Not long ago my partner and I were working on a remodel that included putting in a new doorway through an existing wall. I was grumbling about what a pain it was because we’d have to cut out the extra drywall over the door and then turn around and patch it back in after installing the header. My partner gave me that superior look of “one-who-knows” and told me to watch.
First he cut out the drywall on both sides of the wall to the rough opening of the door. Then, with a 1/4-in. punch, he set any drywall nails that were within 6 in. of the top of the opening, driving them through the drywall and into the studs. Next, he fired up his reciprocating saw and, piercing the drywall, cut off the studs 5-1/2 in. above the rough opening (see drawing). After removing these studs, we slipped our header into the wall, followed by our trimmers.
We toenailed everything with 16d casing nails set through the drywall. To finish up, all we had to do was to fill a few holes and cuts, rather than having to mud and tape in a whole new chunk of drywall.
—Tim Pelton, Fairfield, IA
Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #53
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how is the header fastened to the trimmers and king studs?
Or is everything kind of " free floating"?
@ nvman
"We toenailed everything with 16d casing nails set through the drywall."
I don’t know about the OP’s, but I use anti-gravity lumber for that fee-floating header — much less work!
"followed by our trimmers" not antigravity but not well connected to king stud if that was part of the trimmer' package mentioned. Maybe 16d nails driven from both sides of the wall will be enough.
Unless "one-who-knows” is a lot neater with a recip saw than I am, the cut-off studs aren't going to have very good bearing on the floating header. Fine to insert the trimmers into the wall, but they need to be nailed to kings to have any stability beyond what the drywall provides. and the kings need to be nailed to the top & bottom plates. Probably OK if it's a non-load-bearing wall, but that's not discussed.
Is it really that much harder to do it correct. You still have to compound and tape just about the same amount.
Do it right the first time.
"There's never time to do it right the first time, but there's always time to re-do it." - My Old Man.
Agree with BobboMax & rockinroger.
Maybe it's not a bearing wall, maybe it is.
Gravity loads aside, if the header is not securely fastened to the king studs, the wall's lateral rigidity is compromised, particularly perpendicular to the wall.
Maybe if you have no drywall scraps handy this is an easy out, but I pretty much agree with rjhome.