![]() ![]() Try these simple and time tested tricks to find studs in a plaster wall the next time you need to hang something in your old house. Most smaller items can be hung pretty securely anywhere on the wall by screwing into the wood lath, but for heavy things that weight more than 10-15 lbs, like large mirrors and TVs, you’ll need to learn how to find studs in a plaster wall.ĭon’t waste your money on that stud finder. If you’ve got questions or comments, you can leave a comment below or email us at Thanks for reading.If you own an old house with plaster and lath walls, you may have discovered how utterly useless a stud finder can be. That makes watching downloaded content much easier and impressive and makes editing photos in photoshop pretty awesome. We moved the computer from under the desk to on top of the marble and hooked it up to the tv with a dvi to hdmi cable. We bought the marble-topped low dresser at an auction for 75 bucks and it’s got plenty of room to store whatever we need it to store. I then used some leftover paint to paint the boards the same color as the walls and it’s all very clean. All of the cables run behind this board so it’s a clean install. You can see in the last photo that I screwed a thin board to the left wall. Once they were up, I attached a cheap (20 dollar) tilting tv mount to the stretchers. I used 3-inch lag bolts to secure the two stretcher boards to the base boards, checking to make sure they were perfectly level along the way. I had to use a sander to correct the angles just a bit before I bolted the boards in place. I cut the boards to the correct length with the correct angles using my mitre/chop saw, but you can use a hand saw and a mitre box if you’ve got one. I also installed a small light fixture on the wooden frame behind the TV so it’s backlit. Hang the TV from the wall mount and you’re all set for hours of entertainment. ![]() If they overheat, you can twist the head off of the screw.and then you’re screwed. Let them cool for a while if you have to. ![]() Feel them with your fingers to make sure they’re not too hot. I would highly recommend you twist one screw for a few turns, then move on to the other. Even with pre-drilled holes, the screws heated up quite a bit as I fought them into the studs. I used a level to make sure the base boards were perfectly vertical on the wall before I pre-drilled those holes. I pre-drilled holes into the studs for the lag screws so that they would be easier to drive into the old wood. This was important because I would be mounting other boards directly over the lag screws. I used a 3/4-inch drill bit to widen the hole on the top so that the washers and screw heads would be even or below the surface of the boards. I then drilled holes through the boards for 6-inch lag screws. I cut two 18-inch sections of 2×4 with mitred ends (for looks, not required). The third photo shows the base boards I bolted to the studs through the plaster. Here’s the completed wooden construction. They’re behind a tv so nobody can see them. You can fill in the other holes with spackle and paint over them, or you can leave them like I did. This line roughly marks the center of the stud. In the second photograph above, you can see where I marked a vertical line between two holes in a stud. When you hit a stud, it’s much harder to drill down and you’ll pull back some wood chips along with the plaster. These thin boards are called lath and totally prevent the stud finder from finding the stud. With plaster walls, the best way I’ve found for finding studs is to use a very thin drill bit to drill a series of tiny holes. The plaster is applied to a series of thin boards which are attached to the studs. Since the walls are plaster, you can’t use a stud finder. You can see in the first photograph above that I did some searching. My first task was to find the studs running vertically in the walls. It may be overkill, but I don’t like expensive TVs to fall down. I used a mitre chop saw, but you can buy a mitre box for a hand saw for around 15 bucks. ![]() Since they hit the wall 2×4’s at an angle, you’ve got to mitre the ends. Attach horizontal 2x4s to the ones mounted to the wall. ![]()
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