Framing Walls with Larry Haun

hi I'm Larry Han this is the second in a series of three tapes which accompany a book I've written about framing in the entire house now on tape one we framed the floor in this tape we're going to frame the walls here's a preview of what you're going to see we start by laying out and snapping wall locations on the floor deck then we cut and position the wall plates cut the parts for the walls and detail the plates next we can nail the walls together and lift them into position both the exterior walls and the interior after nailing all the walls together at the labs we finish up by plumbing each wall and a line well it's nice to have the floor down once the floor is down we know we don't have to work death in the dirt and the mud anymore and now we know there won't be long before we have walls standing up here to get to that stage we have to do some layout now layouts the process of taking these wall lines that we see here on the blueprint and transferring them out to the floor we do that by means of a chalk line now layout really is simple but I know I'm looking at a blueprint and seeing all of these lines out here people say wow that looks difficult but it really isn't here's how we do it [Music] our plans for this house show that the outside walls are tuba 6 and to mark the location of these walls on the floor deck we use a two six block marking in five and a half inches from the edge on each end of the building now if your walls are too before well then use a block that sides next we run a dry line down the length of the building between those marks and we tie it off we marked near the center of the dry line so we can snap the line into sections now spatially on long buildings this helps to ensure that our line will be straight shorter runs you can just use your chalk line I got thirty two three at this point it never hurts to recheck to make sure the exterior walls are parallel okay we're within the needs yeowwww looks good we need to start with a long through all larry that which is this one and it's seventeen three outside the center okay let's do it okay we're at the edge of the building glad mark seventeen three center of the wall had an inch and three quarters to the edge market put an X on the side of the plate falls on our plan is the measurement for this fall is from the outside of the building to the center of a two before wall we snapped the edge of the wall by measuring out an inch and three-quarters more from the center line okay Joe that first wall is twelve foot seven in from the outside of the building to the center that through wall so Joe measures out twelve seven to the center of the wall as an inch and three-quarters to the edge of the two before wall plate then he drives them all at that point now he can continue and mark for the next wall now course each wall line needs a pair of marks on the floor before it can be snapped and that's what Joe is doing here on the 12:7 wall and you can see this wall has some plumbing in it Jill's laying out a bathroom wall here most of our interior walls there too before this one's got a lot of plumbing in it so we'll make that one tuba things and just so we don't forget Joe marks it right on the floor when we lay out a building we typically lay out the long walls first and then the short ones like the short bathroom wall now it's important to keep your plans handy so you can refer to them often backers see at this stage makes the work that follows a lot easier there's a small hallway right here but no door and actually no walls so we're going to mark this one out and down here the line got run by a little bit too far so we'll mark it out too so it doesn't get plated alright Larry I guess all we got left to do is run the okay what Joe means by running an end is marking where a wall stops we note that very clearly on the floor [Music] well it didn't think Joe and I long to lay out this floor we're all done except we still got a rake wall take a look at these blueprints here we are right here this is a rake wall goes up at an angle follows the slope of the roof it's the wall that's that's right here on the end all the way down through here well build it and we'll raise it up like this it'll go up like this following the pitch of the roof take a look at the blueprints again each stud in this wall is going to be a different length in order for Joe and I to build this wall we're going to lay it out on the floor or full-scale here's how it's done I've been doing some sketching here to show you how to lay out a rake wall over here on our floor now this rake wall has a pitch of four and twelve well back on our floor these dotted lines represent the chalk line that we snapped for our wall plates so down here at the bottom chalk line we come up ninety two and a quarter that's a stud length make a mark at the bottom on the outside of the building we come over twelve feet and make another mark from that point again up ninety two and a quarter inches we make another mark from this point we come up in feet whatever our pitch is and inches four four inches we come up four feet and we connect those two points now doesn't matter how wide this rake wall is we can build it to here or we can build it to way over here with this outline we can build it right on the floor come up here ninety two and a quarter and another four feet then we come over here twelve feet from the outside got it okay then at that point we come up again 92 and a quarter four more feet and that actions right there so without using a lot of fancy math we're able to establish our 4 12 pitch we snap a line right through our X's first one side then the other and this leaves us a full-scale outline of the rake wall right on the floor [Music] well don't I have all these wall lines snapped out on the floor so we're ready to start plating place of the tops and the bottoms of walls the