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I have an old 11in wide breaker box in my condo and I'm trying to find out if I can remove the two extra studs (Red in drawing) in the wall to fit a regular 14.25in wide newer breaker box. I'm including a drawing of the wall, pictures and videos.

That wall or the studs inside it rather extend 13in higher than the ceiling. The bedroom ceiling is higher by the same amount. The wall is 18in wide.

I wanted to find out what's inside the flat ceiling above those two studs so I made cutouts inside a linen cabinet/shell built between that wall (breaker box wall) and another to the right. I made two cutouts. One on the wall behind the breaker box and one in the ceiling. I see a lot of wood in the ceiling cut out that makes me think removing those studs is going to be too much trouble if at all possible.

Is there a way to cut a section of those studs (red ones) to fit the new breaker box and then reinforce them with some kind of metal plate brace (see drawing pls) so the weight of whatever is up there gets transfered down the normal way? Is there such a thing? Any other option available?

Video links:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JOSHiEkASKI2X27zgBuzSZQ30yvJIA4E/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WybjZAxEy2mUTLmQnbAn4H_AKT_iC5_s/view

Thanks

enter image description here breaker box wall bottom breaker box wall top cutouts enter image description here

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I think it's very likely you could cut the inner studs out without a second thought and never have an issue, but I certainly couldn't say for sure. Even with these detailed photos and videos, I don't think it's enough info to determine whether the doubled up studs are necessary to support the load above, or were just added as nailers / cleats to hang the narrow electrical panel.

The idea of adding brackets is probably a non-starter. If the extra studs are needed to carry the load, you'd still wind up with just two studs carrying the load instead of four - the brackets will just transfer the load to the outer studs.

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I got a general contractor to look at this and he said that I could remove them without worry. They're not load bearing. He suggested I cut them above and below what I needed to install the new breaker box though. Driving a couple of nails before cutting them. I'm looking into doing that in the not so distant future.

Thanks all.

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