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Happy anniversary to Brigitte and David! To mark this important date, Brigitte buys David a festive new golf club. But to keep the gift a secret, she has to hide it in the closet. The only thing is the club will get lost amid the pile of clothes and shoes jammed in there. What’s a girl to do? (Keep in mind that the girl in question is one who asked for a sliding compound power mitre saw for her anniversary gift.) Why… build a new closet of course!
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DO know your limits. Brigitte gets in a little over her head with this project. So...
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DO hire someone for the job, if patience and time are in short supply.
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DON’T forget to wear the appropriate protective gear: goggles, gloves, etc. It’s a messy job to demolish walls and put up new ones. Safety first!
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Walk Right In
Brigitte’s plan was to turn her current closet into a walk-in closet with shelving and doors. This involves tearing down existing walls and flooring. You know what that means! It’s demolition time! Time for a visit from The Havoc Maker, Mr. Sledgehammer!
- Dismantle your closet – remove all items from inside; remove any doors or mirrors; remove shelves, etc. Brigitte ended up ripping out the bedroom carpet, too. She’s a real pro at it now since she did the same thing in her dining room.
- With the help of The Havoc Maker, demolish the walls you need to for your project. Since Brigitte was making her closet wider and deeper, she took down the walls from all around the existing closet.
- Build a frame with wood studs. Set it back ½” for the dry wall. This will ensure that your new wall is even with your old wall.
- The frame for the closet wall is constructed using standard framing methods. A header spans the closet door opening. This header is supported by a jack stud, next to the jack stud a king stud is attached and runs the full height of the wall. Over the header are cripple studs to fill in the space and create a nailing area for the drywall. On the top and bottom are the sill plates. When building the opening Brigitte matched it to the height of the other doors in the room to keep it consistent and avoid the funhouse look. Unless this is the look you are going for! Don’t forget to factor in an inch for your door jamb and 1 ½” for the plate at the bottom. (As you measure and cut, you may recall your eighth grade math teacher trying to tell your sorry ass that math is important in life.)
- Nail the jack stud to the king stud. The king should be on the outside.
- Nail the plates to the studs. (These are the pieces of wood that go across the top and bottom of the studs.)
- Nail in the cripple studs above the header
- Nail the frame into place into your closet opening.
- Before you attach your drywall, mark the location of the studs. Pencil marks on the ceiling and floor should do the trick. Take a large single sheet of drywall and screw it into your frame. Use drywall screws and drill the screws in slowly, being careful not to rip the paper on the drywall.
- Cut the door opening out of the drywall with a drywall knife.
- Cut out the bottom plate where your closet opening is so that doors will fit in.
- Screw in a corner bead. This will give you a smooth edge when you plaster the drywall.
- The plaster will seal the wall and fill in any gaps. Apply plaster with an assortment of putty knives and trowels. Cover the seams with fibre tape. The tape stops the plaster from cracking at the seams. Apply two more layers of the plaster, letting each layer dry completely in between applications. Sand the plaster to keep it smooth and even. The third and last layer of plaster is the skim coat. Give the wall a good sanding before applying this layer. Let the plaster set and give it a final finish sanding. Then you can prime and paint the closet walls.
- If you have a standard size door opening, you can easily purchase a closet door kit and attach your door. If you do not have a standard door opening and you are not an expert at hanging doors, then STOP HERE! DO NOT PASS GO, and don’t try this unless you feel the acute need to punish yourself for past wrongs. Measuring, building the frame, and hanging a door from ‘scratch’ is incredibly hard work. If you can, hire a carpenter to do this for you. However, if you insist on continuing – you may pass Go.
- Cut your door to size. If it’s a hollow door, you will need to remove the wood support at the bottom and glue it into your freshly cut door.
- Shim the door jam into place and nail it.
- Attach door hinges to your jamb and put your door in place.
- Don't worry about the gaps between the rough framing and the door jamb, they are covered with moulding. Just cut, glue and nail and the moulding in place!
- If your newly hung door is level, the gap between it and the frame should be an even space, and your door should stay in place. If your newly hung door isn’t level, you may need to go shopping so that you can fill your new closet with new shoes and clothes. This won’t make the door level, but it will help you forget how much work that was and how you wished you had paid closer attention to number 14 on this list.
- Walk right in and behold the wonder that is your new closet!
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