How to strengthen up a half wall - DIY Chatroom

zetti1102 · 11-04-2009, 10:17 PM

I am doing some construction in my house and have recently knocked down a wall seperating my living room from dinning room. I have built a half wall in place of it (4' long x 3' high) and I'm having some stability issues. The wall is pretty strong but has some movement to it. I built it out of 2X4's 16" o.c. and tied it into an existing wall. The part of the wall that is tied in is fine its just the end of the wall... it moves about an inch back and forth. I dont want to add a post to it but have thought about other methods. One would be to add a threaded bar from the top of the plate down to the floor joist or add another 2x4 at the end and have that go down to the floor joist. The last stud on the half wall is directly above a floor joist. If anyone could give me some ideas it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Anthony

GBR in WA · 11-04-2009, 10:25 PM

Add another stud down past the floor joist and nail or bolt it to that. Or use some 12x12" metal shelf brackets under the flooring on both sides.
Be safe, Gary

ArmchairDIY · 11-04-2009, 10:29 PM

The stud through the sub floor and down along the joist would be my first choice.

MI-Roger · 11-05-2009, 07:21 AM

We have two half walls in our home. The builder framed these using a 2x8 at the free end (I assume the other studs are 2x4 but I have never cut the dry wall open to check) that passes thru the sub floor and ties to the floor joists in the basement ceiling area.

These have always been rock steady.

Goldglv · 11-05-2009, 09:15 AM

If this floor is some type of wood flooring, can you just drive screws right through the floor to the floor joists? Or should part of the wood flooring be removed first?

Augie Dog · 11-05-2009, 10:35 AM

Since the last stud is directly over a joist, you can cut a small slot at the end of the wall and slip in a framing strap and nail it to the joist. Come back up to the wall and nail the strap to the face of the last stud while it is nice and plumb.
Applying 1/2" ply wood to one side or both will also firm it up too.

A Simpson ST30 or so would be fine.

zetti1102 · 11-06-2009, 10:17 PM

I was able to find a nice thick L bracket at my local hardware store and decided to try that first. Its about 2' x 2'. I screwed it to the joist, plumbed up the wall then screwed it to the face of the stud and its rock solid. Thanks for everyone help!