Recent comments in /f/DIY

Xx_Ph03n1X_xX t1_j9dw213 wrote

Reply to Attaching TV wall mount - how to avoid electrical wiring in the walls? by Vyzantinist

I mount tv's for a living. There's no worry of hitting wires as long as you're going into a stud. In fact, where your outlets are are a good indicator of where you have a stud as the boxes are normally attached to one.

You should be more worried about hitting your water pipes, but it's easy enough to avoid those, just don't drill into the wall where there's a bathroom directly behind it.

If you want to ensure that your stud finder is good, get a long thin piece of metal and poke it into your wall (assuming it's not wood panels) and if you get resistance early on, you've got a stud.

If you want to ensure you get it exactly where you want it the first time with no extra holes, mark off exactly where you want the bottom of the TV on the wall. Then measure the heighth of the TV. Place the brackets on the TV, along with the wall bracket and then measure from the bottom of the TV to the top holes of the wall bracket. Use your TV height measurement to ensure the TV is at a good angle (honestly, I see so many people fall in the trap of placing it high up, neglecting that you'll have to crane your neck to watch it.) And then use the "drop" (the bottom of the TV to the wall bracket hole) to mark off where your bracket should go on the appropriate stud

Place the wall bracket on the wall where you come in contact with two studs and drill your holes, and then screw in your lags. And that's the hard stuff done.

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Alarmed-Chicken-8105 t1_j9dt5qo wrote

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

Simply enough just use a strong magnet, it will be attracted to the nails in the studs and boom, you find your studs. From there you can do it a couple more times and use logical deduction to figure out how far apart the studs are. just because 16" or 12" is standard depending where you are or what wall type it is doesn't mean everyone followed every rule back then.

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MacAndRich t1_j9dsox4 wrote

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

>I have a garage where the drywall isn't attached directly to the studs at all.

I almost went insane not finding the studs in my garage! As it turns out they layed what seems to be 1"×4"×8' boards horizontally over the studs, then drywall over those. So if you run a stud finder horizontally you'll never find them because there's an air gap between the stud and the drywall.

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BCGrog t1_j9dsbg2 wrote

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

My house was built in 1964. The way I found my studs was to remove the baseboard trim and I was able to see the bottoms of the studs. I made a mark in the center of each one on the drywall that would be concealed by the baseboard trim when I replaced it.

This helped establish the spacing they used when they built the house.

Then I used a 4 foot level to follow them up to the location where I needed to drill a fastener, made a mark and worked from there.

Sometimes I had to cut a bit of drywall away at the bottom to reveal the stud. That's OK, because the baseboard concealed that when I replaced it.

This works if you have trim, if you can remove it easily and if you know how to re-attach it.

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