I've tried everything.

Electronic stud finders are useless. I've bought and returned three different models. Some never get to the ready mode and others give me false indicators that are not repeatable.

Magnetic stud finders are useless. They don't indicate anything...ever.

Tapping is useless. I've tapped along the wall with a hammer, I've tapped along with a knuckle. Every inch sounds identical to the last.

I've even tried finding studs by the nails in the floorboards but the floorboards have such a thick coating of paint I only found one nail and it was directly under an outlet so there can't possible be a stud there. Though there very is likely one on either side of the outlet.

I know wall studs are usually 16" apart, but I have to find one first.

So before I get fed up and just start randomly drilling holes in my walls, is there something else I should try?

Home repair and improvement shouldn't be this damn frustrating.

Moving a couch down a narrow hallway seems to work well.

Are you sure it's not a block wall?

You should post this in DIY. I'd look to the outlets. Unscrew one and poke around. Once you find one lay the tape out 16 OC until you come to another plug.

Why do you want to find your studs?

The thumping for sound is the best I have.
Second best is drilling and looking for wood shavings, then measuring 16 inches to the next.

Sorry, it's like geological exploration if you have an old house and true plaster walls.

The good news is that if you have real plaster, that shit seems to last forever

Don't necessarily rely on your studs being 16'' on center, unless you have verified this in your house already.

If it is absolutely necessary to not put a few small exploratory holes in your wall, pull the baseboard and look right at them.

I suggest learning how to use hot mud to patch holes in your plaster...  With Silverset 5 minute joint compound, I can have multiple 2" holes re-patched and textured, and primed in 30 minutes.  Its all about the hot mud wetsand....  

What kind of electronic stud finders? Capacitance or radio?

Invite TRG over.


He'll find you lots of studs.  He's good at that.

Hell, baby, I'm right here!

Capacitance I think.

Hanging shelves. Need to be able to carry the load.

Determine the exact height of the shelf and start poking holes with a nail until you find a stud, Install shelf and cover nail holes.

Maybe you need one of these:







A Dowser ball.

Apparently used to find studs on old wood slat type walls.

Found it when moved into this house.

Would you like to borrow it?


Gene

I'll bite.

What is that thing supposed to do and how does it work?

+1

This. An outlet box should be screwed to a stud, pull the cover plate and determine if the stud is to the left or right.

Metal rail adjustable shelves.

Is it an old house with thick plaster walls?

If so, you might have vertical studs with horizontal wood slats covered in real plaster like these;

Is that like the "3 sea shells"?

Get yourself a dime sized rare earth magnet (or larger). An old speaker magnet will work too.
Run it along the walls, the magnet should stick to the nails holding the lath or plasterboard to the wall.
Unless you have chicken wire as an underlayment, in that case you are fucked. Never found anything that will detect studs though that.
They do make some REALLY tiny wire drill bits that you can use to probe for studs too.


 

pull base board off see if you can see them, if not drill with the smallest bit you have till you find one, messure take note how far from the nearest wall this studd lies, then figure out if your studs are 16' on center 24' or all fucked up then put base board back on.

The way understand it, you tap it on the wall, and it works (sort of) like a dead blow hammer.  When you hit a stud, the balls bounce back, when there is no stud, the balls don't bounce back.

ETA: I may have written that backwards.

Yeah, but if he's got plaster & lath, his balls are going to be bouncing all over the place.

Umm, not sure. What does that mean?

That is what it's made for.

Ok, that's funny.

Just start hitting the wall with your fucking hammer. Something will become apparent after a few swings. You'll either see lathe under the plaster, or just old sheetrock.

Life sometimes can be handled with a few swings of a hammer. It doesn't take a lot of tought, or consideration, or contemplation. Just SWING the fucker and your answer will be revealed.

Rip everything down to the studs and hang new drywall.



Should only take a day or two to finish the job.  



You'll also have nice new smooth walls.



No, I'm not kidding, either.

He needs guidance installing a shelf, man.

Don't think he's up for finishing drywall

I am not in your wall, discontinue looking.

Not that old.

Drywall with a stucco layer. Don't ask me why.

Why?

Stucco on the inside - awesome.

If it were my house, I would rip it out & re-rock it as a previous poster said.

Stucco?



I feel like much less of an asshole now for telling you to rip the wall down.

Stucco over drywall? hehe.

Is the drywall about 2 feet wide, laid horizontally? Buttonboard? Wire lath and plaster? I see them in Southern California pretty often.

IAC, this is what I do, if I can't pull base.

