Everyone swears by stud finders on plaster walls, but a magnet from my junk drawer worked better in a 1920s house

Iris Dixon · 2026-09-16T18:55:03.470942+00:00

Did a job in an old house near Dayton last month and my $60 stud finder kept beeping at nothing, so I grabbed a small magnet off the fridge and swept the wall for nail heads. It found every stud in under 2 minutes, dead on, because old plaster goes over wood lath that's nailed to the studs. Now I keep two magnets in my pouch for anything built before 1950 and only pull out the scanner for drywall, which most guys in this trade would call backwards. What's your go-to trick for nailing studs in old plaster when the fancy tools just lie to you?

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Everyone swears by stud finders on plaster walls, but a magnet from my junk drawer worked better in a 1920s house | Cable Installers - Babble Community