You’ve just finished setting up your brand new 4K TV. What next? The obvious thing would be to mount it on your wall.

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Go slowly: To be effective, stud finders need to be properly calibrated. First, place yours on the wall and turn it on — you can usually do this by holding in a button. Let the stud finder read the density of the material (this will only take a second or two), then slowly move it from side to side. Go back and forth over the wall a few times, starting from a different spot with each pass. Mark each stud you discover with a piece of painter’s tape. We recommend finding three and using a tape measure to make sure they are the same distance apart. This will help you avoid false positives.
Popcorn ceilings defeated: Have you ever tried to run a stud finder across a ceiling with popcorn texturing? Not only do you ruin the texture, but the stud finder also doesn’t work well. An easy way to overcome this problem is to place a piece of cardboard over the area you want to scan. The cardboard gives the stud finder a smooth surface to slide across and will allow you to easily find the joists.
Don’t forget fire blocks: Before drilling any holes, run your stud finder vertically up and down the wall to ensure no fire blocks are running horizontally between the stud bays. Fire blocks can make fishing wires down the wall very difficult, even for experienced installers.
Always double-check: Stud finders can be fooled fairly easily. They’ll often read a seam in the drywall as a stud. After you have marked your studs and where you want to drill your holes, you should use something to poke into the wall to ensure you actually marked a stud. We normally use a small precision screwdriver, but a cutoff coat hanger or piano wire will work fine. We would recommend doing this by hand, rather than using a power tool, as you will have a better feel for what’s inside the wall. You can also tap a small nail into the wall; get past the drywall without the nail “falling in” and you’ve found a stud. The last thing you should do before drilling is poke a little hole to the left and right of where you want to drill and make sure you are still on the stud. This will ensure you are centered on a stud, and not just clipping its side (and possibly hitting electrical wiring).
We’re doomed, the studs are in the wrong spot … or there aren’t any
You found the perfect spot to mount a TV in your home. You’ve read all of our tips on using a stud finder, and are ready to go. But after 20 minutes of scanning for studs, you can’t find any, or the results are inconsistent, or they don’t line up with the holes on your wall mount. There are several solutions that don’t require much, if any, extra work to fix your little problem.