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How to support a free standing steel stud wall

63K views 25 replies 18 participants last post by  RPB 
Hello all,

I need to build an 8' high steel stud wall and the problem is I have nothing to fasten the top track or the end of the wall to. Obviously the bottom track I plan on drilling and fastening with smack pins. However I know from experience this will not be sufficient and the top of the wall will still be flimsy. Any ideas of how to stiffen the wall up? I am thinking of some sort of heavy guage iron angle drilled to the floor, or a telepost of some sort.

TIA
First use 20 gauge steel studs Use a 2 by 2 by 12 inch pattern on the outer edges of your track You're going to need pan head framing screws for your studs to pan head framing screws on each side of the studs top and bottom and make sure the studs are cut snuggly to fit not lose run the drywall all the way to the ground.... if you can get 18 gauge steel studs that would work better.. if you follow the steps the wall will turn out good... you can also glue your track down before you shoot it down
 
Never heard of glueing the track down first before. Whats the purpose of that?
if you glue down the bottom piece of track once it sets up .it will take all the rocking motion out ....the strength of the wall starts at the bottom and goes up...so if you shoot it down in the center once the studs are in on a free standing wall it will rock back and forth on that center shot as fulcom point ..but if you glue and shoot down the track on the outer edges it no longer has that axes to rock on ...now this is not needed on partion walls ...but light gauge steel stud framing that has no attachment point on the top plate this will def help out
 
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