FINDING STUDS IN LATH AND PLASTER WALLS HOW TO

Imagine hanging a 50 pound framed piece of artwork on nothing but drywall.Įnsuring your wall décor is anchored to these studs means they’ll stay in place until you decide to take them down again. Studs are the wooden or metal beams that support the walls in your house. This means that your standard stud finder won’t be able to detect a change in density because it’s all dense.Īnytime you want to hang something on your wall- whether it’s 0.5 pounds or 50 pounds- you want it to be attached to a stud. Vertical studs, wooden beams, and plaster make up the structure of older homes.

FINDING STUDS IN LATH AND PLASTER WALLS HOW TO

Here are five ways to find a stud in a plaster wall: How To Find a Stud in a Plaster Wall

But don’t worry- there are still ways to locate studs in these walls! So what’s the solution to finding studs in older homes? Some people say to use a magnet, but that also won’t work if you have metal lath. And if the lath is a metal wire type, instead of older wood lath, a stud finder will produce false readings. Plaster can be too thick or dense to find a stud with common stud finders, which is probably why you’re finding that these don’t work. These were “wet” applied walls (not to be confused with the similar-sounding “wet wall” that contains plumbing pipes).

Learning how to find a stud in a plaster wall takes some patience, but we have a few tricks up our sleeve that will save you time.īack in the day, home builders had to trowel the wall finish on with plaster over a lath base (kind of like how stucco is applied). But on some older homes from the mid-1970s and prior, there’s a good chance you may have plaster walls instead. It’s pretty simple to find a stud in common drywall.

Finding studs in lath and plaster walls