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This seems like a very basic question but googling it just gives me articles on how to join two pieces of wood—I know how to do that.

My question is, if I sister up a stud next to another one and screw it down tight, how strong is a screw that happens to penetrate right in between the two pieces of wood be? Would it be fine as it's grabbing wood either way, or would it be weaker than one that's right in the centre?

Asking because I have the walls down to redecorate, and I picked a spot for a TV mount, but it's a single stud Vogels type (only one that works for my application, needs to pull out and swivel a lot). The placement for the TV to sit in the middle of the wall in question ends up right on the edge of an existing stud.

As above, I was hoping I could simply sister a stud next to the existing one and screw/bolt it in tight and have it be as strong as one wider stud?

MinimumSense
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  • Would moving it 3/4 of an inch either way matter that much? Having it dead centre is nice, but for a tiny amount compared to the room size, probably not noticeable. – crip659 Sep 14 '23 at 22:12
  • The area in which it is in is not very wide, so it would be noticeable. – MinimumSense Sep 14 '23 at 22:26
  • I would prefer screwing into solid wood, especially for something expensive. If the wall is open enough to sister, why not just move the stud over? Can maybe cut the nails and then toe nail the stud in the new position. Or remove that stud and place the new stud you plan on using as a sister. – crip659 Sep 14 '23 at 22:34
  • It's an interior wall, so I can't move the stud as it's holding up the lath and plaster on the opposite side. I've considered every option and that's why I had to ask if I could just bolt a new stud against the old one and do everything to make it as solid as possible (such as bolting, gluing, etc). – MinimumSense Sep 14 '23 at 22:46
  • In that case, sister the stud but drive the screws in at an angle, if possible so you bite into wood. – crip659 Sep 14 '23 at 22:48
  • Just to make it clear, the mount uses very large (8mm?) coach screws, so it'll absolutely bite into wood, it's just that it'll be biting into two pieces that are very heavily sandwiched together. It just seems very strange that nobody in carpentry talks about this so I can't get any idea of holding strength loss, if any. – MinimumSense Sep 14 '23 at 22:53
  • Sistering using screws and glue together with clamps then. You want that joint as strong as possible so no chance of it warping/coming apart. – crip659 Sep 14 '23 at 23:10
  • Is this an interior or exterior wall? Load bearing? – Huesmann Sep 15 '23 at 12:06
  • Interior wall. Don't think it's a load bearing wall, as it runs parallel to the attic joists. – MinimumSense Sep 15 '23 at 12:19

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