7 methods are: Referring from your electric boxes, tapping the wall, lighting up lining edges with a bright torch, referring from windows, using a wire, looking for nails and fasteners, and using a magnet.
Refer from your electric boxes
To find studs from your electric boxes, turn off the power first. Then take the cover plate of the boxes off. After that, use a pair of pliers and gently push the box in and out.
Whichever side wiggles the least will be where the wall stud is. You can also slide a thin object like a nail file into the gap at the top or bottom of the boxes. It will hit the wall stud.
Tap the wall
The easiest way to find wall studs to mount a TV is by tapping the wall. All you need to do is use your knuckles and tap along the wall. Go from the left to the right and listen closely.
When you hear a different sound, you've probably found the stud. Then you can measure another 16 inches from that location to find additional studs, and pick where you want to mount the TV.
Light up lining edges with a bright torch
When looking for how to find studs behind drywall, here's another simple method. Look for dimples in the wall. These are hard to spot when you're only using your eyes, so it's best to use a torch or a bright light source.
Hold the torch close to the wall, facing upwards. It will illuminate screw dimples or sheet joins. This is where the drywall has a join and can indicate a stud location. You can then repeat this across to find studs in different areas.
Refer from the windows
Another way to find studs without a stud detector is to refer from your windows. In many cases, the windows in your home will have a stud on either side.
Finding them is easy. You can try to measure 16 inches from the edge of the window nearest to where you'd like to install a TV bracket.
Keep going until you find the studs. And tap the wall to confirm as this does require a bit of guesswork, as the window trimmers might not have anything to do with the stud spacings.
Use a wire
If you can't find studs on the wall to mount your TV, even after putting a hole in the wrong place. You can use a wire.
Take a wire coat hanger, and twist it to a right angle. Once you've done that, you can use it for finding studs.
Simply take it, putting it in the small hole in your wall, and push it deeper in until you eventually hit the end of the cavity, confirming the stud location. You can then repeat this as many times as needed.
Look for nails or fasteners
When considering how to find studs in a wall for a TV bracket, you may also want to look for nails and fasteners.
You can do this visually. The nails and fasteners attached the plasterboard to the wall studs.
Once you find one, you can measure out 16 inches to find the next stud.
Use a magnet
How to find studs with a magnet is simple. You'll want to use a small magnet, like one from a computer hard drive. Place a soft cloth between the magnet and your wall as to not scratch your walls. Move the magnet across your wall until you can feel where the drywall nails or screws are, this will indicate a sheet join and a stud location.
Look for multiple vertical fixings as sometimes there are odd fixings in nogs. Or, you can also tie a magnet to a string [1] and hang it on the wall. It will find a way through the studs.
Once you've found a stud with the magnet, you'll already know the distance to measure to find the next one.
How to find studs with a stud finder?
Electronic
Locating wood and metal studs behind drywall can be done electronically. Electronic stud finders measure an electrical charge. A plate inside the stud finder is used to measure this charge when it's placed close to a wall.
When the amount of charge changes, the stud finder indicates that a stud is present. It will then display it on the screen, and that's how you can tell where a stud is with an electronic stud finder.
Depending on the model it will also display other things like wire and pipe locations inside the walls, making DIY and locating things in your wall much easier.
Magnetic
If you're trying to figure out how to find wood and metal studs behind drywall a bit cheaper, using a magnetic stud finder is probably the best way to do it.
These are like electronic stud finders, except instead of detecting electrical charges, they detect magnetism.
Usually, they contain very strong magnets, which helps when detecting even wooden studs through walls.
Tips for using a digital stud finder
Here are some tips for how to find wall studs with a stud finder. Make sure it's set to auto-calibration. To do that, hold it against the wall wherever there are no studs, and switch it on.
It will indicate when calibration is complete. And when finding a particular stud, mark a few points and find nearby studs and check the distance between them to ensure accuracy.
What to do with your mount if you find off-center studs?
All these methods should be used to confirm stud location not just relying on measuring as not all studs are placed at predictable spacings.
If studs are off-center, and you cannot find 2 in the right spot for a tv mount then here's what you should do. You can install a sheet of plywood [2] on top of the closest two studs to provide a surface for the TV mount bracket to instead be fixed. Otherwise, you should get a mount with a large base plate that can reach studs at a larger spacing.
With the plywood method, you'll want to cut some holes in the plywood for electrical outlets and to run cords through.
But if you want to mount your TV on walls without studs, here's how.
Conclusion
Now you know everything you need to know about how to find wall studs behind plasterboard for mounting your TV bracket. It's simple and fast and doesn't require any more expert knowledge.
Check how much your drywall can carry. All you need now are tools to get the job done. And maybe a better TV bracket with a bigger mounting plate.
More information:
- How to use a magnet to find studs? an article from https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Use-a-Magnet-to-find-Studs/
- How to hang a television on the wall without centered studs? a blog from https://www.homestoriesatoz.com/diy/how-to-hang-a-television-on-wall-without-centered-studs.html
Hi, my name is Johann Holsinger, here at mountyourbox.com I share all of the tips and tricks I have professionally learned to help you set up your ultimate home entertainment system.
how to find wall studs
Source: https://www.mountyourbox.com/find-wall-studs-for-tv/
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