Identifying Wooden Studs on Foil Backed Plasterboard wall

Tap it, its firm on the studs and hollow between. No need for a stud detector.

Isnt it disapointing when you point them at yourself and they dont go off?

NT

I asked the same question about a year ago, and was advised to locate the screw (or nail) heads by running a magnet over the wall.

Bashed open some old headphones to get two small rare-earth magnets, did as advised, and it worked a treat.

Instead of using handrail-on-brackets, use the handrail profile that fixes straight to the wall. Then you can make lots of trial holes along the line of the handrail and they'll be covered when the handrail goes on. You also won't have to worry about brackets being regularly spaced for appearance's sake.

Owain

Obtain some strong thin magnets, some 20mm wide, with the poles on the ends.

Hold lightly in the hand, so they are free to move, but held 1mm above the face of the plasterboard.

Then 'scribble' over the surface of the plasterboard, the magnet bangs against the surface when you are over a nail.

However, in your case, once you find several nails, you can draw a line and find the probable centres of the studs.

Look for the screws/nails instead using a metal detector or a magnet. The foil, may fool the metal detector, but is unlikely to catch out the magnet! ;-)

similar to:

What a great idea! Axminster sell them as well

IME those dont give nearly as good grip in use, as you cant get your hand round it, but its a good backup option if other approaches are problematic.

NT