stud wall - 6.5m

[Jupiter01]

The rear wall for my garden room is 6.5metres long. I am building this from 4x2 studs and lining with 11mm OSB.
I fear this will be too long and heavy to build as one section. Can I split into two and bolt together? I can spread the OSB boards across the two of them so he seam is not at the join of this wall.

How would you approach this?

 

[Johnpaul Manning]

Splitting it is exactly how most of us would do it. A 6.5m panel is a pig to lift and square on your own, so build it as two frames of roughly 3.25m each, or one long and one short if that suits your window or door positions.

Put a full stud at the end of each frame so you get two studs side by side at the join. Clamp them tight, check the faces are flush, then screw or bolt through. M10 coach bolts or a few structural timber screws every 400mm or so works well. Fix them to the sole plate as normal.

The key bit is the top: once both panels are standing and plumb, run a continuous top plate (a second layer) across the join, staggered well away from it. That ties the whole wall together far better than the bolts alone.

Then sheet with the OSB spanning the joint as you planned and you will have a strong, straight wall.