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?

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

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)

Beeps even. Not bees.

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!