Vince said...
I am planning to have a wall partition (approximately 12 ft long) added in my basement and do not know whether I should use metallic studs or woodedn studs.
I build my own home (finished a year and a half ago) and used steel studs for almost all partition walls. We will be finishing part or all of the basement over next winter and will be using steel mostly.
I always recommend using wood at the bottom as you will likely want to install baseboard and something to nail into is ideal. We used 1x4 beneath all the bottom track which works well, but 2x4 would be a little better.
Also, we used a wood 2x4 on each side of each doorway (all the way from bottom track to top track) and a 2x4 across the header (non-load-bearing walls do not need a load-bearing lintel with jack studs to support it). This provided a good nailing surface for door jamb and trim.
In the basement though, I will be using 2x4 pressure treated as it will be on the concrete. As a secondary precaution, I will be putting a coating of foundation sealer on the concrete where the partition walls will go.
Our utility room (furnace, water heater, and HRV) will likely have wood stud walls around it because I do not plan on finishing the inside of this room. Steel stud walls gain a substantial part of their strength and regidity due to the drywall installed on BOTH sides. So, if you are not planning on drywalling both sides of a wall, use wood studs.
When we build the house, steel studs were about 35% less expensive than wood. Currently though, they are about 5% more expensive. YMMV!
Steel is very easy to work with -- just be sure to wear gloves! A person can work quite efficiently alone with them, especially if you have a magnetic level. Steel also does not conduct sound (especially low frequencies) as well as wood, so if you want to sound proof or sound deaden a wall, the studs provide most of the function as installing resilient channel on wood studs, thus lowering the cost further.
The non-warping feature of steel is great, especially if you use it to frame a soffit to box in something. Often, when done with wood, lighter lumber (2x2s, 1x2s, and 1x3s are used) and these can be a pain when you have to install drywall to them. Steel goes up fast and holds its shape quite well.
Another great advantage of the steel studs came to realization when we were bringing in the drywall. We had one tight spot where we had to move through a partition with 12' sheets and undoing the screws of two studs and sliding them out of the way made life easy.
