I live in a 2-story townhouse with a basement from '78, modularly built by Skanska.
When we have renovated in the past, we've encountered cut studs in some interior walls. It seems that the cutting was done to adjust a crooked wall module or something similar - the stud is cut approximately halfway across the wall (done through one of the drywall panels with something like a circular saw), then a wedge was driven in and the drywall spackled over. The cut goes through the entire stud except for the last 5mm.
I didn’t think much of it apart from finding it strange until now during this renovation phase...
When we started working on two children's rooms on the upper floor, we tore down the drywall on the inside of a load-bearing wall to soundproof it. Unfortunately, almost all the studs were cut here as well. We had no choice but to rent a brace and frame a new wall since the studs started bending when we removed the drywall.
The interior wall between the rooms, however, is not load-bearing and it needs to be moved to make the rooms equally sized.
When we took down the old wall, we clearly noticed deflection and sagging in the floor where the old wall had stood. This wasn’t a new damage because the old laminate floor had been "leveled" by placing strips of cardboard under the boards... Presumably, the interior wall has become secondarily load-bearing over time.
The floor structure/subfloor in these two rooms is, as far as I can see, built of three modules. Today I sawed a hole in the chipboard floor in the area where the sagging begins, and again, several deep cuts have been made in the beams here!? No wonder it’s sagging!
Why do they do this? It removes most of the beam's strength!
I've only opened one area right at the edge of the middle module (the one with sagging) and here one beam is cut but not the other.
Is it safe to open more areas before reinforcing and adjusting the cut beam? It feels like the chipboard bears a significant part of the strength in the structure now.
What is the easiest way to reinforce? I can't access the support in the outer wall to build a new floor structure between the old ones. The ceiling under the rooms in the living room is newly done, so I obviously don’t want to tear it down.
Also, the question is whether I need to rip up all the chipboard in the other two modules as well? Even if it doesn’t sag yet, perhaps it will soon? Unfortunately, the likelihood is high that it’s done the same way here too?
