Wood or metal studs ?

[Packinshed]

What would be everyones recomnedations . Wood or metal studs for walls .
Jim

[Aaronw]

It's kind of a personal preference. I'm using metal studs for my studio I'm currently building. Is this for residential or commercial facility? If it's commercial, you'll probably have to go w/ metal for codes reasons.

I went w/ metal for a couple reasons. 1. a friend of mine works them where he works. I managed to get some material free. 2. from what I understand, acoustically it's better. Less transmission of sound through them (if using 25 guage). 3. If you screw up, and need to move something, it's a piece of cake.

Do a search for metal studs, there's been some other topics here covering this in more detail.

Aaron

[dymaxian]

If you're used to working with steel, it's better. If you're planning on using spaces between studs for traps that need to be airtight (like John's inside-out wall construction and putting panel traps between the studs) then you'll need to use wood. If you want to make your building inspector smile a little more (dont underestimate the importance of this!) use steel, because they won't burn.

If you're using double-wall construction, wood vs steel won't make much difference acoustically. In a single wall, the lighter studs flex enough to keep structural vibrations from passing thru, which means no need for RC like you'd need for wood studs.

There's bonuses for using either one.

Kase
www.minemusic.net

[sg400]

Assuming I have made the choice to go with metal studs, should I put them on 16 or 24 inch centers. 24 inch would be nice because it could be less work and less cost. What is the recomendation?

Thanks

[dymaxian]

Most metal studs are engineered for 24" centers.

Are you just picking up these steel studs at Home Depot? If so, I hope they're not load-bearing... you need to get some beefier studs if they'll be really holding up anything but drywall screwed to their faces...

[sg400]

Thanks Kase:

These will be purchased at Home Depot. I am building three rooms-within-a-room. The existing room (approx 21' x 20') had no other walls and as such the metal studs will not need to bear any load beyond the drywall. My next question is should I use screws for bothe the 5/8" and 1/2" or should I glue the 1/2" stuff to the 5/8" which would be screwed to the studs?

Thanks

[knightfly]

Screw the first layer with panels vertical, place 1/4" spacers on floor then panels on top of spacers - leave 1/4" gap at intersecting walls (spacers here too, taped temporarily in place) - only use screws on 16" centers along base and top, 24" centers in the fields and on vertical edges. This screw spacing for NON-surface layer ONLY - mud/tape/lightly sand (no bumps) then do the next layer same way (unless it's the TOP layer), offsetting screws so they don't collide (marking intersecting wall/ceiling/floor with masking tape so you know EXACTLY where each and every fastener is) - don't forget to mud/tape the long edges, these are beveled for 2" to make room for taping, and if you don't do it on inner layers you'll created a VOID - not good.

Final layer - horizontal panel layout, full schedule screws (consult the USG handbook in the Sticky section, free download) - search on "schedule" or "fastener", it's in there -

IF you're using two layers total, put the first vertical - however, if using three layers, alternate H-V-H so you have horizontal top layer and no coincident joints (for 3 layers, do a bottom course that's trimmed to 2 feet wide instead of 4, then a full sheet down the middle, then finish up with whatever width necessary - taller walls, still start with partial width. This ensures that even the little pinhole coincidences where first and third layers might both have a hole do NOT line up)

More in the Sticky called "complete section" - current info, despite USG's info that you can - do NOT glue ANYTHING when using metal studs, and don't use Laminating screws. It's too tricky to NOT soften the panels while laminating, you don't want full lamination either (messes up coincidence effect of wall)

Hope that helped, I'm short on time for now... Steve

[dymaxian]

If you're building rooms-within-rooms, are the ceilings going to be supported by these walls? For a room with a true isolated structure, you'll need to have the ceiling construction built off the walls. And those studs from Home Depot won't hold that up. Those are about as structurally sound as resilient channel.

Just making sure. I'd hate to hear about it all coming down on top of you.

[sg400]

Thanks for your reply Kase. The ceiling in the target room is self-sustaining. The only thing above it is an attick crawl space with plenty of thick insulation. Because of this, and the distance between neighbors, I felt the I could get by without additional ceiling construction. I went with raised floors because the wood floor in this room is resting directly on concrete and seems to transmit sound more than I would like.