Victorian stud walls

[Marineboy]

I am installing a handrail on the stairs in my Victorian house. The wall to which it will attach is a lath and plaster stud wall, so clearly I need to attach the brackets to the studs.

Normally when trying to locate studs I have used the obvious method of drilling a line of closely spaced holes across the face of the wall. However, I was wondering if there was a short cut which obviates too much making good afterwards. If I could locate just one stud in this way, and knew the spacing of subsequent studs, I would not need to drill so many trial holes. The question is therefore, was there a standard spacing adopted by Victorian house builders?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Much of the studwork in my 1899 house wasn't built on the same centres. It was also three inch timber which flexed while I looked at it. The only way I could mount anything remotely load bearing was to find the centres and mount a board across them then fix to that. The alternative was chunks of plaster popping off here there and everywhere.

 

[heronviewer]

why not use a stud detector to find the nails holding the laths ? I live in an 1877 house and the stud positions are not uniform.

 

[Doug71]

Never tried it on old walls only new ones that have large headed plasterboard nails but a strong magnet might find the nails that attach the laths to the studs, or as suggested above a stud finder on the metal setting.

 

[Dee J]

Neodinium magnet is the way to go. Even through thicker plaster.

 

[Doug B]

A magnet should work well as there’s hundreds of nails in the studs in lath & plaster walls

 

[Marineboy]

Thanks for those replies. I have tried a stud detector but it seems to be confused by the laths so gives a signal wherever it's placed. I like the sound of the magnet though - I have a powerful one somewhere. And I suppose I knew in my bones that there was no standard spacing of studs, or indeed uniform dimensions to them. I think I'll expose each stud that I need to screw a bracket to and assess how sturdy it is - if it's not much cop I'll use Doug71's method of spreading the load with a board.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

+1 for the magnet!

 

[sammy.se]

I drill a hole, then use a bent metal coat hanger wire (or similar) to poke through and swish around until I hit a stud.

 

[bryan267]

Having taken down a Victorian stud wall recently, the wood is blackens by the number of iron nails holding the lath strips, so metal detector should find the studs. You might get funny readings because there are diagonal studs through the vertical studs. Of course you want to fix on to the studs off-centre or around the centre to avoid all those iron nails. Good luck.

 

[Quilly21]

I am installing a handrail on the stairs in my Victorian house. The wall to which it will attach is a lath and plaster stud wall, so clearly I need to attach the brackets to the studs.

Normally when trying to locate studs I have used the obvious method of drilling a line of closely spaced holes across the face of the wall. However, I was wondering if there was a short cut which obviates too much making good afterwards. If I could locate just one stud in this way, and knew the spacing of subsequent studs, I would not need to drill so many trial holes. The question is therefore, was there a standard spacing adopted by Victorian house builders?

I've found mine around 1856 to have fairly even spacings, generally I make a fist and gently tap the wall and can usually locate the studs in this way. An electrician friend showed me the best way, when we were re-wiring was to take a thin bladed screwdriver (Brad size) and make an hole just on top of the skirting, if the blade is long enough you can swivel it left to right to find the edge of the stud, do the same on the other-side and you can then find the centre. the resulting hole is far less obvious and easier to fill, usually the plaster is only to the top of the skirting. Spacing off hand around 14 to 16" and nearly always plumb.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Spacing off hand around 14 to 16" and nearly always plumb ...

The carpenters who fitted mine obviously hadn't heard of the invention of either tape measures, spirit levels or plumb lines.

 

[Marineboy]

Thanks all, I have a number of options there and will try them all.