Electrical wiring/stud finder

[Gorbash12346]

I'm looking for a reasonably decent detection tool to enable me to drill into walls without worrying about hitting anything I shouldn't

Ideally I need it to work with Brick walls and plaster walls if possible (cavity wall house)
I've had a look at the ones sold in the likes of B&Q etc such as the macallister and two Stanley versions but upon trying them they didn't seem to be very reliable and couple that with the reviews I've found online I'm not sure I can trust them.

It's an old house that has just been re-wired due to some pretty interesting electrical installations previously and with all the walls having been re-plastered I'm needing to install TV wall brackets and the like.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated?

Thanks!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Bosch D-TECT 150 SV Professional?

Or at saner prices, the GMS 120 or DMF 10 Zoom.

It's an old house that has just been re-wired

Assuming it was properly done by somebody competent who issued a BS 7671 EIC, then there will not be any buried cables where you cannot tell there might be: [wiki]electrics%3Awalls[/wiki]

What else do you think might be hidden?

 

[endecotp]

None of them are very useful for finding wires. They might work better when a current is flowing. But if the house has just been rewired then all the wires should be in the designated zones, so you should be safe to drill anywhere else.

 

[Gorbash12346]

Apologies but could you point me in the direction of a guide to designated zones if there is one?

Thanks!

 

[EFLImpudence]

//www.diynot.com/wiki/Electrics:walls

Remember - it's only where they are supposed to be - no guarantee.

 

[flameport]

I'm looking for a reasonably decent detection tool to enable me to drill into walls without worrying about hitting anything I shouldn't

That is a mythical device rumoured to exist somewhere. No one has ever seen or used such a thing.

 

[JohnW2]

That is a mythical device rumoured to exist somewhere. No one has ever seen or used such a thing.

An appropriate ultrasonic scanner would presumably work, but that's not something found in the average DIYer's (or even tradesman's) toolbox

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Remember - it's only where they are supposed to be - no guarantee.

The house has just been rewired - assuming that was properly done by somebody competent who issued a BS 7671 EIC, then why would there be buried cables where they should not be?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I'm looking for a reasonably decent detection tool to enable me to drill into walls without worrying about hitting anything I shouldn't

Good luck with that one, unless you want to spend 100s of £s, they are all unreliable and even the 100s of £s ones are iffy!

 

[Jackrae]

Many years ago, when you could get real crystal earpieces for use with crystal radios, rather than the wound coil types of today, you could detect a hum from buried mains cables by simply holding the end of the plug against the wall; But technology moves on and things get worse

 

[ub7rm]

For finding studs one trick I found to work quite well was a magnet - it would find the heads of the screws. I just used a dismantled fridge manget and it helps to have a rough idea of where the stud should be. Might not work so well if your walls have been skimmed.

 

[JohnW2]

Many years ago, when you could get real crystal earpieces for use with crystal radios, rather than the wound coil types of today....

I think that they are still far from impossible to find today. However ....

... you could detect a hum from buried mains cables by simply holding the end of the plug against the wall;

Yes, but that is not materially different from some of the technologies used today in attempts to detect buried cables. All such approaches suffer from being far from "fail safe" - if they detect a cable, then one can be fairly sure that one is there, but if they don't detect a cable, then one just doesn't know for sure. That makes them pretty useless.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Jackrae]

I think that they are still far from impossible to find today. However ....
Yes, but that is not materially different from some of the technologies used today in attempts to detect buried cables. All such approaches suffer from being far from "fail safe" - if they detect a cable, then one can be fairly sure that one is there, but if they don't detect a cable, then one just doesn't know for sure. That makes them pretty useless.

Kind Regards, John

The same could be said for any item of test equipment - it's a case of establishing and confirming functionality before and after testing an unknown quantity - but the realities of life are somewhat different and we rely upon "judgement and confidence" to justify the shortcuts we may take.

 

[JohnW2]

The same could be said for any item of test equipment - it's a case of establishing and confirming functionality before and after testing an unknown quantity ...

It's really very different from the situation with most test equipment, and nothing like as simple as you suggest.

There is no way I can think of that you could use 'before' and 'after' tests to confirm that the device was capable of detecting a cable of unknown size, at unknown depth in possibly unknown material and carrying an unknown (maybe zero) current.

Even to confirm that it could detect a cable of one particular size at one particular depth in one particular material and carrying one particular current would require a test rig that virtually no-one has.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Jackrae]

You take me too seriously/literally