House Closet Questions

Hello from overcast Vancouver Island where the snow is melting.....

New project, fellas, (and ladies):

Okay. Upstairs, there's this bedroom. Let's call it bedroom A. Bedroom A is between the Master and Bedroom B on one side of the hall. Bedroom A has a closet. See the first photo.

(yes everything is a mess, I know. That's because all our furniture is in the *other* house and this house has zero built-ins).

All of Bedroom A is going to become a walk-in closet for the Master Bedroom. So I'd like to wall off that closet in the first photo, and open it on the other side--see next photo--for Bedroom B. Then Bedroom B has 2 closets. Bedroom A will be all built-ins.

Third photo shows that on the Bedroom B side, there is an electrical outlet on that wall :( so I guess there's wiring hiding in that wall.

My questions are as follows:

How difficult is this to do on a scale of 1 to 10? :dunno:

How do I frame in an opening for the B side (do I have to wait for an electrician to move the wiring? I'm gonna have one here for the garage anyway)

And How do I close the closet opening (frame it in I guess) and make the existing opening plain wall?

You'all are the best. Give it to me in little words.

cynthia
 
Cynthia For me it would be a 1, done it 1000's of times. For you i would guess it would be about a 5. As far as the elec, if you have a guy coming leave it up to him. Go ahead and get that door tore out in bedroom a, then frame it back in. if you are going to reuse that same door, just frame your opening up the same size as the opening your closing in. If you are using a smaller door frame for that size. Being as this wall is basically closets don't worrie two much about structural integrity.You CAN do it.
Steve
 
Cynthia For me it would be a 1, done it 1000's of times. For you i would guess it would be about a 5. As far as the elec, if you have a guy coming leave it up to him. Go ahead and get that door tore out in bedroom a, then frame it back in. if you are going to reuse that same door, just frame your opening up the same size as the opening your closing in. If you are using a smaller door frame for that size. Being as this wall is basically closets don't worrie two much about structural integrity.You CAN do it.
Steve

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Steve if you rate it a 1, I'd rate it a 25. :rofl: :rofl: but I'm game! :thumb: I'll post lots of pics.
 
Overall Questions:
1- main floor or second floor?
2- finished room underneath or not? (ie: how easy to access electrical from below)
3- bearing wall or not?

How do I frame in an opening for the B side (do I have to wait for an electrician to move the wiring? I'm gonna have one here for the garage anyway)

in general terms...

1- measure and draw opening on the drywall (take measurements from other closet opening that you are filling in, make sure it is the rough opening, not the finished that you measure!)
2- remove baseboard
3- use utility knife or drywall saw and cut out opening, dispose of drywall
4- this'll show you the wiring. Hopefully it simply goes down to the basement and is easy to access and remove. (If so, just isolate and kill the breaker, then remove the wiring back to the next fixture.) If you get bad luck, then the wiring for that outlet continues on to somewhere else and you're going to have to reroute it around the opening. (Cue the electrician)
5- frame the opening - how depends on if it is bearing wall or not
6- install door jams, hang closet door.
7- patch carpet under door opening. (I have no idea how to do that. A pro could probably take the carpet from the other side where the closet opens into bedroom A, and move it.)
8- trim opening with casing + replace baseboard

And How do I close the closet opening (frame it in I guess) and make the existing opening plain wall?
...
Give it to me in little words.

IMHO, this step is easier than the other one.

1- remove door
2- remove door casing inside and out
3- remove door jams. If you're going to reuse this on the other side, then use a sawzall, and run it between the 2x4 and the jams to cut all the nails. Then you can probably tip out the door jams in one piece, remove the nails, and re-install them on the other side of the wall in bedroom B.
3.5 - cut out carpet under the door opening. There won't be a tack strip along this stretch of wall now, so you may want to staple the carpet down along the new "back" of the closet, or get a tack strip installed.
4- frame in the opening with 2x4s.
5- cover with drywall and patch (cue the taper + mudder if you are like me... ;) )
6- paint and then replace baseboard.
 
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Okay, if that project is not hard, I'm going to assume that the next part of the project won't be too hard either. I want to close off the door to the hall from BedroomA and then open a doorway (no door needed) from the Master to BedroomA which will now be closet. Is this equally not too difficult?

Here's the door to the hall from inside Bedroom A.
BedroomAexistingdoortohall.jpg

Door to hall view from hall. (To close off)
BedroomAfromhall.jpg

Wall to open from Bedroom A to Master, view from A side.
BedroomAwalltoopen.jpg

Wall to open from Bedroom A to Master, view from Master side. I see there's a plug in down there....:(

MasterBwalltoopen.jpg
 
Overall Questions:
1- main floor or second floor?
2- finished room underneath or not? (ie: how easy to access electrical from below)
3- bearing wall or not?

Thanks Art for a super detailed explanation. To answer your questions.
1. top floor (it's a split level)
2. yes
3. don't think so. LOML says that since it's the top floor, none of the wall are bearing walls.....
 
Thanks Art for a super detailed explanation. To answer your questions.
1. top floor (it's a split level)
2. yes
3. don't think so. LOML says that since it's the top floor, none of the wall are bearing walls.....

just becasue its atop floor doesnt mean its not a bearing wall.. if its a interior wall then yur safer to think it isnt but a bearing wall refers to the weight of the trusses bearing down on the wall and that usually is on outside walls that have the slope coming to them cynthia,, not the gable side or the triangle shaped side..the end of the slide is the bearing side..
 
just becasue its atop floor doesnt mean its not a bearing wall.. if its a interior wall then yur safer to think it isnt but a bearing wall refers to the weight of the trusses bearing down on the wall and that usually is on outside walls that have the slope coming to them cynthia,, not the gable side or the triangle shaped side..the end of the slide is the bearing side..

Larry, we took a walk-through with the previous owner--who lives next door BTW because he subdivided a larger acreage--and he also said the walls upstairs that were perpendicular to the outside walls were not load bearing. So of all the walls I describe wanting to change, only the wall between Bedroom A and the hall is bearing. So that wall has a door that I want to close up and put wall. The rest aren't load bearing--if he's to be believed.
 
Thanks Art for a super detailed explanation. To answer your questions.
1. top floor (it's a split level)
2. yes
3. don't think so. LOML says that since it's the top floor, none of the wall are bearing walls.....

Sorry to hear that (#2). The finished space underneath may make it a challenge for the electrician to do it neatly.

What you can do is take the faceplate off the outlet, grab a flashlight if needed, and see how the wire enters the electrical box. Also you can then see if there is only one wire, which means your box is at the end of the line or in the middle. Once you see that, it may help you trace back where the wire came from.

In most bedrooms(?) the wires to the outlet probably come from the left or right, from the nearest outlet along the wall.
 
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