No stud finder? No problem. There are several ways to locate wall studs
It can seem daunting to hang a TV, a large mirror, a shelf, or something else heavy on your wall. What if it comes crashing down? As long as you know how to find a wall stud, you can make sure it’s well-anchored and safe.
Wall studs are vertical pieces of wood that frame your home, supporting the interior and exterior walls and the roof. They run from floor to ceiling. These wall studs are spaced either 16 inches or 24 inches apart, and are measured on-center—i.e., from the center of one stud to the center of the next.
Drywall attaches to the edge of the studs, creating the interior walls of a house. (If you have a house built before the late 1950s, you might deal with plaster walls and have lath that attaches to the edge of the studs instead of drywall.)
While drywall can support lightweight objects, it’s not strong enough to hold a lot of weight. So if you want to hang a heavy object, you can’t simply nail it into the wall and call the job finished. You have to nail or screw it into the wall studs or it may crash to the floor.
But how do you locate the studs behind the drywall?
You can more often than not find a stud by knocking on the wall. Studs sound solid (higher tone) when you knock against them. Wall areas without studs sound hollow (lower tone) when you knock against them. So to find a stud, simply knock against your wall to see what produces a solid sound. Try to tap every inch or so in quick succession. As you get closer to a stud, the sound will tighten and won’t sound hollow. When it starts sounding hollow again, retrieve your knocks.
Here’s how:
Go to the corner of the room.
Use a tape measure and mark 16 inches and 24 inches from the corner.
Tap the wall—a lot, moving back and forth—around 16 inches (the stud may be a little less than 16 inches from the corner, especially if you have an older house, when stud spacing wasn’t necessarily standard).
If you hear a hollow sound, tap the wall around 24 inches. You should hear a solid sound.
Once you’ve determined if your studs are 16 inches or 24 inches apart, you can use a tape measure to mark all the vertical studs across the wall. Double-check your accuracy by knocking against where you’ve marked the wall, checking every stud.
Corners will always have studs so they’re a great place to start. Line a measuring tape against the corner and measure both 16 inches and 24 inches from the corner. Mark the location with a tiny pencil mark, painter's tape, post-it note, or anything else you can easily remove.
Once you have the distance marked, check the stud location by using any of the methods for checking studs—knocking, using a stud finder, etc.
Did you know that standard outlets and light switches are attached to wall studs? At least one side of an electrical box will be mounted on a stud so all you have to do is find that side. To do so, you have two options:
Turn off your power.
Remove the outlet/switch cover and look inside to spot the vertical wood stud.
Leave the cover on and tap on either side of the outlet/switch to see which side sounds solid.
Then, you’ll measure 16 inches and 24 inches out from the stud side and mark the wall. Tap the wall around both marks to see where it sounds solid. There’s your stud.
If your outlet is on the floor, draw a straight line up from your outlet along the stud until you reach your desired mount height. Measure 16 inches or 24 inches out from your vertical line and tap find the stud. Keep measuring 16 or 24 inches across the wall until you get to your desired mount location.
Windows have studs on each side of them, so you can try searching for your wall studs by finding the studs around your windows and measuring 16 inches or 24 inches out. Keep in mind that this can be challenging if you have window trim.
The baseboards and crown molding that run along the top or bottom of your walls may be nailed to a stud. Try looking for the nail holes in the bottom baseboard and see if you can find the stud that way.
Just remember, these holes are typically filled in with caulk and painted to match the baseboard so they can be difficult to see. But if you find a nail hole, draw a vertical line upward with a pencil and measure 16 inches or 24 inches across the wall. Knock to hear where it sounds solid to locate the stud.
You may be able to spot raised or sunken imperfections in your drywall. This indicates fasteners that secure the drywall panels to the studs. They should be placed in the center of the studs.
To find them, hold a flashlight or worklight parallel to the wall and look along it to find these small dimples in the wall. Knock the imperfections to make sure they produce a solid sound.
This is a less commonly used method when compared to other methods, but it can work if you have a strong magnet. Drywall sheets are attached to the studs with metal (fasteners, screws, etc.). When you run a magnet along the wall, you will feel it pull towards the metal underneath the drywall.