important thing to remember is that these plates need to be put down in a certain order if we put them down in the right order then framing walls is going to be a lot easier so let's take a look how we do that actually it's quite easy here we have a model of our floor and what we've done is we've taken these outside walls these long outside walls and we've run them all the way through from outside to outside we call these walls through walls here at the width of the building now these walls but into the through walls so we call these walls but walls we have them here here here and here if you plate like we have it here you're going to find that wall framing is a whole lot easier here on this model I want to show you an example of how not to plate you'll notice that none of these plates run all the way through they run through on one end but here on this end it busts into its neighbor and that's true of this one this one and this one now if you plate like this we call this style log cabin style you'll find that when you raise walls you'll always have one in the way but look let me show you something simple make a little change see what happens you now have these two walls that run all the way through and these walls but to them so we'll build our walls like this we raise these two through walls and then we can raise these two but walls no problems it's time to pack lumber we're scattering all our tuba six plates for the exterior walls at this stage we haven't cut any of them to length and now with all the plates scattered we can start positioning and cutting them this is a butt wall so Joe fleshes is into the chocolate and you tax it right on the line with an 8 penny nail we don't want these plates to move around at my end I saw to the chalk line I don't need a square or a measuring tape here to cut accurately here's the top plate it's got the same length as the bottom plate and attacks right on top of it this is another but wall got a Joe again tack right on the line I use a 2 by 6 block as a guide to cut it back five and a half inches from the through wall we just keep working our way around the building positioning okay tacking cutting it take time to cut these plates accurately it'll save you a lot of headaches later on you can see that this wall has some plumbing pipes in it here we can cut the plate so it buffs the pipe out here in the center will not your plate to fit around these pipes in colder parts of the country now the code may require you to fill these holes with insulation and here this top plate can't be tacked on top of the bottom plate because the pipes are in the way so we just tack it on the side now it's ready for layout here at the end of the building another way of tagging a top plate in place we can set it on edge and Tonio's to the bottom plate here on the other side of the house we tack two pieces of plate at each end where they lap in the middle we can cut it by [Music] we're done tacking the exterior plates now it's time to pack and position the two before interior plates interior plating should go pretty smoothly just make sure to Snug the place tight to the exterior walls and again we have to cut around any pipes and then we tack the place down on the x side of the line tacking the wall place down is important because we keep butting the wall placed into each other here's the place for that end wall we cut them both right on the line that's what we do we just keep working our way around plating the long walls first generally and then filling in the short wall it's important to tack the top plate directly over the bottom plate you probably notice that I've been doing all the cutting and Joe does most of the nailing we work together it's just more efficient that way well Joe and I are moving right along this place is finally beginning to look like a house all the plating is done and you can see over here the outline of a bedroom here's a bathroom and back over here in this corner another bedroom and I'm standing right in the middle of a hall we've done what we wanted to do we took the wall outlines from the blueprints and we transferred them down here to the floor one other thing I want you to notice as you look at these rooms you'll see over here there's not a doorway and there's not a window in the place we paid absolutely no attention to any door or window well let's take a look at these blueprints here's a small closet with a doorway what it looks like is that the wall comes over here and stops then the doorway then the wall starts up again well here's the closet right down here both those plates run all the way through there's no visible sign of any door back to the blueprints here's another one right here it goes into this bedroom but take a look again those plates run all the way through so that's what Joe and I have done we've run our top and bottom plate across all of those doorways later on we'll come back and we'll cut out sections of that bottom plate and leave room for these doors before we do any more work let's review a few of the things that Joe and I've been doing here this wall here it's got pipes coming up through it we couldn't set this plate on top of it like this we just set it right alongside now we can layout raus both of them here's another style this wall too has pipes so we set the top plate here on edge and again we can do our layout across both plates over here two by six wall I've got a lot of pipes in this wall so what did we do we ran this wall in Tuba six that'll leave plenty of room for all the plates the plumber is going to put in there here we have a toilet we needed a little bit more room for that toilet so instead of a three and a half inch wall we ran one in an inch and a half that's a few of the things that we're going to do there's lots more to come let's get on with our work Joe and I finished plating up there on the wooden floor now we're down here