Quote:
Originally Posted by surferguy
Recommend me a quality stud finder. I need to find my ceiling joists through some heavy popcorn stipple.
Thanks
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My stud finder didn't have too many issues. I just had to make sure to turn the stud finder on while facing 90 degrees away from the ceiling, before turning it towards the ceiling to look for the stud (as per the manual). A fresh battery helps too.
Another thing I did was to use a very small drill bit (ie: 1/16) and going slowly after marking the joist. If the bit returns with some wood in in the drill bit, I know I hit a joist. Then I'll hit that hole again with larger bits. If it seems like I missed the joist, a tiny bit of dry wall mud into that drill hole and it'll be hard to find once it dries.
In some situations, I guess you could just cut a sizeable hole out to look around and replace the slot with an access panel. Get a wire cam if you want to be fancy. That's what I told the guys fishing wires in my basement to do. $30-50 holes that saved me way more than that in labour trying to blindly fish wires through a finished ceiling. Pretty easy to get good locations especially if you can coordinate and target key locations like closet ceilings, holes for lighting etc. I did access panels because it was cheaper than repairing the ceiling and faster too. With the strategic positioning, most of the access panels actually look like they're supposed to be there.
Lastly, don't forget to apply logic. Once you figure out how far apart the first two joists are, logically the rest of the joists are likely the same distance away. Use a measuring tape to figure out where to logically start using the stud finder. Dragging the stud finder blindly to detect the next joist is so slow, and it's messy on popcorn ceiling because you'll knock off bits of it sliding across it (and the worst is when it goes into you eyes). I use the measuring tape, put a dot with a pencil approximately where I'll put the stud finder, and then mark an x where the stud finder identifies as the approximate centre of the joist (where I'll drill with the 1/16 bit to confirm).