You won’t be able to do this with a normal fridge magnet, it simply isn’t strong enough. While a magnet is much cheaper than a stud finder, it doesn’t always work. A magnet also tends to find all metal, and you don’t want to mistake anything electrical or plumbing-related for a stud.
If you make a mistake and miss the stud, use the hole you created in your wall to your advantage. Untwist a wire hanger and bend it into a right angle. Insert one end of the metal hanger into the wall and spin it in a circle. When it meets resistance, you’ve correctly found your wall stud.
Using an electronic stud finder is the most reliable way to locate a stud behind drywall. Here’s how to do it:
Place it against the drywall in an upright position.
Depress the button and move it slowly across the drywall.
When the stud finder locates the outside edge of a wall stud, it will light up. Mark that spot with a pencil.
To find the opposite edge of the same stud, place the stud finder a few inches away from your marked spot. Move the stud finder toward the spot. Mark the area that lights up.
With the two marks, you’ll know exactly where the center of the stud is. (If you have a center-sensing model, it will find the center of the stud directly for a faster process.)
Note: Don’t forget to hold the stud finder to your chest and say, “Found one!” before starting this process.
Confirm that you actually found a stud and not something else, like a wall pipe, by locating several studs on the wall. Measure the space between them to see if they are spaced 16 inches or 24 inches apart. If you get a different measurement, you probably found something else.
Don’t twist and turn the stud finder while moving it against the wall. Hold it upright and move it to the left or right in a slow, smooth motion.
Don’t depress the button before putting the stud finder against the wall. You will get an error message.
If you get an error message immediately or don’t find a stud at all, release the button and try again. It’s likely that you placed the stud finder directly onto the stud to start, messing up the reading.
Important: If you have a lath and plaster wall, you may have a harder time finding a stud with the stud finder. That’s because stud finders work by detecting a change in the density inside the wall, and lath and plaster walls don’t have consistent density. Some stud finders have a metal scanner that can locate the nails attaching the lath to the studs, but you can also try one of the following manual methods.
While there are stud-finder apps available for iOS and Android devices–we wouldn’t trust them. Some work and some don’t, and there are too many variables to consider when locating a stud. You can combine a stud-finding app with another method in this article to double-check, but relying on just an app is probably not the best way to go.
Whether or not you choose to mount heavy objects yourself or hire a pro comes down to a few different things. If you are handy with a drill and can confidently find the studs you’ll mount the heavy object on, this could be a fun and quick DIY project (provided you can safely lift and hang the object). It’s also a great excuse to hang out with some friends who can help you do the heavy lifting.
However, there are many instances where you might want to hire a pro. Sometimes you just can’t accurately locate a stud. In this case, it’s best to hire someone for the job so you don’t damage your wall.
Another good reason to hire a pro is if the object you’re hanging is too heavy for you to lift. Expect to pay an hourly rate of between $40 and $100 depending on the professional. For any expensive or irreplaceable items, it’s probably better to hire a pro for these reasons as well.
There are a few options if you miss a stud. You can simply patch the hole with spackle, sand it down, repaint it, and then find the stud—essentially starting over. If you don’t want to do that, you can insert one of the more robust drywall anchor options and hang your item on that, but that will only work if the drywall is in excellent condition and the anchor is rated for the weight of the item you’re hanging on it. You may be able to cover the hole with the object itself once it’s mounted, but it’s still recommended to at least fill the hole to protect insulation and prevent vermin from entering.
Choose a drill bit that is the size of the screws of the anchors you will use. You aren’t drilling through metal or concrete—hopefully—so any standard twist, wooden or all-purpose drill bit will work fine. It’s also important to have a screwdriver capable of drilling through the drywall and into the stud. The good news is most available drills, even the older ones, can do this with no issue.
It’s highly recommended to use studs for a TV mount. The last thing you want is to be watching your favorite show when the TV falls off the wall. Studs are much stronger than drywall and quite a bit stronger than drywall anchors but, if you can’t find the studs or there simply aren’t any where you need them, you can use drywall anchors. It’s extremely important to make sure the anchors are rated for the load of the TV. We recommend using anchors that are rated far beyond the weight of whatever you’re hanging. Our suggestion is metal drywall toggle anchors.
