Cheap/Free way to find studs in a wall with a magnet and some post-its.

Here we go thought i would let you all in on a little secret i have learnt to find studs in walls. I have tried many of those expensive stud finders only to be let down time and time again. All you need to do to find a stud is to get a rare earth magnet, mine is from an old hard drive but you can buy them in shops (even magnet toys for kids will work) They are normally silver. And some post-its to identify the studs.

Simple just run the magnet over the wall and you will find the screw that is attatching the gyprock/plasterboard to the stud. Then you just need to go horizontally and vertically to work out which way the stud is going. Now you can hang or screw in stuff into this stud without fear of it falling down.

NOTE: Now this method works with most brick/veneer and internal walls. It wont work with double brick. But it does work with a metal framed house (obviously). You may also find that the person who installed the plasterboard may have decided to skip using screws and just glued the board there, if thats the case is may be hard to find and you may need to just knock the wall until you find a non hollow sound.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Building
• Studd
• find
• finder
• free
• stud
• magnet
• brick
• veneer
• wood
• metal
• studs

[bibs5]

thanks a lot for wasting my time. it didn't work.

[djeraser]

@bibs5 Worked fine for other people. As long as you have a strong enough magnet. The building codes state that you need to affix the plasterboard to the frame using screws/nail so if they are there it should work.

[yossariancomplex]

I don't know too much about wiring so I'm not sure if there are any magnetic cables or if the electric change would attract the magnet. If so, there's a possible hazard concerning hitting wiring that has been cut into the face of the stud.

[djeraser]

I do agree this could be an issue, but normally the wires are on the left or right of the studd with the plaster then screwed on the front, so if you went down the wall you would tell the studds are every 45-90cms and you can then ascertain ifs a studd. Most wiring however comes from the roof down the cavity to the plug not sideways through the studds. The magnets arnt really strong enough to just latch onto a wall with a pipe or wire however.

[tshong]

Worked perfectly for me! Thank you for the great idea!!!

[KardTricks]

It worked with my basic name tag magnet from work haha

[dnamoore74]

like the old hard drive magnet!!

[lavachoke]

sounds like cleveland with an english accent

[iloldirl]

I didn't have an earth magnet so I used the magnetic back of my name tag from where I work and it worked!

[me20003]

This worked awesome for me thanks. Because most people say find a wall socket but the problem without removing and looking is that you don't know what side of the stud the box is mounted to which could throw off the measurement. But this way it works out perfect and you can even identify what side the box is attached to after using it as a reference.

[me20003]

@ryanrdt What you could do is when the magnet sticks. Just measure 16" from that point horizontaly and mark. Then move the magnet up and down that line until it sticks. If it does you can be pretty sure your fiest location is a stud because I doubt wires will be every 16" on center. If not, consider yourself very unlucky.

[bnewton81]

I use 1" neo magnets to find studs. It doesn't always work for some reason, but it always works better than a stud finder.

[bergorite]

Thank you! Worked amazingly well!

[AhhBigRobots]

You sir are awesome, you saved me about $50! THANK YOU!!