Metal Stud Walls

 

How to build stud walls

Self sufficiency to us means more than just growing vegetables it includes recycling and DIY projects. If there is a book on the subject we will give it a go; with the exception of electrical wiring and brain surgery.

This is the first time that we have made metal stud walls in a house or any other building.

 So it was with some trepidation that we began creating a DIY bathroom and bedroom out of our large upstairs room.

We need not have worried: having decided to use metal stud work ( got keep up with the times) we are amazed how technically easy they are to build. The purchase was also pain free as both Castorama and Mr Bricolage both stock the metal rails in their building supplies yard. For those who have not used it before only two parts are used; uprights which always have large cut-outs for electrical cables to be run through and horizontal’s which are just a straight channel. If you mark out the walls to create on the floor and add up your uprights which must go in every 60 cm if using plasterboard at 120 cm wide. Remember on corners you need 2 uprights to turn the edge; I forgot and had to go back for 6 more uprights DOH!

 Timber insert help for metal stud wall construction

Something else I found helped was a short timber piece to slot in the ends when screwing uprights to horizontals ; just small pieces  stop the thin metal pushing away when forcing the screws in. A friend of mine rather liked the idea as he usually has someone push with a piece of wood from the other side as he screws the stud work together.

 

Also I put a full length piece of wood inside the uprights at the side of doors whose primary fixing is not against a wall. This gives a bit more stability to the door frame.

Metal Stud wall and door frames

 One of the DIY books shows the studwork going up with an opening created for the door in advance. I thought this was tricky and missed an opportunity for a good fit with the doors own frame. The doors we bought for our rooms come with frame and these frames have channel that the stud work sits in and it is obvious that if you build the studwork opening in advance one of your frame recesses will be empty losing a good margin of stability. The uprights and horizontals come in different lengths and thicknesses depending I suppose how much insulation you wish to use on your new walls. The correct screws to use are often next to the metal rails in the DIY stores as well.

After finishing our stud work we plaster-boarded one side and called Bob back to pull through the cables and install light switches etc. At this point the patrice boxes for the light switches and sockets were plastered in from the back to hold them firmly in place.

 The verdict from Bob the  builder “Okay” which is praise indeed from an experienced builder.

If you are in France don't forget to wait till the plasterboard and metal stud framing are on promotion this could save you 50% on the cost of the job. Certainly worth waiting a few weeks