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I will be installing towel racks and curtain rods in drywall. My home has that new plastic plumbing.
How can you find studs etc without disturbing water lines if they are made of plastic?
IN my old home, we used stud finder that would give a beep when we were crossing over metal.... and by scanning carefully, we could tell if that metal was a stud or a pipe.
I do have my own pics of the new house pre drywall. But I am not sure if the pics will be helpful in ensuring that I will not drill hole in plastic water lines.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but a stud finder (at least the one we have) doesn't care what an object is made of - it just "sees" the objects behind the drywall. So, it should detect the plastic pipes.
I used these recently on a shower grab bar. The size I bought handled a 100 lb load. Bar, held by 6 anchors is strong enough for my 90 lb wife. Unless you are doing chin ups on your towel bar I would think you can use them and not worry about studs or plumbing.
As an expert in construction and the building trades for 3 decades I can tell you that stud finders are junk. The few that work somewhat accurately are priced beyond the average Walmart shopper.
That being said, where plumbing lies should be obvious. Plumbing will be behind the toilet and sink wall. Towel bars are not generally mounted on that wall anyway. Even if you are putting a towel bar on the plumbing wall, if he home was built in any recent times, most codes require plumbing walls to be of 2X6 framing. So there is plenty of room without worry of accessory screw penetration.
Even if it were a 2X4 wall, the plastic or copper feed lines run through the center of the stud. The center would be about 1 3/4" OC and add to that the half inch thick drywall and that pipe should be about 2 inches deep. If you use the 1" screws provided with the towel bar then it will be impossible to penetrate those feed lines.
A stud finder should find solid objects such as studs and detect the nails used to nail dry wall to the studs.
You can use molly bolts directly on dry wall and it should be enough to hold a towel bar. Insert molly bolt in a hole in the dry wall and tighten the screw. This causes the bolt to spread out and hold to the back side of the dry wall. http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepa...llyboltuse.gif.
Location: where nothin ever grows. no rain or rivers flow, TX
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dont worry too much about the plumbing. they put metal plates to protect them from home owners. my cheap studo finder works, i have 2 for double checks
Use a stud finder as mentioned the piping should ahve metal plates and if not you will know the studs by the positions from the corner of the room of done right. 18" on center. The studs next to the window will be doubled.You also can tap with a hammer lightly and tell if its a stud as it will sold more solid.
They should have metal plates over the studs, lol.
My house was built in 1970. I can hear where the water lines are. Try turning on the devices that are closest to where you want to install the towel racks. If it's near the toilet, turn off the water, flush, then have someone turn on the water again slowly and put you rear to the wall and listen- you'll hear the water running and know where not to drill.
That's if'n you still scared of pokin a hole in the pipe
The other thing we've done when mounting things into drywall is to drill a teeny hole first at the place where we want to insert a molly just enough to allow us to poke a very thin screwdriver through the drywall. (If you don't have a thin screwdriver, you could use a large paperclip straightened out - or anything that's about 3" long and stiff.) With that "tool", we poke into the teeny hole and wiggle it around - if it wiggles free, then there's no obstruction such as wiring or pipes behind that spot in the drywall.
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