---
title: "Walls and Trim"
url: https://marianasheppard.com/labels/walls-and-trim
description: "Plaster and board repairs, finding what is behind the surface, and fitting trim to rooms that are out of true."
published: 2026-09-12
updated: 2026-09-12
---

# Walls and Trim

Published 2026-09-12

Plaster and board repairs, finding what is behind the surface, and fitting trim to rooms that are out of true.

## [Reading a stud finder that keeps lying to you](https://marianasheppard.com/journal/reading-a-stud-finder-that-keeps-lying-to-you)

A wall section showing board, framing and the wider signal a detector reads at a joint.

Filed under [Walls and Trim](https://marianasheppard.com/labels/walls-and-trim)

A density stud finder does not find timber. It finds a change in how much material sits behind the surface, and then reports that change as an edge. Most of the time the change is a stud. Sometimes it is a board joint, a run of tape and compound, a pipe, a cable, an old repair, or a second layer of board that stops halfway across the room. The tool is not lying so much as answering a narrower question than the one you asked.

[Read the rest of this entry](https://marianasheppard.com/journal/reading-a-stud-finder-that-keeps-lying-to-you)

## [Patching a doorknob hole so the repair disappears](https://marianasheppard.com/journal/patching-a-doorknob-hole-so-the-repair-disappears)

A backing strip fed into the cavity and drawn tight while the adhesive sets.

Filed under [Walls and Trim](https://marianasheppard.com/labels/walls-and-trim)

The hole a door handle punches into a wall is small, round and deep, and it is the most commonly botched repair in a house. Filler alone will not hold, because there is nothing behind it: the compound sags into the cavity as it dries and leaves a dimple that catches light from the side forever after. The repair needs something to bear against before it needs anything to smooth over.

[Read the rest of this entry](https://marianasheppard.com/journal/patching-a-doorknob-hole-so-the-repair-disappears)

## [Scribing a baseboard to a floor that is not flat](https://marianasheppard.com/journal/scribing-a-baseboard-to-a-floor-that-is-not-flat)

Compass legs held at a fixed spread, tracing the floor contour onto the face of the board.

Filed under [Walls and Trim](https://marianasheppard.com/labels/walls-and-trim)

A board cut square meets a floor that is not, and the result is a wandering gap that no amount of filler makes honest. Scribing solves it by transferring the actual shape of the floor onto the board, so the cut follows the contour instead of ignoring it. It is one of the few genuinely old techniques that nothing has improved on.

[Read the rest of this entry](https://marianasheppard.com/journal/scribing-a-baseboard-to-a-floor-that-is-not-flat)