Ten Rules for Framing - Fine Homebuilding

1 Guidelines for working efficientlyand knowing howgood is good enoughBY LARRY HAUNR ules for FramingHauling lumber fromplace to place is time-consuming and hard onyour body. Make it easieron yourself every chanceyou get, and start by hav-ing the folks at the lum-beryard do their sure lumber arriveson the truck stacked inthe order it will be don t want to movehundreds of wall studs toget to your plate stock,for instance. And floorjoists go on top of floorsheathing, not the other way around. When it s time for the delivery, unload the build-ing materials as close as possible to where they willbe used.

2 Often lumber can be delivered on a boomtruck, so stacks of lumber can be placed right upon the deck or on a simple structure built flushalongside the the material is delivered, don t move it anymore than you need to. Cut studs, plywood, andanything else you can right on thestack. If you do have tomove wood, plan sothat you have to moveit only 2x4sright on the Framing on topWall Framing in middleRoofframing onbottomt was a coincidence that another con-tractor and I began Framing housesnext door to one another on the sameday.

3 But by the time his house wasframed, mine was shingled, wired, andplumbed. It was no coincidence that theother contractor ran out of money and had toturn the unfinished house over to the lendingcompany, while I sold mine for a profit. Both houses were structurally sound,plumb, level, and square, but every 2x4 in theother house was cut to perfection. Every jointlooked like finish carpentry. The other con-tractor was building furniture, and I wasframing a house. Unlike finish carpentry, Framing doesn thave to look perfect or satisfy your desire tofit together two pieces of wood you re building a house, an addi-tion, or a simple wall, the goals when fram-ing are strength, efficiency, and the building codes and the blue-prints should take care of the strength; effi-ciency and accuracy are trickier.

4 But during50 years of Framing houses, I ve come up withthe following Rules to help me do good workquickly and with a minimum of effort. Larry Haun, author of The Very EfficientCarpenter(The Taunton Press, 1992) andHabitat for Humanity How to Build aHouse(The Taunton Press, 2002), hasbeen Framing houses for more than 50years. He lives in Coos Bay, t move materials any more than you have to174 fine HOMEBUILDINGD rawings: Christopher ClappCutting the mudsill up to 1 4in. short (not long) is joist cut to exact length (within 1 16in.)

5 Cut top plateto top platecan be up to 1 (not long).No morethan 1 of plumb in 8 your best lumber where it counts3 These days, if you cull everybowed or crooked stud, youmay need to own a lumbermill to get enough wood toframe a house. How do youmake the most of the lumberthat you get?Use the straightest stockwhere it s absolutely neces-sary: where it s going tomake problems for you lateron if it s not straight. walls ,especially in baths andkitchens, need to be s not easy to install cabi-nets or tile on a wall thatbows in and out.

6 Andstraight stock is necessaryat corners and roughopenings for doors. The two top wallplates need to bestraight as well, but thebottom plate doesn can bend it right to thechalkline and nail it home. Ifyou save your straight stockfor the top plates, you ll havean easy time aligning thewalls. And every projectneeds lots of short stock forblocking; take your bowedmaterial and cut it into crip-ples, headers, and 200375In other words, know your tolerances. Rafters don thave to fit like the parts of a cabinet.

7 Nothing inframe carpentry is perfect, so the question is:What s acceptable?You do need to get started right, and that meansthe mudsills. Whether they re going on a founda-tion or on a slab, they need to be level, straight,parallel, and square. But there s no harm done ifthey re cut 1 4in. short. A rim joist, on the otherhand, needs to be cut to the right length (within 1 16in.) before being nailed to the mudsill. When it comes to wall Framing , the bottom platealso can be 1 4in. or so short, but the top plateneeds to be cut to exact length (again within 1 16in.)

8 Because it establishes the building s dimension atthe top of the walls . But the plate that sits on topof that, the cap or double plate , should be cut 1 so that intersecting walls tie together easily. Once you ve raised the walls , how plumb orstraight is good enough? In my opinion, 1 4in. out ofplumb in 8 ft. is acceptable, and a 1 4-in. bow in a 50-ft. wall won t cause harm to the structure orproblems for subcontractors. Take special care byframing as accurately as possible in the kitchensand in the bathrooms.

9 These rooms require moreattention partly because of their tighter tolerances,but also because the work of so many trades comestogether here. Build a house,not furniture276 fine HOMEBUILDINGWork in a logical order4 Establish an efficient routinefor each phase of work, do itthe same way every time,and tackle each phase in itslogical order. In the long run,having standard procedureswill save time and minimizemistakes. Let s take wallframing as an I snap all of the layoutlines on the floor; then I cutthe top and bottom platesand tack all of them inplace on the lines.

10 NextI lay out the plates, de-tailing the location of everywindow, door, stud, and in-tersecting wall. I pry up the top plate andmove it about 8 ft. away fromthe bottom plate , which Ileave tacked to thedeck. I scatter studsevery 16 in. for thelength of the wall. Inail the top plate tothe studs and keep thebottom of the studs snugagainst the bottom helps to keep the wallsquare, straight, and in posi-tion to be raised. I try to es-tablish a rhythm and workconsistently from one end tothe other. Once the top plateis completely nailed, I pry upthe bottom plate and repeatthe process on the s worth saying that I didn tjust make up these steps;they evolved over time.