I'm finishing my basement, and am framing in a room. I have 81.5" of ceiling clearance to the ceiling joists, and am in the process of framing in a door for a bedroom. My question is, since this wall is not load bearing, is it required to have double studs, as there's no structural header to hold up. In this case, due to clearance issues, the header is also the top-plate of the wall.
I've attached a rough picture to give you an idea of what I'm planning on doing.
As you can see, the top plate extends the full length of the wall. There is no room to install an additional plate as a header, the top plate will serve this function. Since there's no normal header to hold up, is a jack stud needed, or no? Is it ideal to provide support in the wall, or just not necessary?
Best Answer
This is perfectly fine. There is in fact a whole building science based protocol for not using double top plates or double studs even on structural walls. If the name comes back to me I'll provide a link to it.
Advanced Framing. Developed 40+ years ago and still not accepted by half the carpenters who learned from daddy who learned from daddy who...learned from the guy who's daddy thought he was nuts to move out of a perfectly nice cave.
The only possible benefit of a double stud in this application would be if you wanted to use 3-1/2" hinge screws. Sections of 2x4 scrap scabbed onto the stud in the right places would to that just as well.