Building Walls and Rooms

Building walls to create a room can make the most of a basement or offer kids who are sharing a room much needed privacy.  If you are inexperienced in basic construction, hire a professional to build a wall to create a room.  Many options, styles and techniques offer wall and room partition choices to suit any desire from permanent to temporary solutions.

The Easy Way

Instead of framing a wall, mounting it to the floor and ceiling, which may be too much for a novice or someone who knows nothing about carpentry, or if you cannot afford the building materials, there are other options.  Modular pre-fabricated walls can also offer physical division without changing the physical structure of the room.

Building a Wall to Divide a Room

Walls can be framed using several materials.  The most common used is wood studs.  Inner walls that are non-supportive use 2-by-4 studs spaced 16 inches apart.  A 10-foot long wall will need eight studs.  The framing also holds electrical wiring, gas lines, phone lines, Internet wiring and other wires that make our plug and play world work.  Metal frames offer the same options for wiring only without the termite attraction. 

Decorative walls can be made from glass blocks, Plexiglas or other material and will need to be supported with a structure, usually aluminum is used to support the structure. These types of walls are made to offer separation, not absolute isolation.  This type of wall is used for the mechitza in synagogues or in restaurants to separate dining areas.

Many non-permanent, accordion partitions or movable walls are often used in social halls, school cafeterias or in homes to separate open hall space between rooms.  Room dividers made of beads, Chinese folding panels or folding partitions which open and close on railing make economic and ergonomic options.  Sliding pocket doors offer the effect of separating rooms.  These are doors similar to sliding closet doors only inset into the walls.