Before installing your cabinets, it’s essential to accurately locate and mark your wall studs. In this video, we cover the final prep step and share our recommendations for both battery-operated and magnetic stud finders. You’ll learn how to clearly mark stud locations above cabinet height so they remain visible during installation. Proper stud placement ensures a secure, safe, and long-lasting cabinet install.
Video Transcript
Locating Wall Studs & Stud Finder Recommendations
Justin:
It's a glorious day here at Cabinet Joint. I'm Justin, and today I'm here with Josh. Josh, we just figured out the high point of our floor. We then located the furthest projection on our wall, but I see we're not done yet. We still have some tools out. So, Josh, we have a laser, and you have two stud finders in your pouch. So, what are we doing? Why you have two?
Josh:
Yeah. So, we did this a little earlier on. Basically, one of the last processes before we start installing cabinets is we want to identify where all the studs are. You know, we don't need the cabinets falling off the walls. So, I've got here two of my favorite stud finders.
You just have an electric one and and a magnetic one.
Yep. The electric one. This is one that I've used for years, and it's one of my favorites. It's it just displays a nice clear image of where the framing is. This one is, you know, pretty tried and true, and I really like it. These are my two favorite. You can find a link in the description about them. This one's the battery operated one. You just want to make sure the batteries are charged and full. This is the Franklin sensor, and this is a stud buddy. It's important to have a stud finder that reads clearly, and we've got the laser set up here at the cabinet height. The reason why is we don't want to make marks on the wall we can't see later as we install our cabinets. We want to make sure they're above our cabinets as we install.
So, we just go around and we're going to find all of our studs. We've already got them pre-marked here. I like to use this little guy. This is a magnet. And what this is is this is telling me that we have screws in the wall. And why this is important is sometimes you can have pipes or other fixtures and things like that. And we know that studs are typically 16" or 24" on center, which is about what we have here. So, I like to just kind of get a little peace of mind and find my screws in the wall and know that, okay, this is definitely a stud. We've got drywall screws. They're in align with each other. They're right on my stud mark. And we just basically carry that process all the way down each wall.
We also did the same thing here under the upper cabinets. Typically, our elevation is 54" from the floor. So, just under that, we had a laser setup here earlier. And we've got the stud marks all the way around the room for the upper cabinets.
Justin:
So, Josh, what you're telling me is this is pretty important, and it doesn't pass to just, you know, knock on do the classic.
Josh:
No way. Yeah, you definitely don't want to do the old knocking trick. A lot can go wrong. We want to definitely use mental math and know that we're looking for 24" or 16" on center. We also know that you know typically on windows and doors you have king studs and you know a cluster of framing here, and we want to locate that stuff. There should not be a stud under an outlet. There should not be a stud under a pipe. We want to steer clear of those areas. But yeah,
Pre-Installation Summary
Josh:
That's basically what we're looking for before we start our our cabinet install. In summary, we've gone over finding our highest elevation, finding our deepest and most shallow projections on the wall, established where all our framing is. We've made sure that we have considered all piping and electrical, and we've checked all our cabinet sizes to the design. We have done everything we need to do to get this cabinet install going.
So, it may not look like much, but we've done a lot of work here today, and I think we're in a really good position to pick up with our cabinet install. So, thank you guys for watching, and if you need anything else, reach out to your cabinet coach. You can also reach us at 888-211-6482.
Have a great day.
