Adding a door to an open basement entryway

dmohring

A friend of mine wants me to add a door to thier basement entry from the first floor to block the noisey kids out when they have company. It is currently just an open stairs. Can someone layout the main steps on how I would do this? Can I just frame in over the drywall or would I have to cut away the drywall and nail a frame work onto the studs? They will likely want as large a door as possible but it will likely require a built in frame to accept whatever door and jam set I get.
Thanks for the input!
Dave

Termite

It would help immensely if you posted a picture of the area you want the door installed in.

You can certainly frame up to the existing rock, provided you fasten the new studs to the old.

Remember that at the bottom of the stairs you must have a 36" landing before reaching the door.

dmohring

The door will be at the entry to the stairs going down to the basement from the 1st flr. There is probably about 3 ft or so landing at the top of the stairs. So is it ok to nail studs over drywall to create the frame in? I may try to get a few pics of it.

Termite

You can nail studs over drywall, just make sure you're hitting the framing BEHIND the drywall. Due to the potential for striking pipes and wires in the existing framing, it would be a best practice to remove the drywall at the new wall's location.