on this concrete slab there's a couple of differences one is when you're planing on a slab use this treated wood second is we've got bolts in this foundation these bolts secure this plate down to the foundation we've got some holes to drill here so how do we do it well fairly simple we just measured over here three and a half inches and we snapped a line all the way through then here's the important part take this bottom plate and set it right on the line now we don't have to use a square and a tape measure to mark where this bolt hole goes we've got a simple tool here this is a homemade one out of a plate strap and you'll see where it goes up against the bolt to this pin is three and a half inches so that's what we do we set it right on that bolt and then we mark it right there is where we're going to drill that hole now if you don't like that tool you can try this one you can buy this one commercially it's made the same way this notch here goes against the bolt and the pin marks a hole this one's for two before plate this pins 4 2 by 6 plate now if you don't like to bend over you can use this tool it's a stand up bolt marker put it on the bolt this one works for 2 before this way you got to be 6 just turn it around put it on the bolt straight out square it up with a material mark your bowl [Music] well Jonah have all our plating done up there on the main floor you know we're almost ready to start framing but before we do that we build a couple of model walls down here and we want to show you in detail what it is we're going to build over here we have a two before wall and over here a 2x6 wall they're both exterior walls and they're both framed exactly the same these are really our typical walls once you learn how to build these two walls you can frame most anything you want to frame so let's take a look at them in detail up here we have a double top plate these plates help hold the entire structure together underneath these plates we nail both studs and these top cripples these cripples take the weight from above and they transfer it down to this header this header acts as a bridge over the window opening if in turn is supported by a trimmer on each side these trimmers come down and set on a rough sell the rough sell leaves an opening for the window the rough steel is kept to the proper height by the bottom cripples the bottom cripples go on down to the bottom plate and the bottom plate itself sets right here on the foundation and that foundation supports the entire weight of the building but one last thing now about this window frame this whole structure is held together by these two king studs that are nailed one on each side they run from the top plate clear down to the bottom plate now one of the things that you're going to notice looking at these headers is that they run throughout the building at exactly the same height well carpenters maintain that height by use of a story pole let's take a look over here the standard height for us where we frame is six foot 10 inches right there now once we know the size of the header here we're using a four by six what's left we're on this story pole is the length of our top [ __ ] here we have a three old window opening that's carpenter talk for 36 inches on this story pole we've laid out for the rough sell well what's left over on that story pole is then the length of the bottom [ __ ] that's simple enough now let's take a look over here what if we use a four over twelve for a header take a look we don't even have to use any top cripples well what about if we have a smaller hitter and that's all our window opening that's where the story pole comes in again we have a four before header right here what's left over on this story pole shows us the length of this top [ __ ] now down here we have a four old window that's 48 inches again what's left over on this story pole is the length of this bottom [ __ ] now one more thing about window trimmers you remember over here we use the floating trimmer goes from the header clear down to the rough cell that's the kind of trimmer that we use when we're nailing in wooden window frames but here's another style on this window we used a continuous trimmer that runs from the header all the way down to the bottom plate we normally use this kind of trimmer when we're nailing in metal window frames there's more about that in the book now let's take a look at these headers it's pretty obvious that this header is one piece of wood but that's not the only way to deal with headers over here we took two pieces of tuba sticks and in between those two we sandwiched a half inch piece of plywood and we spiked it all together so what about a 2x6 wall what do we do then well here's an easy solution on this window we just laid this 4x6 flat and it works fine over here we had a little much larger opening so we set our four but six up on edge nailed on a two inch piece of furry that will allow us the nail on our drywall and that works fine so now let's take a look at corners and channels well here at the corner is one place we tie this building together here and up on top and now it's hard to see what's going on there so let me hop down on this garage slab and look at a model here we have a three stud corner very typical the exterior petition comes into it this nails into the corner and it leaves backing for drywall both sides now both walls are two by six we do it a little differently again the three stud corner with a two before flat in here then the exterior wall comes up against that and the else together there is a third solution to this called a two stud corner you can nail a set like this and instead like this that'll give backing to a wall coming into it and still leave backing for the drywall the difference between this one and this one is that this one's stronger the first one takes only two studs at the top we tie these walls together with a