I know there's someone in this great forum that has come across this before and can lend their expertise.

I'm planning to move my theater equipment from a stand-alone cabinet to an in-wall location. The wall I need to open however is a load bearing wall with atypical stud spacing. I can't post up a picture so I'll try and describe the situation.

In the wall I want to open (backs up to an unused bedroom closet) the studs are placed 16 inches on center EXCEPT where I need to open the wall! Here, it is Stud - 7.25 inches - Stud - 13 inches - Stud. I need to remove the middle stud in order to get the clearance for my home-brew rack solution. Given that there is 20+ inches between the remaining studs do I need to construct the typical header/jackstuds (like for a windows rough-in)? Can I just cutout the middle stud without repercusions? Any and all help will be appreciated!!!

Chuck

How high up in the house does the wall support? One floor up, or all the way to the roofline?

Can I just cutout the middle stud without repercusions? Any and all help will be appreciated!!!

Chuck

When attacking a structural wall, I can see two reasonable options:

1) make sure the wall is stronger when you are done than it was before.

2) hire a structural engineer or architect to give you an opinion.

One option to consider:

- put in a new stud to the left and right of the current left and right existing studs.
- take out all three existing studs (temporarily you will have a ~24" gap).
- put a 4x4 or a pair of 2x4s under the exposed header to reinforce it
- put back the right and left studs under your new reinforced beam.
- you may as well leave in the 'temporary studs'. More attachments for drywall always make things easier.

My overriding piece of advice: Don't do anything like this unless you are REALLY comfortable with what you are doing. Don't accept any anonymous advice off of AVS (including mine!) when it comes to structural changes to your house.

For my load bearing wall change, see:

Screen Wall Fixup (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10820801#post10820801)

Thanks fo rthe reply!

Hmmmmmm.......guess I should have included more information :o

The stud is 10 ft long and goes from a bottom plate on slab foundation to a double 2x4 top plate that supports the roof rafters(yes....10 ft ceiling!).

Paul,

Thanks for the info but I think my situation isn't quite as involved as your solution. This construction (or should I say destruction) is similar to putting a window in an outside wall. I understand that I definitely would have to create a header and jack studs if the span were larger but I'm only dealing with ~20.5 inches. I'm trying to find out if I can get away with 2 studs vs three. I understand being on the safe side. Seems everything I do is over-engineered!

Chuck

The question is 'why did they put the extra stud in the first place?'

If the answer is that they had an extra one lying around and didn't want to pitch it, or that it's where one section of 16" spacing wall met another, or they needed it there to support a jbox or something that couldn't be moved, there would be a clear reason.

If not, there may be some reason they needed it there. Beats me why, I'm not an architect or a structural engineer.

If you remove it, will the house collapse? Probably not. Since its not that involved, it'll only take a couple of hours to do it right however.

Is there a ceiling joist/truss directly above the "extra" stud? The code books spell out what the acceptable header size is, so IMO you don't need to contact a structural engineer. Just install a double 2x6 header and frame it like a standard door or window opening and it will be fine.