Locating ceiling joists

[taramac]

How do you do it? I have a pot rack to hang and have to drill into beam or joist and have no idea how to make sure I am drilling in the right place. Have tried tapping but no joy - any ideas?

[almostanangel]

something to do with upstairs and floor boards,,but then im blonde!

[SoupDragon]

Stud & joist detector. Bees when you run it across a beam/joist.

Check which way the floorboards run in the room above. The joists will be 90 degrees to this and a certain distance apart depending how old your house is (something like 16 inches? for 1930's)

[SoupDragon]

Beeps even. Not bees.

[sunchowder]

Yes the stud detectors are great. The only time they don't work is when the paint is wet, needs two weeks to dry in first. Before this, we used a large nail as a stud finder and lots of spackle!