lab we cut back the double plate on one and lap it over on the other they go together like that and nail together with two 16 penny nails now here's another place we have to nail our walls together but this is a little bit different situation this is an interior petition that nails into an exterior wall let's take a look at our model our exterior wall has three studs like this they form what we call a channel two that is nailed the interior petition and then on both sides we have backing for our drywall at the top where the police come together we left a gap in the exterior wall and on the interior petition we left it lap over these two go together like this and then you nail down through the top with 16 penny nails [Music] well before Johanna I can put the walls together we need some parts the most efficient thing to do is cut all the parts at one time here I've got the chop saw setup I'm cutting bottom cripples we can also cut top crippled sales and hitters at this stage and stack them right up here on the deck near the saw when you're cutting thick headers it's handy to have a circular saw this bit but you could also use a radial arm saw or make two cuts with a smaller saw here I'm cutting the rough sails and as you can see I've got the window dimension mark right on the sail that makes it easy to look at the plans and find where each header goes and for now I just tack each sail to his header didn't take Jo and I long cut our cripples and over here we have our headers we knew how many we needed because we made ourselves up a cutting list most of the information on this list it came straight off these blueprints for example here we have a 604 o window that takes a four by six header we took that and we listed it right up here six oh four oh we counted and we found we needed eight of those headers we counted all the windows and doors that we needed on these blueprints and we listed them right on our cutting list now the length of these headers well that varies but there's a lot more about this in the book over here we have the length of our trimmers and our top and bottom cripples that comes straight off the story pole down here we total up the number of top and bottom cripples that we need we got that by cutting one [ __ ] for every foot of header it's as simple as that [Music] the next thing we do is scatter all our headers gathering headers on the place means that we match the size written on the plans with the size written on a header and place each one in its approximate location on the plates well that's the last of the headers now we're going to start a new process an important one it's called detailing the plates what that means is that we have a lot of marks to put on these two plates marking the location of headers and all the studs we have to do that before we can begin framing first of all we're going to start with this header put it in place and then we're going to mark where it goes we call that spotting headers take a look here I'm right in the middle of this bedroom right here and we have a 604 ol header and we know that it centers in this room let's show you how that's done take our header shove it into the corner then with the tape we measure out of the other corner to the header we have 49 inches half of that is 24 and a half we come off the wall 24 and a half inches and we make a mark pick up our header set it right on that mark mark it like this then we come down put a mark there and a mark there King stud goes there King stead there this is open marque museum there's just a little bit different because it's plated differently we'll put our mark like that and then all the way down those two plates our X goes here for our King stud the line goes out here to show the opening that's it well that inner spotted right in the center of the wall but not all headers Center let's take a look here on the blueprints here's another window header right in this bedroom now the plans show us that we spot this header three foot six from the center of this wall to the center of this window we'll use a measuring tape and spot that window accurately now let's take a look down here at the door header here's one in the bathroom there's no measurement along here telling us where to spot that hitter but you see this little stub wall that means that this header spots once that out of the corner we do that by eyeball just like that well you can use the eyeball method on some headers but others you have to measure like this one Joe is centering for a closet now this is another closet but it's one stud out from each corner and Joe just eyeball the location here we are in the garage and the garage door is big the code requires a big header the layout port it's the same as for any other header aligned indicating the edge of the header and then an X on each side for the king studs now this garage header is an exception there are no top cripples above and in fact since we need enough Headroom for cars we eliminate the top plate and we note this on the header with the headers detailed on the plates well the next thing is to mark wall intersections this is where the channel studs will be I'm using a homemade T it's made out of two befores for this you can see that I've marked on each side of the plate and across the top and edges here's a lightweight corner marker it's aluminum but it serves the same purpose we can also use the same device to lay out our tuba 6 wall here we are at an exterior corner and this is in the inside corner the main thing to remember here is to make sure to mark all around and then indicate where the partition wall will be when you've got the place lying flat because of plumbing just mark one plate extend all the lines and then transfer the lines to the other plate here we've got a top plate sitting up on edge and we just have to mark the lines all the way around getting the layout right at this stage