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My dad always told me to never trust a stud finder for a ceiling job
He said to just measure from the walls and snap lines, but I figured the new digital one I got for 60 bucks would be fine. Last week in a Denver remodel, I marked a whole grid based on the finder, cut my sheets, and then found out the joists were running the other way. Had to scrap two boards and start over, costing me half a day. Anyone have a better method for finding ceiling joists in old houses?
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nancyw971mo ago
Yeah, @jamesm48, my old house had a joist that just stopped halfway across the ceiling for no good reason.
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max4151mo ago
Man that sucks, I feel your pain. The old plaster and lath ceilings can be real tricky because the joists are never where you expect them. I learned the hard way too after my digital one kept beeping at a stud that was actually just a weird patch of plaster. Now I always pull out a strong magnet first to find the nails holding the lath, that gives you a much better idea of where the joists actually are.
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