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Hi everyone,
Our living area is very small so we are now planning to convert our garage into the 2nd living room. Now the door between garage and the current living room is a single pocket door.
But after the conversion, it seems to be better to use a wider door to open up space when there are two living areas.
But we are a bit confused on which type of double doors we should use -
- Double sliding pocket doors ?
- Double barn doors ?
- Or any other type of door would suit better?
Its our first time doing this kind of project.
Any any advice would be much appreciated🫂
1) Is it also better to remove the original door casing / trim for our plan to widen the doorway?
Cos when the opening got widen, we will need longer trim to cover the whole doorway. (But I dont have any spare part of the original trim. Its installed by last owner)
2) For a barn door , the current trim seems be quite thick with 10mm thickness?
Better to use thinner trim / casing to bring the barn door closer to the wall?
Thanks for any advice.
Hi @ivanptr,
I would have thought that if you're widening the doorway, the trim will need to be removed. Once complete, you'll likely need to replace the whole trim with a new one.
You can use a thinner trim if you'd like. Or you don't have to use a trim at all and can plaster the edges, which would be a more appealing look.
Mitchell
Hi @MitchellMc @EricL ,
We have decided to retain the garage door, but add a stud wall behind the garage door to convert the garage into another living area. (And in future if we want to turn this room back into garage, we don't need to reinstall the garage door.)
And we watched the How to build a stud wall video you shared, so now we need to buy tools to start from scratch:
1) Circular saw
Can you recommend any particular products which are affordable, not expensive, and reliable enough for beginners in building stud wall?
It is our first time... Clueless on how to choose .. !
Optional?:
Which type of work bench would come into handy for us?
Thank you for any recommendation.🔥
Hi @ivanptr,
I'd recommend you go with a Ryobi One+ 18V 165mm Circular Saw - Skin Only, and a Ryobi 18V ONE+ Drill Driver Kit. Alternatively, to save cost if this is a one-off job, a XU1 1200W 185mm Corded Circular Saw and a Ozito 280W 10mm Drill Driver.
You can screw the frame together instead of using a nail gun; that's why I've included the drill driver instead of it. It would not be feasible to buy a nail gun purely for this project, as the one you need can only be used for large framing nails. Another option is to grab yourself a circular saw and hire a nail gun.
Any decent handsaw like the Craftright 500mm Hand Saw will do.
Either a foldable workbench or a couple of saw horses would be handy. I don't think a larger workbench will be necessary; you just need something to place longer lengths of timber on whilst you cut them.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
The Ozito PXC 18V 10mm Compact Drill Driver should be fine to use for your project @ivanptr. For the screws, you'd typically be using something along the lines of these 75mm timber screws.
Mitchell
Hi @MitchellMc ,
We now have all the tools and screws to build the stud wall
We noticed there are 4 areas that we dont know how to deal with :
1. A trim on wall?
2) Some kind of ceiling cover?
3) Cornice
4) Skirting board
Could you tell us which one we need to remove ? And what tools should we use and how?
Thank you for any advice in advance🙏
___________________
(Curent goal - to build a stud wall behind the garage door)
Hello @ivanptr
Picture number one, three and four are just timber trims, they can be removed using a Craftright 380mm Wrecking Bar. But if you only need to remove a little and trim the end to allow your wall frame to fit in, I suggest using a Multi Tool with a Kango 3 - Piece Titanium Toughened Plunge Cut Multi-Tool Blade Set KOATV-3. This will allow you to cut the timber trim without having to disassemble the entire trim.
In regards to picture number two, it is called a James Hardie 2400 x 4.5mm PVC Straight Jointer. They are used to join large ceiling sheets together. Again, you can trim off the small piece that you don't need using the Multi Tool.
Before you begin, I suggest taking many measurements of the area where you are planning to build the wall. I then recommend drawing it on paper or computer, this will help you visualize what you need to do and the steps you need to take when you begin your assembly.
Please remember to wear personal protection such as gloves, goggles and a mask when while working on your project.
If you have any other questions we can help with, please let me know.
Eric
Hi @EricL
We've taken the measurements , from left to right:
Aggregate:
Now we have taken the measurement and will then use software to visualize them
1)
For the ceiling, we need to use stud finder to locate the ceiling joist ?
Can we directly drill the screw the frame into the joist through the ceiling sheet? or we need to remove the ceiling sheet first?
2)
For both sides, is it necessary to locate the stud behind the drywall first? or can we just screw the frame to drywall?
3) Which structural pine wood should we buy?
https://www.bunnings.com.au/products/building-hardware/timber/framing-timber/structural-pine
Wholehearted thanks for your help.🙌
Regards,
Ivan
Hi @ivanptr,
1) You can directly drill and screw the frame into the joist through the ceiling sheet—no need to remove it.
2) It would be best if you could find a stud on the wall to attach your frame directly to. If the frame is secured solidly to the roof joists and into the floor, you could potentially connect it to the drywall on the sides.
3) You'll be using H2 Pine to construct the frame; the minimum calibre would be 70 x 35mm.
Please let me know if you have further questions.
Mitchell