will make Foursquare and plumb walls later we've got all the corners and channels mark now Jose laying out where extra studs and blocks are needed in the bathrooms we need to lay out extra studs that will go on either side of the medicine cabinet we also need flat studs that'll act as backing for the bathtubs jojo's mark sees clearly on the plates in the same area we need to place a stud on each side of the water pipes for the tub this will leave room for the plumber the book has a lot more about this [Music] while all our detailing is finished except we still have to mark stud location on all these plates when I was learning to be a carpenter back in the late 40s I was taught to hook my tape on the outside mark 16 inches on center 32 48 and so on down the line never changing layout at all but since then I've learned to change and do things just a little bit more efficiently first of all we use this layout stick it allows you without a measuring tape to lay out your studs at 16 inches on center 32 and 48 or if you want to use this middle leg then you can lay out your studs at 24 inches on center instead of starting our layout like we used to here at the corner we started right here and that's because at that point we have a corner that's going to set in there so we already have a stud there so that's where we begin our layout we mark our first layout in our second and that takes care of this section of the wall the studs are 16 inches on center it complies with the code even structurally sound so now we have a header we know that at the end of the header we have a king stack so that allows us to begin our layout right alongside this King stud we can lay out our top and bottom cripples 16 inches on center just like the rest of the building here we are at the end of the hitter again another King step so we can change layout again beginning right there we take off 16 inches on center now here's something that's interesting if we continue our layout from this point 16 inches on center then between these two walls these walls right here we get two studs in this short little section of wall but we really don't need that many let me show you what's going to happen at this point we have a channel so we already have a stud right here that allows us to begin our stead layout all over and put one stud right here and that's all we need so now what does it mean to change our layout constantly up and down these walls well it means that we're going to save a lot of studs in time we comply with the building code there's no change in the building structurally and there's plenty of wood down through here to nail on our drywall and our siding here Joe is laying out a section of exterior wall that has no doors or windows in it no headers to mark so the work goes real quickly but here there's a header in the way where a window is going to be so the layout slows down a little he has to mark the location of both the top and bottom cripples Joe first extends is lying down on the header then marks the place by eye the inside walls get marked the same way here he's using the long prongs so he can mark across the two flat plates at once [Music] well now that the plates are all detailed and we know where the parts will go we can start scattering the cripples we know how many we need one at each end of the header and one for each layout in between and you can see we took time to mark the links of the cripples on the hitters so we know where they go on this wall we have six and a quarter inch top cripples and thirty and a half inch bottom cripples with the cripples in place we can scatter our King stud not haphazardly but one at each end of every window head [Music] we started framing a wall by separating the cell from its header dragging it back into its position and then bringing the header back into its position the next thing is to toenail the cripples to the header following the layout lines we hammer in to eight-penny nails from one side and after they're all in position we go back and toenail from the other side that's the code then we flop the header unit on his side in position and they'll off the bottom cripples to 16 pennies through the sale in each [ __ ] that'll do it right there you can see our layout lines Nick's the King says get nailed on both sides and this holds the whole window frame together make sure to flush the King said with the end of the bottom [ __ ] a nail a couple of 16s into the end of the rough sail and at the top flesh it up three or four sixteenths through the King set into the header that'll hold it just fine the nice thing about building this way is that if all the pieces have been cut to the proper length then the rough opening should be just right here's another look at how I do it first I separate the sill from the header and position them both I know roughly where these go because the king studs are on either side and I can spot where the top end is next I position the bottom cripples then I nail him off and then I do the same thing at the top finally I nail everything together with the king studs again make sure all those ins are flesh and that's all there is to it we work our way around the building nearly all these units together and what is important is that you complete each step before starting another with all the window frames nailed together we can start building walls we scatter all our studs and with these in place we pull loose the top plate walk it back and begin nailing here we're nailing to one of the window frames falling on our layout on the plate Joanna I find it more efficient to start at one end and just keep working down the line bringing up pieces of top plate as we need to and you'll notice this wall is raised up off the floor a bit that's because it's sitting on other walls now it's true we're pretty fast at hand driving these 16 penny sinkers but if you have a nail gun you might