Hi all
Looking to do some house work for the first time and have no clue what detectors are good.
I'm looking to hang pictures and footing shelves.
I've looked at the following:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07QDXP4FB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_g…
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B004TACMZ8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_g…
Any tips if these are good?
Mixed reviews on that one..
I have something like this and it works fine: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/supportive-solutions-hanson-mag…
Not sure why people need all the electronic doodads for such a simple thing.
They work great but are much slower as you not only need to find the stud but also be at the right height to find a screw.
Best one I've used is this: https://www.bunnings.com.au/franklin-prosensor-t13-professio…
Used numerous models of Stanley and Bosch and never had any luck with them and those that have the feature usually give a constant AC proximity warning.
yup another vote for Franklin. I have a different model to the above but it has been faultless
How do you avoid hitting wires and pipes?
Common sense and a bit of knowledge. I know pipes are only going to be in walls coming up from the floor to the taps and I've worked with sparkies enough to know how they run electrical and take that into account.
I know pipes are only going to be in walls coming up from the floor to the taps
False
A transportable house can have the water pipes in the roof coming down to the taps An older houses use to have the hot water service located in the roof
@Loot N Plunder: My rural place and my city apartment both had hot water heater in a cupboard just below the ceiling. One had the pipes running through the ceiling cavity the other has them running through a false ceiling and then through the upper walls and coming down to the taps.
@Loot N Plunder: There's always exceptions but I was mostly referring to my place. Houses with water run through the ceiling are not common these days.
100% agree, I use the smaller 7 sensor version. I use it daily and it never misses a beat.
No AC and no pipe detection is the only downside as mentioned below. Common sense in most situations can avoid this, obviously the risk still exists. Touch wood I've never had an issue. As OP is mainly looking at hanging pictures I doubt small picture hooks would penetrate far enough through a stud to actually cause issues. Shelving should still be ok obviously depending on the screw sizes.
My wife is a stud finder because she found me……. boom tish
When she's not around I use the Franklin. It's been reliable.
Just tap your walls with your knuckle to work out the stud spacing and by simple mental arithmetic the stud centres.
An expensive device for hanging a few things is a bit over the top.
This, I don't bother with the stud detector anymore, 100% accurate with the knuckle
So how do you ensure you won't hit a any metal, wires, pipes?
I'm a noob and have just learnt from YouTube that I should be using a detector for all for those things prior to driving in a wall plug
The only pipes in walls will be in your rooms with taps or rooms backing onto those rooms. It's very unlikely your living room has pipes in the walls for example.
Wires are normally fed through the centre of studs and through noggings. Unless your driving a 7cm+ nail into your wall you're not going to hit a power cable.
As for hanging pictures just use picture hooks. These barely penetrate the other side of the plaster. The angle of the nail provides the strength.
For the footing floating shelves you are going to have to find the stud centre (assuming stud and plaster walls) so just do the old knuckle trick. You will be using screws about 4-5 cm long so you will be fine. Remember the first 10mm is plaster.
Very good explanation.
Only thing I can add, Measure and mark out with pencil where you want the shelf.
Once you have identified the stud, work out where the shelf will cover. Pierce two hidden spots with a sturdy pin/small needle to confirm the stud's location.
I like to tap around, listen for something that sounds like a stud, it's very easy to find them like this if you know what you're doing. Then drill a hole and find that it actually isn't a stud, stick a small screwdriver in and feel for the stud, then drill another hole where it seems like the stud is and hope for the best. My wife's a big fan of this technique.
My wife's a big fan of this technique.
Is that code for something?
😉
I recently drilled about 10 holes along a 2.5m length of wall and didn't find a single stud. That was after using a stud finder and not finding any.
This was above a set of sliding doors and given I had found studs above some windows, I thought there should be at least one.
Yeah I've had similar success with stud finders. What I did when putting up my floating tv cabinets, was to go into the roof, pull back the insulation, find where the first stud was inboard of the wall, then measure to the next one. That way I had a reference of where to find the first stud using the wall, and then the distance between studs to find the others.
I've had the old model of this one for years. Best you can get imo.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/franklin-prosensor-t13-professio…
Second That!
This is the best stud finder I've ever used.
Works reliably and I can see the red LED lights clearly…. bit expensive but it's good.
Might need to confirm what sort of walls you will be using this on.
Most of these don't work very well if you have a brick or a rendered wall.
See this plus comments - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/633240