Hanging with Mag Ruffman

Stud Study
Studs are generally 2" x 4" boards spaced sixteen inches apart. Theoretically, if you can find one stud, you can find another every sixteen inches along the wall; realistically, this is not the case. In days of yore not all builders were fans of sixteen-inch spacing. Maybe they were stingy, or lazy, or both. Maybe they were drunk, or measuring the intervals using body parts, but for some reason they sometimes put studs up to twenty-four inches apart. So if you find old studs in odd positions just shrug and mutter, "Those crazy drunk stud cowboys."

To locate a stud you can use one of the following methods, all of which have failed at one time or another:
1. Drill a small hole, poke a wire through it, and fish around to the right and left, hoping to hit a stud. When you do hit one, attempt to place your drill bit over the correct area and drill into the stud. This takes an average of six holes.
2. Draw a horizontal line at the height you want to hang your object. Then drill a series of little holes along the line, about an inch apart, until you hit wood.
3. Walk along the wall, knocking and listening attentively for changes in pitch. Even the pros can screw this up.
4. Find an electric receptacle or switch, which is almost always attached to a stud on one side or the other. Measure from there to your hanging location using sixteen-inch increments, from the centre of the first board to the centre of the next. (Try taking the receptacle cover or switch-plate off and looking inside the box to see which side is attached to a stud.)
5. Use a $2 magnetic stud finder, which becomes magnetically aroused when it passes over the heads of metal nails or screws. Trawl back and forth across the wall until you identify a vertical path of nails where drywall is secured to a stud.
6. Use an electronic stud finder that measures wall density and beeps enthusiastically when it passes over studs (or water pipes, which are always surprising to drill into).

Once you've located a stud, mark an X in pencil over the location. Drill a subtle test hole using a 1/16 -inch drill bit to make sure you hit wood (there will be telltale sawdust in the helical flutes of the drill bit). Then pre-drill for your screw (optional), position your object, and drive the screw through the object right into the stud.

You must hit a minimum of one stud to take the main burden of weight. If your object is small and won't reach a second stud, use two screws stacked vertically several inches apart on the same stud, or use a wall-anchor for the second screw.

Screwy Trivia
Guess how much weight it would take to snap a #8 woodscrew?
a) 150 pounds
b) 500 pounds
c) more than 1,000 pounds

The correct answer is c). This is called "shear strength"; screws won't shear off until there's a huge amount of weight on them. It helps to have conversation starters like this if you're ever stuck in an elevator with an attractive colleague.