The last wall in the office presented another challenge. In the original plan (see below) I was going to angle the wall from the area near the closet (which has entry from the office) to the wall near the windows. I built the section of wall, complete with the door frame and moved it to the area to secure it to the floor. Unfortunately, I overlooked a couple of things.
Although I planned to put in the necessary blocking between the floor joists to secure the top, there were a few complications. A small water pipe and a heat duct were in the way.
To make it worse, the heat register would have been right where the wall was going to go! I should have noticed that BEFORE I built the section!
Building the last wall
Rather than move the heat register and negotiate the space around the water supply line, I decided to run the wall at a 90 degree angle instead. Although this will make the office a little smaller, it made it much easier to secure the wall at the top.
Since I bought a 32" door for the office, my rough opening was 34 x 82. See "How to frame a door" for the details. The only complication was that there was (yet another) pipe running right above where the door would be.
I had to cut out part of the top plate to fit round the pipe and secure the frame with some additional blocking. After I secured the top and bottom plates, I cut out the bottom plate running through the door frame.
Door framing tips
- Don't cut out the bottom plate until AFTER the wall is secured.
- Don't add any Tapcon screws (or whatever fastener you're using) in the area you'll be cutting out!
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