Stud finders use a magnetic sensor to find screws holding drywall to the studs just below the wall’s surface. Once you’ve located a stud, you can mount heavy and fragile objects by drilling into the stud and installing the right hanging hardware. Stud finders have a hard time with lath-and-plaster because the plaster is solid and can often be 1/2' thick, then underneath the plaster you there are only small gaps between the wood lath, so you never really get. Modern stud finders simply don’t work on plaster walls. Stud finders are used to determine where the studs and fasteners in your walls are located. Just like my magnet trick, but a bit more refined than tying dental floss around a magnet. A lot of stud finders work by detecting the change in the dielectric constant of the wall as you move horizontally across the wall. This simple stud finder is a powerful magnet that pops into place when a stud fastener is detected. Older homes walls were 1st studs running vertically, then 1/2' thick lathe running horizontally, and then covered with who knows how many years of plaster. Change your stud finder to the deep setting if you have it. Most smaller items can be hung pretty securely anywhere on the wall by screwing into the wood lath, but for heavy things that weig. When you hear the stud finder going off, it could be a stud - but it could also be the lathe too. You could also try a cool product called StudPop which takes the magnet trick to the next level. 4 Tricks to Find Studs in a Plaster Wall: If you own an old house with plaster and lath walls, you may have discovered how utterly useless a stud finder can be.

Keep in mind there are some spaces between lath vertically so if you’re not having much luck try moving the magnet up or down a bit so that it is over top one of the hidden nails. The reason this works is because the wood lath is nailed to the studs, and the magnet is attracted to those nails. It has to be a strong magnet for this to work, so those floppy pizza magnets won’t cut it. There are also multipurpose stud finders that can, in addition to studs, locate wires, pipes, nails, and screws to make sure you dont drill into anything dangerous. Therefore, if you really want to replace your lath and plaster walls with drywall, then you need to remove the plaster walls completely down to the studs. A finished drywall wall ready for painting. Every so often, the magnet will stick to the wall a bit on the stud location. The main two types of stud finders available to buy are magnetic stud finders and electric stud finders. Your only insulation option is going to be blown-in insulation. Dangle the magnet against the wall and slowly move it horizontally across the wall. It works every time! Grab the strongest magnet you have and tie a piece of dental floss or string around it. This is my favorite method and the reason is simple.

Stud finder lath and plaster walls