Hi,

I am currently erecting a studpartition, on the first floor in my end terraced house. I have a very good book which tells me all sorts of stuff, and in this book it says the following....

"Internal buttressing to external walls in upper floors may be provided by stud partitions providing that.....

The partition is not less than 1200mm long

Kiln dried studs are used (75x35 min at 400 max centres)

Two rows of noggings are provided

The end stud is fixed to the wall using drilled screw fixings.


And there is a picture of a stud partition at 90 degrees to an external wall. The picture shows the wall to have 4 upright studs the first showing the screw points to the external wall. in between each stud there are two noggings. at 1/3rd and 2/3rd height. The head plate and sole plate shown are both single (i.e. not double as for load bearing).

Now then I am slightly confused as to why they give this minimum wall length (1200) is neccessary, I assume they mean a door cannot be put into this initial length. I want mine to be load bearing (double sole and head plate 50x100) because it will supporting the joists (50x100) in the attic. On the ceiling there are 12mm plasterboards, and in the attic there will be 100mm loft insulation, and polyfoam supadeck flooring will be on top of this. Polyfoam supadeck is 100mm of XPS foam laminated with chipboard flooring each measures 1200 X 600 and weighs 13Kg. There will be 22 of these in the central section of the attic. In addition to this will be the stuff actually stored in the attic. SO you can see why I want the walls to be load bearing.

The book annoyingly does not say what is special about butressing onto an external wall. They do not mention the wall is load bearing or not and the illustration certainly is not load bearing.

My original design would have a door opening directly next to the external wall, however I was thinking I would make the initial wall section atleast 300mm because it will be load bearing (as described). Bringing it away from the wall will provide additional strength.

The problem for me is, I can (theoretically) accomodate a 1200mm initial wall length before the door, but it will mean the door is not in the corner of the bedroom (desirable) and the door will not be directly opposite the top of the staircase. Also this 1200 + doorway ~ 800 - 900mm will be longer than I had planned for this section of wall+door (I had planned approx door + 900mm of wall giving a total of about 1800mm. I don't want to use a slimmer doorway to get around this.

Does anyone here know why the book says this about buttressing a stud partition to an external upper floor wall?

BUMPbumpbump

They are talking about "special" stud partition as strengthening to an
external wall just like a brick or stone buttress. You can ignore this
as most studding is intended to support only itself. But studding can
be made structural e.g as a load bearing wall, if necessary, and a
good idea too if you prefer woodwork to bricklaying, but you would
need a structural engineer and a proper spec.
What is the book btw?

cheers
Jacob



I am currently erecting a studpartition, on the first floor in my end
terraced house. I have a very good book which tells me all sorts of
stuff, and in this book it says the following....

"Internal buttressing to external walls in upper floors may be provided
by stud partitions providing that.....

The partition is not less than 1200mm long

Kiln dried studs are used (75x35 min at 400 max centres)

Two rows of noggings are provided

The end stud is fixed to the wall using drilled screw fixings.


And there is a picture of a stud partition at 90 degrees to an external
wall. The picture shows the wall to have 4 upright studs the first
showing the screw points to the external wall. in between each stud
there are two noggings. at 1/3rd and 2/3rd height. The head plate and
sole plate shown are both single (i.e. not double as for load
bearing).

Now then I am slightly confused as to why they give this minimum wall
length (1200) is neccessary, I assume they mean a door cannot be put
into this initial length. I want mine to be load bearing (double sole
and head plate 50x100) because it will supporting the joists (50x100)
in the attic. On the ceiling there are 12mm plasterboards, and in the
attic there will be 100mm loft insulation, and polyfoam supadeck
flooring will be on top of this. Polyfoam supadeck is 100mm of XPS foam
laminated with chipboard flooring each measures 1200 X 600 and weighs
13Kg. There will be 22 of these in the central section of the attic. In
addition to this will be the stuff actually stored in the attic. SO you
can see why I want the walls to be load bearing.

The book annoyingly does not say what is special about butressing onto
an external wall. They do not mention the wall is load bearing or not
and the illustration certainly is not load bearing.

My original design would have a door opening directly next to the
external wall, however I was thinking I would make the initial wall
section atleast 300mm because it will be load bearing (as described).
Bringing it away from the wall will provide additional strength.

The problem for me is, I can (theoretically) accomodate a 1200mm
initial wall length before the door, but it will mean the door is not
in the corner of the bedroom (desirable) and the door will not be
directly opposite the top of the staircase. Also this 1200 + doorway ~
800 - 900mm will be longer than I had planned for this section of
wall+door (I had planned approx door + 900mm of wall giving a total of
about 1800mm. I don't want to use a slimmer doorway to get around
this.

Does anyone here know why the book says this about buttressing a stud
partition to an external upper floor wall?

Hi Jacob,

Thanks for your reply, now it makes sense, I can see now why they used the term "buttress".

The book is called Homebond house building manual. There is not much reference to it in google but if you want it you can get it from www.cif.ie look in publications.

Thanks
Wig

wig wrote:

My original design would have a door opening directly next to the
external wall, however I was thinking I would make the initial wall
section atleast 300mm because it will be load bearing (as described).
Bringing it away from the wall will provide additional strength.

Doors stuffed against the wall tend to reduce usable space.

Forget the 4' thing.

NT