[gwbas1c]

The "cheap and foolproof" way to do it is to cut a hole in your wall using a drywall cutter, and then feel with your hand. When you're done, you put the drywall back and patch it.

A drywall cutter is like a cast cutter; it works by vibrating and won't cut through wires, pipes, skin, ect.

If you don't want to use a stud finder, look for electrical boxes and remove the plate. That will tell you where a studs is. The rest of the studs are typically (US) 16" apart, but vary near corners and windows. You can often make an educated guess by knocking on the wall, the sound changes depending on if you knock on the stud.

[FuriouslyAdrift]

As someone who has a 1930's house... the walls are probably plaster and wood lathe. Stud finders don't work very well if at all (https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/simple-hack-to-locate...) and cutting into the wall is like chiseling morter... because that basically what you are doing.

I love my plaster walls but dealing with pipes/electrcial is a huge pain.

I ended up teaching myself to do a passable job with repairing plaster and being content with how it is.

[dylan604]

> studs are typically (US) 16" apart,

if they are not in the typical 16" and your not near a corner, try 18" and 24". I'm in a house from an infamous builder in the early days of the cookie cutter developer cutting every possible corner and then finding new ones to cut, they are definitely not on 16". In fact, I doubt there was a tape measure used at any time during the build, and most things just seem to be placed by "that looks about right" measuring system.

Electrical boxes and light switches are the only ones to have faith in. Other types of boxes (like cable or phone) could have been added after the fact and just be attached to the dry wall if there's even a box.

[rsyring]

Absolutely nothing about this advice is "foolproof" especially on an older home. :)