How can I safely drill holes in my ceiling?

Posted on July 7th, 2010 by admin in drill | 5 Comments »

I want to hang some blinds from my ceiling but to do so I need to drill holes. I bought a metal/voltage detector but it doesn’t work (it either does nothing or screams continually, depending where I set the dial). So, if I can get a better one (recommendations, please!) will it be safe to put my faith in it and just drill where it says there is nothing?
What happens if I do hit a wire? Do I end up dead, or just calling an electrician?

Thanks!

Im still laughing too hard to answer yet, let me get ahold of myself. There, thats better. I love the way you posed your question, problems and concerns for death but I’m puzzled, why do you want to hang blinds from the ceiling? You need a stud finder, not a metal voltage detector. When you find your roof trusses, mark them and drill accordingly. You will be in little to no danger of hitting any electrical wires, especially if you have properly located and marked roof trusses. If by chance you do hapen to drill into a wire it will scare you more than it will hurt you, unless you drop the drill on your head.

5 Responses

  1. William B Says:

    if its a plaster celing look for nail indentations, thats where the celing joists are, try useing a phillips screw driver, if your going to use wall mollys, just twist the screw driver to make a hole, it wont cut thru wires if you happen to hit one, most celing wireing is ran over the top of rafters any way, so it would be about 3 inches away from the celing,
    References :
    building maint man

  2. Ed Says:

    I would use a stud finder to find the ceiling joists. Water pipes and electrical circuits will not be run on the bottom of the joists.
    References :

  3. Loddjobs great and small Says:

    You do,nt need a drill , stud finder at all mark where you want the blinds, us a finish nain to find out if there is a rafter at that point if so u wo,nt need an ancor same thing @ other end if its holow use ancors, Use a philips scew driver to punch hole in cieling if its hollow just a bit smaller than your ancor, if you have EZZ ancors they hold much better than mollys
    References :
    Pro handy man 20 _+ yr,s

  4. brndnh721 Says:

    I would not worry about hitting wires in the ceiling unless there is a outlet right below on the wall close by usually a good amount of wires are run in the walls and just dont use real long screws and you will be fine
    References :
    lic. electrician

  5. Nick S Says:

    Im still laughing too hard to answer yet, let me get ahold of myself. There, thats better. I love the way you posed your question, problems and concerns for death but I’m puzzled, why do you want to hang blinds from the ceiling? You need a stud finder, not a metal voltage detector. When you find your roof trusses, mark them and drill accordingly. You will be in little to no danger of hitting any electrical wires, especially if you have properly located and marked roof trusses. If by chance you do hapen to drill into a wire it will scare you more than it will hurt you, unless you drop the drill on your head.
    References :
    general conractor

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