I am in the process of renovating my tiny guest bathroom. The location where I am planning on putting the shower valve is blocked by 3 studs sandwiched together. Since I believe this used to be an old door, am I able to remove the outer most stud on the right? Just the one 2x4 at the end.
I believe this is a load bearing wall.
Thanks for your detailed response! It would actually be the one all the way to the right. It appears at first glance that it was just added when the PO wanted to frame in the door. The lumber appears to be newer.
the newer lumber caught my eye too. In my own home I wouldn't lose any sleep over removing it
Is it an outside wall?
I'd leave it and just chase/bore the room needed.
Can you remove it? Maybe, but it's bracing that horizontal/architrave at the top. Do you know what's above that point? It's likely just an old doorway penetration but the doubled-up verticals are possibly bearing more than the old architrave, best to err on the side of caution.
That horizontal piece is called a lintel. At least in Australia it is.
Header in the states
This is what it looks like in the attic. Those rafters are not landing on this wall. It’s a one story ranch. https://imgur.com/a/bmbOmGX
Unlikely unless it was a window or door that was removed and boxed in.
Even then you would have to reinstate the studs properly.
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You can remove it. It’s a Jack stud.
One option if not wanting to mess with the jack stud is to offset the shower valve and have a ceiling mounted head. Just a thought.
You can pull that jack stud….no worries
I would think so. If you can, just carve out the necessary parts of it and secure it to the other two studs with screws.
The stud on the left goes up to the top plate and should be kept. The cripple in the middle is holding up the header which may still be doing something, keep that too. The second cripple on the right is unnecessary. You can remove it or any section of it.
This. You only need one cripple here. And only if it was actually used as an opening. In this case it has been filled in with additional studs so the header is supported in the middle.
“Can I remove this stud?”
Ladies ask the same question when I’m blocking their path 🤭
FirstForFun44 t1_iu7rdtc wrote
The one in between the red marks? On a load bearing wall? Nope. In my humblest of opinions. I'll tell you what I would do, though I'm just a dude online. A. you can remove the middle 2x4 without any ramifications. Or B. I would use my jack posts if you own them and jack up the ceiling briefly to hold the weight. Then I would extend the header to the full width of the wall with two 2x8s instead of two 2x6s using the same amount of jack and king studs. The width wouldn't justify more unless you live in the north and it's the bottom floor and you expect massive snow. In which case, you're gonna have to do some math probably, but it should be fine. I can send a pic of a seven foot header I just put into my house on the top floor on a truss built house. Two 2x10's. No sagging, works great but I live in the south so no snow.