I am installing a small safe in a wall and when I cut the opening in the drywall I noticed that the studs were in an unusual distribution. The stud on the right was normal but then there were multiple studs on the left - obviously a support column with a narrower than normal distance to the next stud. This is too small for the safe. Question: Can I safely (and if so how) cut out the portions of the involved studs? Since there will be a sturdy metal object between the ends, is that good enough for weight distribution? Or is this just a really bad idea? On the right, the drywall is flush with the stud. On the left, only 2 of at least 3 studs is visible. The outer square in my text drawing below is the drywall cutout and the columns on the left are to represent the studs that are visible in that cutout.
I am a new user so I cannot post an image... My best txt version of this would be:
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