How do you find studs in your walls?

Four techniques.

The most common and oldest is just going to be to knock on the wall with your knuckles. When you hear a hollow sound, you are far away from the stud; when you get close to a stud, it will sound more solid.

The second technique is to buy a studfinder - these use a variety of techniques to try to figure out where studs are, from using ultrasound to simple metal detectors that look for drywall screws. When you hover the studfinder over the wall, it will simply tell you "stud". These things are a little iffy even in the best conditions, though, unless you buy the expensive ones (>$100).

The third technique, which may or may not work depending on your home, is to remove the baseboards (trim). You can then chip out a very small amount of plaster behind where the trim was but above the wood that the trim is nailed into and actually look into your wall. This is the best technique, but if the wood is too thick, you may make a visible hole which would have to be filled.

The fourth technique is simply to drill a hole in the wall where you suspect a stud might be, preferably somewhere not normally visible. If you feel the drill bit pop through the wall, there's no stud there - if you hit wood, then there is.

11/6/09

Adding a fifth... less than $10 with no unnecessary damage to your walls.

Behind the plaster are horizontal wood strips called lathe. These lathe strips are nailed to the studs. Do a search for "rare earth magnets". These are super strong magnets that can find these nails. Simply hold the magnet in hand and slowly roll or drag (depending on the shape you get) across the wall (cylindrical shape works best for no wall markings and easy roll). Where the magnet sticks is where the lathe is nailed into the...... stud!