How to Locate Metal Studs in a Wall

You may know the old tapping trick used to find traditional wood studs in a wall, but metal studs can be a bit trickier to locate. However, it's essential you find them for the same reasons you'd need to locate a wood stud: sturdily hanging pictures, mirrors, and shelves make tying into the underlying structural members essential.

While this tutorial tells you how to find all of the metal studs in a wall, you may find that you only need a few in a single area. In this case, you can greatly diminish the work involved by only looking for the studs that you need.

Step 1: Locate the center of the wall where you are looking for the stud using a measuring tape. Make a small mark with a pencil in this location.

Step 2: Slowly slide the stud finder across the wall, starting about 6 inches left of the center mark until you hit a stud. If you have covered more than 24 inches with the stud finder, the finder is missing the metal studs or the wall was not built to code.

Step 3: Continue looking for a metal stud. Once the stud finder has registered a positive result, mark the metal stud's location with a pencil.

TIP: Keep in mind that some stud detectors have difficulty detecting metal studs, so be persistent when attempting to locate the first metal stud.

Step 4: Measure 16 inches in both directions and make a pencil mark. Use the stud finder to verify the location of studs beneath these marks. If you cannot find any studs at 16 inches away from the first stud, try looking at the 24 inch mark to find the studs.

TIP: High ceilings may require that the metal studs be spaced only 12 inches apart. If your ceilings are higher than 9 feet, check at the 12 inch mark if you are having difficulty locating the metal studs.

Step 5: Continue measuring out from the previous stud, marking the suspected location of the stud and quickly verifying with the stud detector.

Step 6: Continue until you have located all of the studs within the wall.