Help building room dividers

Tom Clark

Member
Messages
42
Location
Deming, NM
Hi Guys,

Well, I will answer to hobbiest woodworker, telescope maker, and cabinet maker, but certainly do not have much construction experience other than building an observatory 10 years ago. Anyway, I'm looking for photos and ideas on how to but in some room dividers into a new building I am having built. My old shop (http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9604&highlight=Tom+Clark) was one 40x60 room, complete with heat and air. The mild climate of north Florida made that possible. The new building is going up in New Mexico, and as soon as the building is finished, I am going to divide the 36x60 building into a 36x36 shop, and the rest will be two rooms for exercise and storage. Only the shop portion will have heat and air. (The entire building will have R-11 walls and R-19 ceiling.)

After much research, the walls will have styrofoam insulation added, and will be paneled with either OSB or 3/8 plywood. Adding the paneling to the outside walls will be easy, as the walls are just going to be 8' high. However, the interior walls are going to be tougher. The walls will not be structual in any way. I will make the studs 8' high, but then I have to build the wall up to the ceiling and insulate that area too.

There's the problem! How to build the short wall on top to fill in to the ceiling. If anyone has done something like this, a few photos sure would help. Or maybe a link to another thread that shows how this was done?
Below is a photo of the old shop so you can see what the new one will look like. Just imagine trying to divide this room into three rooms.

Thanks for any ideas you can provide.
 

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Tom, I'm by no means a carpenter, but the times I've seen an interior wall built to match the slope of a pitched roof, they have typically used studs from floor to ceiling, instead of building an 8' wall with another wedge-shaped wall on top of it. I'll let the more experienced guys chime in with how to attach the top plate to the ceiling, but other than the fact that it's not rectangular, the construction of the wall is about the same as for a typical interior wall.
 
I'm no carpenter either, but I think for interior walls you can probably put it up any way you want. Continuous studs with blocking is probably harder to make/install by yourself though. You'll want some concrete anchors in the bottom and tie into the roof beams somehow or it's going to be loose.

The biggest potential problem I can see is insulating the top area to the roof insulation, otherwise you could get water condensating on the outside of the cooled area. The metal structure for the roof might be a source of water too. I'm not sure what the best method is to deal with that, I'd keep a close eye on it to see if it needs further work. It's possible in new mexico that it's to dry to matter though.
 
The 8 foot wall is the smart way to start since you are building it yourself. Build yourself a little staging that you can stand on when you frame the top section.
Are you going to have the same steel structure to build to?
Anyway, If you can line up your wall under one of those beams. What you will need to do from there is, using a level run a plumb line from the wall up to the beam and mark it. Then clamp your top plate to the steel beam, set tp the lines you marked, drill and through bolt it. Now it is just a simple matter of marking your studs on the bottom plate of the top half and plumbing them to the top plate, use the top plate as your guide and mark your cuts, then nail them off.

If you cant line up the wall to the one of the beams you may need to run strapping from one beam to the next to give yourself something to attach your wall to. Otherwise framing will be the same.

Good luck!
 
This is going to be an adventure! That's a good idea of clamping the 2x4 to the steel beams with C-clamps, and thru drilling and bolting. I was stupidly thinking using sheet metal screws. The walls will not be under one of the heavy beams, as they are 20' apart, and the garage section is to be 24' wide.

For the top 8", I am just thinking using 2" styrofoam and pressing it in place between the top of the wall and the insulation the builder will install in the roof.

The project will start in a couple of weeks, so I will post photos when the time comes. Still hope to see others photos of something similar for more ideas…
 
the rigid foam is a great idea and then use expansion spray foam to lock them in place
just get the low expansion stuff.........
but that should do it for you!
good luck with your new shop!!
 
Tom I spent a fair amount of time on new construction sites in the US for shoppng malls built like a huge warehouse steel structure and perimeter walls being insulated.

What i would be looking for if i were you is the metal studs. You can get them in one long section (heavier gauge than home ones) then go floor to ceiling and cut them as you go to the shape of the roof. Then you can face it with whatever and either fill with insulation spray foam or even on one side secure the ridgid foam insulation as they did in the shopping center case.

Probably be a lot more expensive than wood studs though. But hey i am not a contractor or construction guy just mentioning what i have seen for high roof.

Have you considered putting in a mezzanine with a high ceiling ?


I do know one thing, in Vaughns post on bathrooms of the rich, if i were in that league you doing what i would be doing in terms of where i would put my money. Give me a cheapo porcelain sink but i want a way bigger shop for all my interests.:) One building would not cut it for me. Oh i would add an underground network of tunnels to ride about between shops. :D


Keep us posted Tom. Look forward to seeing progress on your new shop.:thumb:
 
Fast and easy way to secure the 2x4 to the beam is a ramset. Get 2" pins with the washers attached and the red loads. save you time and money. Plus drilling to many holes in the beams will reduce the integreaty of the beam.
 
New shop completed

Thanks for the suggestions on building the walls. Anytime you are about to do something you have never done before is fun. I ended up using 7/16" OSB for the walls after researching what others have used. It is thick enough so you can hang just about anything you want on them, yet was the most inexpensive way to go. The rooms were starting to look like a dungeon until the walls were painted white, and now the shop is quite bright.
Now all that remains to be done is to move the shop from Florida to New Mexico.
 

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