Ive never had much luck finding studs. The company provides stud finders but they give too many false positives and my drill has told me she doesnt trust him.
When Im looking for a stud Im usually looking for two tihngs.
BaseBoard nails.A good carpenter will nail his baseboard into the stud. You can usually locate a stud on older homes by looking for the dimples created by the nails.
Feel with your hands or visually inspect the baseboard for raised bumps, usually one towards the top of the baseboard and one towards the bottom, maybe two inches apart.
Once you find one look about 15'' or so down the baseboard and you should see the same two raised bumps marking the next stud.
Its usually best to start looking around an electrical outlet since they are usually installed next to a stud.
Drywall Joints.In newer homes, unfortunately for the owners, you can usually see the drywall joints if you stand back a bit.
Stand maybe 10' back from the wall and scan it. You should see the drywall partitions noted by a raised or slightly discolored verticle line from the ceiling to the floor. That will most likely be where the drywall ends met up and were nailed to the stud.
Now, once youve found your stud pull out your measuring tape and locate an electrical outlet. Measure where your outlet if going to be against the center of your electrical outlet. This outlet is your guide of where you are in the attic.( or basement )
Once in the attic you can locate the BX or Conduit that feeds your electrical outlet coming out of that walls header. Measure down from that conduit the length you measured in the room. The conduit in the attic should be popping right through the header that frames the top of your wall.
Measure down that header and use a paddle or butterfly drill bit to drill into the center of that plate. You can use a 3/8ths bit to snug your cable through but the more room the better. Its always a great joy to look into your hole in the header and see light from the wallplate hole directly below you! Measure twice!
Drop your cable down and as long as your in the right cavity between the right studs, the next three hours should be spent trying to get the cable out through the hole in your room.
