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He everyone,
Just got a small job to cut a doorway into a steel stud wall that’s already dry walled and finished. Pretty straight forward but am not installing a jamb or door just finishing with dry wall when I am done. Am wondering how best to tackle this job? Can I cut out the doorway with a Sawzall? Strip the dry wall off and snip? Or is it easier to take a whole section out and re frame and dry wall? Really – I don’t have clue? Thanks in advance for the help.
brad lee
Replies
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Let's assume you have some leeway as to the door position. Sawzall will work fine. You might want a metal cutting blade for the steel, it won't shake the wall as much. Position your first cut, if you can, against a stud. If you're lucky (probably not, but you can hope) that cut will get you against the closed side of the stud and you'll have a place to screw your drywall to. If not, a wood stud will fit nicely into the C. Then you can cut your other verticle side and the header cut (this is where the metal cutting blade comes in 'cause it's stud cutting time) to whatever opening size your customer wants. Now you'll have unsupported drywall. There you will place another steel stud with the flat facing the opening. You won't have to tie it in all the way up, just a bit past where the header tabs will screw into it. You can finish the header with a piece of the metal stud you just cut out to make the opening. Just cut it long so you can make and bend down some tabs to screw into. If you are careful you can use the old drywall for your strips. Add bead and finish. That's the cheap, easy way.
Just hope you don't have any electrical runs in that section of the wall, or anything else that will make your simple job into a loser.
A better job would be to punch out the wall so you can determine which way the channels were placed. Then start your cut against the open side of a channel and continue as before to make your opening. When you have the opening, add a steel channel to the opposite side with the open side facing the door opening. Add a wood stud inside both channels. Cut back any of the intermediate metal studs you had to cut so you can add a wood header, which you will attach with screws to the two wood studs you placed in the channels. Screw thru (from both side) to afix the wood studs. Screw on your jamb drywall strips, add bead and finish. Don't forget to cut out the channel that was attached to the floor. Do you have to fix/finish the floor/floor covering where you made the new doorway? Be careful. Your customer might expect that to be part of the job.
Why the wood studs, you ask? Since you are only making a passage way and not installing a door you really don't need to, but, it has been my experience that someone will decide that a door is necessary and since you did such a bangup job the first time they will call you back and say, "Install a door, please." And since you thought ahead, you have created a perfect rough opening with firmly attached solid wood studs to which you screw (or nail) your new jambs. If you did a good mud job on the bead you could even get by with some oversized jambs and not have to knock off the bead.
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He everyone,
Just got a small job to cut a doorway into a steel stud wall that's already dry walled and finished. Pretty straight forward but am not installing a jamb or door just finishing with dry wall when I am done. Am wondering how best to tackle this job? Can I cut out the doorway with a Sawzall? Strip the dry wall off and snip? Or is it easier to take a whole section out and re frame and dry wall? Really - I don't have clue? Thanks in advance for the help.
brad lee