A building and renovation company that has been operating continuously since its foundation in 2005.
We are proud to help our Clients across Cambridge, London and Norwich areas.
Back in the old days once a house was built it would be standing unchanged for tens of years. Nothing much could have been done inside really. The interior walls were solid and modifying anything would involve a lot of work.
Forget about changing the number of rooms, their layout or splitting one into two smaller ones.
Luckily these days are long gone. The way the houses are now built has changed massively. Currently we can change almost everything inside of the house as long as load-bearing walls are not impacted.
This gives us a lot of freedom and allows us to convert the way it looks inside. We can achieve that by building new walls.
Before we start let’s make it clear why do you build a partition wall at first place. There could be many reasons, but one of the most obvious ones is because you have just bought a new place.
You love your new house or an apartment, but you are not entirely satisfied with the layout.
So what can you do? It can be easily sorted out by destroying few walls and building new ones. These are also called stud walls. It is a space divider. Thanks to that your home can get a brand new look inside.
Similarly, you can do exactly the same if you just got bored with your place, but you don’t really feel like moving somewhere else. No one likes to move, but there is a bit of excitement to something new.
In this case you can kill two birds with one stone. Just imagine that.
You can put up a wall in your living room and open up a kitchen to create stylish dining room. Or create a cloakroom inside of your master bedroom. Ultimately split the room and build an office. The possibilities are basically endless and you are in charge.
I know what you are thinking – how many different types of stud walls can there be really? Well, that all depends from the perspective. Let’s have a quick look on what types of partition walls we do have and how can categorize them.
The most basic split of walls is whether it’s a load-bearing or non load-bearing. Important point to make here is that if it’s load-bearing it is NOT a partition wall. Just as a name suggests “partition wall” sets something apart.
If the wall is holding any load do NOT modify it at all. Especially on your own without seeking a professional opinion first. How can you tell if it’s load-bearing or not?
They are usually constructed with a use of heavy duty materials such as concrete, steel, bricks or thick wooden beams. Their function is to hold up weight of the house. Be careful though.
In older buildings you can find stud walls that were built to provide additional support for the ceiling in places where the partition walls were placed on the upper floor.
Experiencing such case it might be necessary to put a pillar supporting the weight from above.
In older buildings you can find #studWalls that were built to provide additional support for the ceiling #DIY #partitionWall #oldBuilding
Another way to categorize the partition walls is by their size: height or width. Allow me to clarify it. In some cases you do not need a full wall. Sometimes it makes much more sense to build a partial wall to just mark the division between two rooms, but give a feeling of a large space.
It also gives cool design opportunities.
Examples? Kitchen and dining room or dining room and living room. In first case you might want to have a waist height wall between the two rooms and create a bar.
In second it might make sense to separate two rooms from each other by full height, but narrow wall. This way way it still feels spacious, but it doesn’t look like one room anymore.
Full wall on the other hand are typical stud walls you build to divide a room. Full width and full height with or without doors depending on what is required.
This one right here is fairly simple. Your wall can be finished with tiles, wood, plaster and wallpaper or plaster and paint. All of them have pros and cons, but paint is probably the ultimate solution when it comes to that.
It’s least problematic in case you would like to change something and there are countless paint types and colours.
Aside of regular paint split you can find in this article you can buy something that goes way beyond eggshell and matte. You can use metallic paint to make your wall look super modern.
Or give your child some extra fun with chalkboard paint, so he or she can finally do what kids just love to do 🙂 without unpleasant consequences.
Right, so when we finally have cleared most of the potential uncertainties about stud walls and before we will go into actually building one there is one last thing to cover. What materials can be used to build a wall.
In many European countries the most popular wall material will be brick or concrete blocks.
And they are being used even inside, especially in the regions where thermal insulation plays much more important role.
In UK, with minor differences, it used to be similar. Now, for many years already we can observe that houses are built from bricks, but the interior walls are in most cases light wooden or steel constructions covered by plasterboard.
They might be additionally filled with woolen insulation, but it’s not always the case. The advantages of such solution have been presented multiple times throughout this article.
What other materials can be used to build a partition wall? Aside of already mentioned bricks and plasterboard combined with timber or steel construction the list presents itself in the below form:
I believe glass or bricks do not need to be further elaborated. However, wood-wool might not be something you are familiar with. Hence, few words of clarifications here. Wood-wool is material made of tangled wood fibers bound together with cement or plaster.
It has a rough surface and is a perfect base for plaster. Not very popular, but it’s great sound and heat insulator.
And just to make a final note on steel and timber wall constructions – steel is considerably better due to its resistance. It does not rot and is not a subject to chemical treatments.
The last piece of a puzzle when it comes to building the stud walls is actually building it. You have everything you need to know about materials, types of walls, and reasons to do such home improvement task.
Now all you need is a step-by-step guide, which we are gladly providing to you below.
If you have already few do-it-yourself tasks under your belt it should be fairly easy to go along. In case of any questions we are available as always at diy@poldabuilders.com or through our chat on the right hand side. Ready? Great, let’s rock!
Alright, that would be it. I am pretty sure you are very well equipped with everything you need to nail this task and to make your place look even nicer than before. In case you need more this guide in visual form here is a great video we have found. Good luck!
Add 2mm to your measurements so the studs are fitted tightly. You should put vertical studs every 400mm if you are planning to fix 9.5mm plasterboard. In case of 12mm #plasterboard every 600mm is perfectly fine #studWall #partitionWall
Is House Extension the Best Possible Home Improvement? This is the question we do get a lot. Frankly speaking it’s really hard to judge. There
I Will Never Make These Mistakes When Painting my House Again Painting the exterior of your house can be and is pretty big deal. Eventually,
Fitting Kitchen Units on Uneven Walls Has Never Been Easier If you haven’t moved into a completely new place I am 100% positive you are
©Copyright 2005-2023. All Rights Reserved.
Call us at 01223 491 480 or email office@poldabuilders.com and book a date with us.