How To Know Where You Can Drill?

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In order to know exactly where you can drill, you must first know what the wall you intend to drill is made from.
If you tap on the wall you can normally determine if a wall is drywall or masonry, drywall will make a hollow booming sound, and masonry will make a denser higher-pitched sound.

Drywall.
Drywall walls are generally made using a wooden or metallic framework upon which plasterboard or drywall is nailed or screwed.
The wall normally consists of a base plate that is fixed to the floor, a top plate that is fixed to the ceiling, vertical uprights that are attached to both, these are called studs, and horizontal pieces called noggins that run from stud to stud.

In most residential buildings studs are set with 16-inch centers (40.6cm) although on some older buildings they may be at 24 inches (61cm). Noggins are normally set around halfway up the wall unless you have high ceilings, in which case they may be positioned around a third of the way up with another row two-thirds of the way up.

Other things to bear in mind are that the corners of rooms will always have studs and that electrical boxes are normally fixed to the side of a stud, by knowing this we can easily find a stud.
If you take the front plate off an electrical box and push a thin electric tester screwdriver between the boxes outside edge and the drywall you should be able to determine which side of the box has a cavity and which side has the stud.

Studs are normally 2 inches wide and 4 inches deep, once we've found the stud next to our electrical box, measure 2 inches from the box, this is our stud, mark the centerline of the stud, and then by measuring 16-inch intervals from this line we should find our next studs.

An easier and much more precise method to know where to drill is to use a stud finder.

There are a huge variety of Stud Finders available on the market today, for professionals and amateurs, expensive and cheap, but if you're an average homeowner that wants a cheap and simple device that's easy to use, we recommend the Folai Stud Finder, its a good all-rounder and at around $20 it's affordable too!

Using the knowledge we've just gained we can determine roughly where we need to start scanning, the advantages of using a stud scanner like the Folai Stud Finder is that not only will it detect wooden and metal studs at depths of up to 1.5 inches (38mm) but it will also detect the center of each stud.
Another handy option it has is that it can also detect any copper pipework or any electrical cables that may be passing through the stud work so you can not only be sure you're getting a good fixing on a stud but you can also be sure you won't be hitting anything running through that stud.

Masonry.
If your walls are masonry, you will be able to get a good fixing just able anywhere, but there are some things that you'll want to avoid.
Don't try drilling over window gaps and doorways as there will probably be a steel or concrete lintel over the top which will make drilling and fixing complicated.
And use a good masonry drill bit and don't use Hammer action straight away, first try drilling without it, most decent masonry drill bits will drill into brick easily and only require hammer action when drilling into concrete.

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