My house has an second floor open loft area with a half wall that overlooks the foyer down below. I would like to enclose the half wall, add a closet and door to create a fourth bedroom. How do I go about framing the half wall into a full wall? I included the floor plan, which shows the option for the fourth bedroom. The half wall is where the optional handrail is listed in the Loft.
Best Answer
If you were to just frame up the current opening above the half wall, you're going to run in to problems with the wall flexing, possibly cracking the drywall.
Therefore, at a minimum, I would put at least a doubled-up stud at the end of the half-wall that runs from the floor to the ceiling. (But first remove drywall and trim from the end and top of the half-wall.) The floor-to-ceiling double stud will resist the flexing. Then you just fill in the opening with a header, footer and studs; hang some drywall; and patch and paint.
However, to do it "right" you would remove the half-wall and just frame in a new wall using traditional building methods.
Personally, I would choose the right way. It's probably not much difference in effort and price and you end up with a more standard finished product.