I wanted to do a few short blog posts about products that I really like and that work well. First up is a stud finder that I found. It’s called the Stud4Sure stud finder (not an affiliate link). It’s more accurate than fancy electronic studfinders and much more accurate than knocking on the wall.
This little sucker is essentially some magnets embedded in a piece of plastic. Sometimes the best solution is the easiest, eh? This thing is simplicity itself. Just rub it over a wall and it will “stick” over the nails that you’ll find in studs. Here’s what it looks like sticking to one of my walls:
It costs 15 bucks, which is pretty cheap in my book. Highly recommended.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Holy crap, $15 for an inch and a half of plastic with magnets inside? I see a good niche for a new DIY stud finder.
Kevin, if you’ve got magnets lying around the house you could make your own stud finder for free.
I got one of the ones the beeps when it finds a stud. Held it against my chest in front of my wife far too many times.
I was excited to see this as I’ve just had a frustrating experience with the LED kind, but I’m confused–what if you’re at a section of the wall that doesn’t have nails in the studs? You say it as if all studs are filled with nails–most aren’t. In fact, nails are often the sign of electric junction boxes and other such things that you really want to avoid.
@michael D.
That was very funny.
Now you just need to invent a dog who can sniff spam when it appears on the screen, even through many layers of cloaking.
dk
Matt,
Your blog has been down for around 2 hours today. Has Oz anything to do with that
Lol yeah !! david thinks that your blog was hacked and this post is fake ! I doubt !! u have something to say abt this ?
“It costs 15 bucks, which is pretty cheap in my book. Highly recommended.”
Or use a fridge magnet for 50 cents?
Well, I’d _assume_ it wasn’t an affiliate link. If senior Google engineers are resorting to affiliate links to pay the bills, we’re all in trouble…
Beware of brass/copper nails and watertubes. You won’t find these with this magnet.
$15? Are you kidding? That’s nothing. Most women would pay thousands for a “stud-4-sure finder”.
That’s Genius!
I do a lot of DIY and finding studs is a pain the you-know-what, I never thought us using the Neodynium magnets I have lying around.
I think this is an excuse for Matt to try to rank for stud and “best stud”. =]
At our house, we always just did the thump test. Knock on the wall with your knuckles, when you don’t have a hollow sound anymore, there’s the stud.
Michael D, that joke never gets old.
Why did you feel it was necessary to disclose its “not an affiliate link”?
Thats just weird. Who cares if it is? I am getting confused by people thinking that if money is involved honesty goes out the window, unless that is your personal policy. You are paid for your job are you less honest in your work?
Harith, I think my webhost was just flaky for a couple hours; my blog wasn’t hacked or anything like that.
Travis Lane, most studs are a certain distance apart in most houses. So you can usually run it over the wall and get a feel from the spacing whether it’s a stud or not. And if you’re right in the middle of an interior wall, it’s usually not anything electrical. Hardly ever.
Migh as well buy one
looks small and looks useful
further cheap
(Pokes head around corner) Uhhhhhh I thought this was Matt Cutts site, and it seems to be Tool Time?
LOL Sorry, wouldn’t you be looking for the nails used to put up the drywall, guys?
Strange, English is my second language and I allways thought a stud was something else. So when I saw an article about a Stud4Sure finder I thought it was something for women….
Or you could just use an electric shaver. It will make a different noise if there’s on the other side of the wall.
Lifehacker, eat your heart out!
That is a pretty fancy trick for the stud finder and it’s a lot easier than a beeping one that works off of thickness. The only part about using magnets is old metal or vents in the wall. Other than that, the magnets are a solid stud finder.
Great tip Matt! I have an inexpensive DIY alternative.
I bought a variety of strong Neodymium magnets off eBay a couple of years ago. I use a one inch diameter model wrapped in an old washcloth as a nail finder. The washcloth keeps the magnet from marring the walls. The magnet cost about $2 and I have old washcloths lying around the house. It “stores” mostly out of sight stuck to a nail between a wall and door frame. I always know where it is!
Standard studs are 16″ on center. Sometimes you’ll pick up a purling (horizontal brace). Once you find a nail, move the magnet vertically to find other nails to verify you’re on a stud. Make sure you know where electrical and water is located on both sides of the wall to avoid sparks and leaks.
Matt, better not take a crap. Someone will post it on SPIN
Yes, Wim, us poor women always have to bear the funny looks and snickers when we walk into the hardware store and ask for a “stud finder”. When I went to buy one, a very helpful employee volunteered to come to my house personally. I really only wanted to spend $15 on some plastic and magnets!
You can also use the very powerful magnet from one of your old HDD…
“Harith, I think my webhost was just flaky for a couple hours; my blog wasn’t hacked or anything like that.”
So even Matt can’t get reliable hosting. That’s not comforting.
Sure a magnet will work but then you dont’ have an excuse to go to the hardware store.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love it when you do a post like this?
I took part in this little video experiment with some folks you should know, and I was wondering what tidbit’s of advice you would add to the conversation?
Oh, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen a great Mat Cutts video blog
http://www.mediadonis.net/?p=300
An earlier comment mentioned that nails were usually a sign of electrical junction boxes being present. To be clear about that: Any electrical junction box (a box which contains only wires which are connected together to branch or combine circuits but contains no outlet device) should, by law, breach the wall surface and be covered by a blank faceplate. If you do run into a “buried” junction box the bright side is you will likely win the law suit (or your family will, postpartem!)
“If you do run into a “buried” junction box the bright side is you will likely win the law suit (or your family will, postpartem!)”
Can drilling into a buried junction box get you pregnant?
Oh, you meant postmortem…
I install commercial kitchens in restaruants. We install stainless steel wall paneling on the cookline walls, which makes it very hard to locate the studs after the paneling is up.
A fellow installer had one of these stud finders, and I cannot beleive how well it works. Those magnets are so strong, it has no issues at all pulling tight, even through the paneling. Not only does it work through the stainless, but it will also find the screws through 1/4″ ceramic tile.
I am a huge advocate of this stud finder. Sure, you can just buy a neodymium magnets and a rag for less money, but that would be like using pliers instead of a socket set. For the fifteen bucks, just splurge a little bit.
Studfinder.
I had one of those $20 electronic stud finders and it was total crap. So I went down to the local junk store and bought one of those super strong magnets for a couple bucks. Then I rubbed it lightly across the wall and when it found a nail it stuck fast. Real simple; real effective; real cheap.
Everyone assumes that you will always be looking for studs under drywall, which may be the case in the majority of modern homes, but what happens when you are chasing studs under plaster, or several sheets of drywall or under ceramic tile ! Magnets will be of little use, especially if metal lath is used in the plaster ! In these cases You need Hi-Tech.