I was hammering in a drywall anchor where my stud detector said there was not a stud, but it turned out to be wrong! This put a clean break in the stud up and down. I cut into the drywall at the spot and a good distance below it to confirm the split was going down quite a bit. I drilled on the left and right of the split and was going to screw on a metal brace. Would this be enough? Should I put in several braces, or do I need to remove the drywall and completely replace the stud? 
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
You didn’t split the stud. You’re looking at one normal stud (on the right) with another board perpendicular to it (on the left).
There’s nothing to repair except the drywall.
-
Thank for the answer :) if that is the case would the perpendicular board be running the length of the stud? Because I cut another hole close to the bottom of the wall and I still see both boards.– Kevin P.Commented Oct 3, 2022 at 1:16
-
11pretty clear when looking at the different orientation of the wood grain in the two distinct framing members. Commented Oct 3, 2022 at 3:11
-
6@FreshCodemonger You can also see that the edges of the 2 pieces of wood are rounded off. If it was one piece of wood that split, the edges would be sharp. Commented Oct 3, 2022 at 15:34
-
3
-
6@Brad "Perpendicular" in the sense that we see the wide part of the board instead of the narrow part like we do for the normal stud. From the top or the bottom you'd see an
Lshape (as opposed to||for two regular adjacent studs).– nobodyCommented Oct 3, 2022 at 23:43
Should I put in several braces or do I need to remove the drywall and completey replace the stud?
I'd say none of the above.
You're looking at 2 individual pieces of lumber, you didn't split anything.
Even if you had split it I would lose zero sleep over the situation. Framing has redundancy built in. That entire stud could be removed and you would likely have zero structural issues.
Kudos for being cognizant about your actions. There are some thoroughly dense people in this world that remove entire load-bearing walls without a second thought so the structure sags throughout the decades.
You're fine, patch the drywall and continue with your project.
If you had truly damaged the stud to a point it was structurally compromised then at most I would cut away enough drywall to sister another stud next to it. Removing the damaged stud would inevitably cause huge problems for whatever material is on the backside of the stud.
I was hammering in a drywall anchor where my stud detector said there was not a stud, but turned out to be wrong. This put a clean break in the stud up and down.
I have considerably high doubts that a plastic wall anchor could ever split a healthy stud. If it could then it's not a healthy stud and I would pray that the rest are not equally weak.
answered Oct 3, 2022 at 14:21
Kevin HI I see what the others have seen even if the stud was split which its not you would not have to replace that stud because it can still hold the load. If you need a fastener in the area where the old hole is you could put another wood screw just a 1/4"to the either side of it if you need a fastener to hold new the new drywall repair on but that stud is fine. There is no reason to do it but if you needed to close that gap you could easily use 4 2-1/2" inch wood screws to pull the gap back together. Or squeeze some bondo into the gap with a shim just to hold a new screw. Thats way to much work that stud is sound. Just put new fasteners beside that gap. With plaster over it it will be invisible and safe. Cheers!
