Moveable Wall

   / Moveable Wall #1  

RSKY

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2003
Messages
2,442
Location
Kentucky, West of the Lakes, South of Possum Trot.
Tractor
Kioti CK20S
I am going to build a moveable wall for our church's activity building. The large room is 48'5" wide and 60' long. The moveable wall will be used to divide the main section into two parts or, when not used for that purpose, it will hide the chair and table storage racks at one end of the building. To buy a wall will cost more than $2000 and it would be a flimsy cheaply made one at that. If anybody has any plans, pictures, or advice I would appreciate it being posted here.

Thanks for your help.

RSKY
 
   / Moveable Wall #2  
If you build it and it falls over on someone, you will be held liable for their injuries.... even in a church.

Nice way of thinking, yes? Sorry about that. :laughing:

Is it going to be suspended from the ceiling or just mobile panels that roll on the floor?
 
   / Moveable Wall
  • Thread Starter
#3  
It's going to be in four nine foot sections on casters. The struts that the casters are mounted on will extend 12" in front and 24" in back. That is unless somebody gives me a better idea.
 
   / Moveable Wall #5  
My first thought was about it falling on someone. 48 feet is a large distance to span.

The expandable walls I have seen have been attached/anchored to a wall and I think every one had tracks in the ceiling. These walls could only move in one dimension, close or open the room. If the walls needs to be able adjust the size of the room, tracks mounted on the walls and ceiling might work, to hold a cable to support the walls. My first thought was the tracks for holding sliding barn doors.

How tall are the ceilings? If the panels were made from foam board and covered in fabric, they could be relatively light. I made some dividers years ago to go in front of a sliding class door. I did not want curtains since I wanted light to come in over the top of the partitions. I made the partitions out of pine boards, foam and covered in fabric. Worked pretty well and look decent.

Later,
Dan
 
   / Moveable Wall #6  
It's going to be in four nine foot sections on casters. The struts that the casters are mounted on will extend 12" in front and 24" in back. That is unless somebody gives me a better idea.
Well, first off, lumber doesn't come in 9' lengths, so you're creating more cutting and fastening than necessary.
 
   / Moveable Wall
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Lumber doesn't come in 9' lenghts but the metal siding I intend to use comes in 3' widths. So the walls have to be in multiples of three feet. The ceiling is about twenty feel tall so there will be nothing hanging from it.

I was hoping somebody had done this before and either had plans or ideas I haven't had.

Thanks for your help and comments.

RSKY
 
   / Moveable Wall #8  
The closest thing I think I have seen is something like this they are portable room partitions.
https://www.schooloutfitters.com/catalog/default/cPath/CAT189
I think that with the height you may want to increase the cost and make it like a triangle to give it more stability you could put casters under it that lock and make it easier to move around.
cut a triangle out of ply, build your frame and then attach the weels and metal siding. One idea would be to cover it in fabric so that you could attach things like announcements on it.
 
   / Moveable Wall #9  
Save your money and time and buy the manufactured wall partitions. If you build something they will be heavy and take up a lot of room when storing. Is a permanent wall out of the question?
 
   / Moveable Wall #10  
RSKY,
We're not getting all the information we need to help. Its coming in bits and pieces. So far, we have 4 partitions 9' long each with wheels sticking out 12" on one side and 24" on the other. We know your ceiling is 20' high, but how high do you want to make the partitions? A good rule of thumb for me would be I would not want to make something more than twice as tall as its base.

I wouldn't want a 1' outrigger on a 6' high partition. Someone will tip it over unless you put some counterweight on the base.
 
 
Top