Adding room divider

[alexh1]

Hi,

My kitchen and den is one long 30' room with a wing wall separation. I re-trimmed my whole house and this is an awkward situation, would like to have an opening between rooms where i could add jamb + casing. To do this I would add 2x6 framing to drop down 12" from the ceiling and continue down the other side about 6" off the wall - just enough to add a 4" casing and jamb. I will build off the existing wing wall. See picture of existing wing wall, red is new framing, yellow are joists.

The problem with this is that the ceiling "joists", which are actually trusses so 4" side of 2x4 is flat to ceiling, run parallel to my framing that I would like to add. I would like to avoid removing large sections of ceiling drywall and I was thinking I could cut out a 6" wide section of drywall for the 2x6, then place 2x4 blocking that would sit on the truss 2x4's. I could then just drill a hole through drywall, through the truss 2x4 and screw that blocking down to the top of the truss 2x4. Then I have blocking for my 2x6 and the drywall on the new framing would hold up the ceiling drywall. I should be able to easily get my hand in the 6" wide slot and could use a mirror to avoid the truss diagonals.

I got lucky on the other side (vertical wall) as I can hit an existing stud. The total span of new framing is 11'. I assume it would be best that the wall section hold up the ceiling section (i.e. wall section under ceiling section). Then the blocking is mostly just preventing sag.

It's definitely not standard framing but this is purely cosmetic, not structural. I have done quite a bit of light remodeling but never ceiling drywall. Also I know that wall drywall holds up ceiling drywall so it seems removing ceiling drywall causes a cascade of drywall replacement.

Thanks for any advice

[rwe2156]

If you built it like a torsion box, skinned it with 1/2" ply instead of drywall, would that work?

[joe1086]

What I'd do...

If you are going to cut a 6" channel in the ceiling that should give you enough room to lay 2x4 sleepers between the truss bottoms. Spacing them every 24" should be enough. Once the sleepers are cut to size, drill a couple holes on each sleeper side so you can toe-nail (but with screws) into the rafter bottoms. Partially screw 3" deck screws into the sleepers, lay them flat on top of the drywalled ceiling and drive the screws home. Screw the new 6" top plate into the sleepers and build the rest of the wall.

Looks like the corners of the existing walls are rounded...that looks it will be fun too.

[jteneyck]

I've faced similar problems when installing balustrades against a wall with no stud where I needed it.  To avoid cutting drywall that would show I cut a vertical slot in the drywall that would be covered by the newel post, inserted a length of 2 x 4 that I could rotate nearly horizontal against the studs on each side of my opening and then screwed through the drywall to hold it.  I only needed lateral support so this worked fine, and left me with only a couple of screw heads to spackle/paint.  In your case you could to cut a slot in line with your new wall so that you can put a length of 2 x 4 up through it and then rotate it to fit between your joists, and another over the top of the first that fits over the joists.  All you would need is a few screws up through the ceiling drywall to hold them in place, then fill in the drywall with new drywall or plywood since it will be covered and invisible when you're done.  

John