First thing I'll do is take a decent flashlight, turn it on, and while holding the barrel against the wall, or close to it, shine the light across the wall. Often times that low angle light will show nail depressions. Find a row of them, and there you go.

Work off of outlet boxes, switch boxes, etc.

If all else fails, I drill a small hole, take a couple of feet of wire, and feed it into the hole. Bend it until it's feeding more or less parallel to the wall while feeding it in. Then rotate it until you find a stud. Pull the wire out, lay it on the wall, and estimate where the stud is. Probably no fireblocks in that house either.

The best ones to deal with are the owner built homes - 20", 16", 12", whatever inch spacing they felt like. Hell, I've seen studs that have been pieced together from scraps of 2x's. All sorts of crap out there.

This....it's the easiest way.

IF it's an interior frame wall.... if it's an exterior wall, and your dealing with block and not frame construction..your going to run into a furring strip, and a box cut into block. If your dealing with lath/ plaster walls...pull a baseboard...that might get you to a stud...once you find one...then it's just a matter of measurement. Corners are studs...and you can measure out from there respectively...and get to a stud. Not sure what your objective is? Type of construction?
Good luck.

Then use a bent coat hanger to feel around.  As others posted above, outlet and 16 oc.  That works unless you have a real old house like I used to, they didn't have a level, square, or a ruler when they built it.

Hire a hooker?

Use a a small drill bit and remove all doubt.  We who have not done much renovation work in a house tend to view the house as some complex, expensive construct when in fact they are generally made of the most simple technology and easily repairable.  The walls are a great example.  It is a bit of plaster laid by hand over lathe and studs.  It was done by hand and so has imperfections.  Likewise I would bet that previous owners have added their marks...holes and repaired damages that we who now own the house tend to "look past".  Fear not you can repair huge plaster damage easily and small drill locating holes easier still.
Measure from an exterior corner 16 inches and start drilling every half inch on both sides of this 16"  location until you find the stud.  Note also things like electrical outlets and heating outlets are usually attached to a stud a one one side or both. This can also be one's starting point. When possible test drill where your work , (such as a picture to hang or a cabinet), will probably cover your test drill holes.  This reduces the need for repair or the level of repair.
If you must repair/ cover your test holes you may use the one of the following:
1. White paintable caulk..be sure to first scrape the hole rim flat with a sharp putty knife and then  indent the hole rim using a rounded screwdriver handle or the handle of the putty knife effectively creating a "countersink" as one does with a wood screw. This will remove telltale "eyebrows" .  Finally spread the caulk with finger or putty knife and before dry wipe lightly with wet sponge ..to feather out.
2. Same as number 1. above but use  using sheet rock mud
3. Larger repairs use sheetrock tape and three coats sheetrock mud
4. actual holes and larger damage, cut damaged area into a simple shape say a square or rectangle. Measure finished shape, cut new piece of sheetrock to match. If not located over a stud you will need to add support. Cut a 11/2x 1/4 thick piece(s) wood that are longer by 4 inches than hole in wall, drill one screw into this piece of wood off center, use as handle to insert into hole and pull while drilling through plaster on each end just outside hole. This will secure wood strip on each end spanning hole. Remove handle screw. Larger holes may need two or three such pieces. Next check thickness plaster and compare to repair sheetrock previously cut.  If need be shim the sheetrock so that when installed it will be level to plaster surface. Screw in place, tape and mud.

Child's play. Go forth and conquer.

If the baseboard is off you can see where the plaster ground is nailed to the studs.
 

An easy way to find studs in a covered wall is to simply take a piece of steel wool, hold it about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the wall at about head/shoulder height. agitate the wool with both hands so that you can see the dust falling if you move the wool across the wall the dust will magically gather on the nails/screws in the wall . there is just enough magnetization going on that the steel dust is attracted to the nails
As a contractor I have used this method for over 20 yrs, it works about 95% of the time
The flashlight method described above works also

Tag. I live in a 100-ish year old farmhouse. Plaster and Lath.

Is it stucco (like the exterior of a house) or just a skim coat of plaster over drywall?



The magnet trick works perfect on skim coated houses. I use it all the time. (I mount things to walls for a living).



 

take off the baseboards

Start in a corner, there will always be a stud there, work your way out with a tape measure.

If you  have plaster and lath wall construction, and are just hanging shelving, why don't you just use toggle bolts to hang the shelves?

as a word of caution.. Be carefull about running a drill bit randomly into your walls. There are eletrical wires run in there and you can make contact. At that point your cutting a larger hole in your drywall to fix it.. Ask me how i know.

Just start pounding in nails until you find something solid.