Old Cape-Style House – Can't find studs to hang mirror.
I'm having an unusual problem and need some advice from people who know better than me. We have a pretty heavy full length mirror that my wife wants me to hang upstairs. The problem is as far as I can tell there's no studs behind that wall. The stud finder marked one spot as having a stud, but it's not standard width. Plus, when I knock on the wall in that spot it clearly sounds hollow, as does the entirety of the walls on the second floor. The house is old – built in probably the 30's or 40's; and the previous owners have kept it as a rental since about the 90's. So really no kind of improvements outside of the occasional landlord special have been done to house in who knows how long. The second floor walls (where the mirror is going) in particular are throwing me. I've never seen wall material like it before but it's very soft and weak. Almost as though they're made of compressed cardboard or something. The basement walls are drywall, no issues finding studs down there. First floor walls are plaster and lathe. I bought a magnetic stud finder to look for the nails that would indicate studs down there, but haven't had any luck with it. I saw a tip on this sub about looking for where the nails are in the baseboards So I'll try that, but as far as I can tell these walls are just constructed as cheaply as possible. So any tips for how to safely get the mirror hung? Or alternatives to secure it without having it anchored to the wall? submitted by /u/corso923 [link] [comments]
I'm having an unusual problem and need some advice from people who know better than me. We have a pretty heavy full length mirror that my wife wants me to hang upstairs. The problem is as far as I can tell there's no studs behind that wall. The stud finder marked one spot as having a stud, but it's not standard width. Plus, when I knock on the wall in that spot it clearly sounds hollow, as does the entirety of the walls on the second floor. The house is old – built in probably the 30's or 40's; and the previous owners have kept it as a rental since about the 90's. So really no kind of improvements outside of the occasional landlord special have been done to house in who knows how long.
The second floor walls (where the mirror is going) in particular are throwing me. I've never seen wall material like it before but it's very soft and weak. Almost as though they're made of compressed cardboard or something.
The basement walls are drywall, no issues finding studs down there. First floor walls are plaster and lathe. I bought a magnetic stud finder to look for the nails that would indicate studs down there, but haven't had any luck with it. I saw a tip on this sub about looking for where the nails are in the baseboards So I'll try that, but as far as I can tell these walls are just constructed as cheaply as possible.
So any tips for how to safely get the mirror hung? Or alternatives to secure it without having it anchored to the wall?
[link] [comments]
