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Deftek178 t1_j9de346 wrote

Reply to comment by pinacolada12345 in How do I find these g-d studs?? by WaterChestnutII

Magnet style stud finder is the first one I bought when I got my first apartment. 20 years later and I've never bought or even considered getting another studfindee. This is the only way to do it in my opinion. My last dog chewed up the studfinder when she was a puppy so it's covered in little holes but it still works like the day I bought it.

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johnwynne3 t1_j9dqhdl wrote

Magnet doesn’t work on plaster walls. Does work on drywalls though.

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jooes t1_j9dra1o wrote

You might be able to hit the nails on the lath.

But some of my plaster walls have a wire mesh in them too, so good luck with that.

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SwellandDecay t1_j9dzwbk wrote

my experience with plaster walls is that they're strong af. you can drill straight into them for most things, unless you're mounting a bike or something

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hicow t1_j9e65an wrote

Yes they do - normal studfinders don't work on lath & plaster walls, so magnetic's about the only option. They can be tricky, though, as the lath isn't necessarily only nailed together over studs, or like jooes mentioned, some walls use wire mesh.

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johnwynne3 t1_j9frk86 wrote

We have lath and plaster construction (house built in 1941), and we have used this stud finder with success. It does a static position calibration step to determine depth of the wall before you scan. Haven’t torn in to any walls, but I don’t think we have a wire mesh back to the plaster, which may account for our success.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-Whole-Stud-Finder-ESF5002/319999234

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