How do I find a stud in a wall?
Studs are the vertical timbers or metal channels behind plasterboard, and they are what you fix into for anything heavy. Finding them reliably usually means combining two methods rather than trusting one.
An electronic stud detector is the obvious tool and works well on straightforward walls. It is worth calibrating it as instructed and sweeping several times, marking each edge so you can identify the centre. Cheap detectors give false readings on textured surfaces, over insulation, or where wiring and pipes run.
Spacing is the most useful knowledge. Studs are placed at regular centres, commonly four hundred or six hundred millimetres apart depending on region and construction. Once you find one reliably, measuring that interval predicts the others, and confirming one prediction validates the whole run.
Fixed points give you a starting reference. Studs are always present at the edges of door and window openings and at corners, so measuring from those often locates the first one.
Tapping is a reasonable cross-check: a hollow sound between studs changes to a duller, solid one over them. It is less precise than it sounds but confirms a detector reading.
A small drill hole in a spot that will be covered by the fixing gives certainty, since you feel resistance if timber is behind.
Two cautions. Electrical cables typically run vertically above and below sockets and switches, and horizontally near ceiling level, so avoid drilling in those zones. And on a solid masonry wall there are no studs at all, and the correct approach is a wall plug appropriate to the material.
Where no stud is available, purpose-made plasterboard anchors hold considerably more than a plain plug.