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I am going to be starting a project to add a partition wall to our formal dining room to separate it into a pantry and an office. The location for the partition wall doesn't have any studs, but it does have ceiling joists running perpendicular to it including joists right on the edges of the walls to secure to.

My question is, is the ceiling joist and floor anchoring enough or will I need to install additional studs in the existing wall? And if so, what is the process to do this? I assume I would actually need to install several studs so the replacement drywall has something to screw on to?

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  • I have added a few walls to my house; attach bottom and top plates to floor/ceiling joists and add studs on whatever center is to code. I used structural screws to secure top/bottom plates, potentially can (re-)move the wall in the future. Take a picture of the frame for later to know where studs are for hanging things.
    – anm767
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 3:48
  • anm767 are you doing you didn't have to secure them to studs in the walls they are butting up to?
    – tallkid24
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 3:56
  • don't need to attach to existing walls on the left and right sides. however make sure to use structural screws and not some generic deck/wood screw. if you have carpet, cut a line in the middle of the new wall and roll edges away to install the bottom plate in full contact with the floor.
    – anm767
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 4:16
  • btw sides should have blocking to which the drywall is attached. you can attach your studs to those for extra piece of mind. my walls have blocking every 600mm which works well with 1200mm wide drywall, check your wall for these.
    – anm767
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 4:21

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Yes! you will want to add new studs (or blocking) to attach the new wall to and to hold the drywall at the wall joint for the old walls. You will be doing drywall work anyways, so repairing the wall where the new studs were added with new drywall will be straightforward. something like this: enter image description here

If your alternative was to place the first 2x4 for the new wall against the old sheetrock and just run screws through it into the sheetrock to hold the wall, that would likely be fine until someone leaned heavily on the wall near the joint, flexing the new wall and damaging the sheet-rock where the screws went in.

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  • So if my plan is something like this: imgur.com/a/hg5KXjL, what would be the best approach for where to take down the drywall and where to install the extra studs/blocking?
    – tallkid24
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 21:24
  • Ok, that seems to make sense. Would I just cut out the drywall to the right of the existing studs on the left and left of the existing studs on the right? Does it not need to be secured at the joint at the existing studs?
    – tallkid24
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 4:13
  • It is possible you might be able to just cut out the 3.5" on each wall where the new wall is goin in and "pocket drill" the new studs in place just behind the drywall without removing it. then nail the drywall to the new studs. This will complicate adding the end studs for the wall, which most folks would do doubled up 2x4s, first one between the perpendicular new wall studs, and then another outside of that so that there is a surface to hold the drywall on the new wall.
    – mark f
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 15:07

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