want to use it this is a channel unit another wall will intersect at this point gets nailed together with 16 penny nails along the side and through the plates once the top plate is nailed on we nail off the bottom now the double plate goes on Joe holds this end five and a half inches back for the lap and I cut the other end just to one side of an interior wall channel now the idea is to nail off the double plate along the entire length of the wall leaving gaps only where the double plate of intersecting walls will lap over you can see that pretty clearly here long heavy walls are usually broken into sections Joe's just nailing up to a place where we're going to break this wall the double plate has to laugh at least four feet and any break in the top plate on the other side of the break now Joe starts the nail we'll finish them off after the walls are raised walls need to be braced code requires a brace in each corner and one every 25 feet you could use plywood sheeting here we're using one by six we just positioned it diagonally across at least four studs letting me in run long this one by six is flush with the wall face no marks needed just cut along each side of the brace with your saw set to the right depth and work your way down then with the one to six out of the way just lay your saw over on his side and remove the waste carefully with a plunge cut well here's how the brace fits I put it in position then nail off the bottom end and the first stud with eight-penny nails and then just start nails over the remaining status and the top plates they'll get nailed off after the walls are plumbed and finally I mark the trimmers to length and cut them accurately these trimmers get tacked in place with a 16-pin a nail they'll be adjusted later on when we get the window set [Music] well we're about ready to raise walls now to keep the wall from sliding off the edge I'm nailing these pieces of two by scrap to the rim on this section of wall we separate the double plate from the top plate a little bit then we raise it remember be careful here lift with your legs not with your back you can see we already had the first section of all up now having separated a double plate from the top these walls go together easily the next thing I do is nail the two sections together at the lab well sometimes you need to move the wall for endo one way or the other to stick your hammer claw onto the plate and lever it into position when it's right we nail the bottom plate to the floor with 1/16 in every subspace the code doesn't require exterior wall sheeting on this house when it does we find it easier to sheet after the walls are raised there's a lot more on this in the book finally we run temporary braces both inside and out temporary bracing on every wall is important nail enough braces on them so they won't fall over on you all right Joe let's move it we're close hold on let me check no it's a hair somewhat back off we always need to keep our plates right on that inside chalk line sometimes you need a toe nail to move it over get a hold of it actually we didn't have much trouble with this long heavy wall it really helps has some strong people a couple of the things that we did they made it easy when we nailed this brace on we left this through wall leaning out a bit here three four inches that way when we raised this but wall they didn't bind together sometimes two you have to cut back a four foot section of this double plate we got attacked on right here later on we'll nail it up on top it laps over this sue wall and the two tied together right there at the corner now if we hadn't cut this double played back we had a problem raising this wall let me show you on this model wall down here here's the way a double plate goes it laps over five and a half inches on this tube of six wall so I can tie in now you'll see when I raise this wall that I don't go very far before I hit this [ __ ] it's all bound up if it's a short wall then you can rack it like this and you can get by but this wall we just raised was the butt wall running from through all to through wall so we couldn't do that that's why we had to cut out a section of this double plate and then it raised easy it's time now to nail this corner together what we want is this top plate of the buck wall to join tightly with the top plate of this through wall well that's going to be pretty easy because when we nailed in there stud we held it back from the top plate about a quarter of an inch right here this allows these two plates to join tightly together most codes require that these corners be nailed together with 3/16 as we continue framing we have to tear off these temporary braces we're not gonna loose at that lower end and then you can use your hammer as a fulcrum it'll pop right off of there like that we've got most of the exterior walls up and we're building the interior ones we frame and brace them in the same way as the exterior wall when you're nailing channels together sometimes that backing stud drops down into the pocket just pick it up with a 16 then nail it off with three 16s on each side here I'm cutting blocking for the medicine cabinet I push the board up against the stud and I cut it by and then I nail the blocks at the right height there's more on this in the book the inside walls need double plate just like the outside ones and you can see I'm holding this piece to one side of the channel I want to show you now another way to race these walls here we have a metal framing brace it forms an angle and we have holes here in it to nail it off we lay it down on her wall diagonally and we make a mark from the top plates and on each stud then it's simply a matter of making a saw kerf along the line the depth of the brace sneaking the brace into that kerf nailing it permanently at the bottom and holding it temporarily here at the top with a bend nail these metal braces are a good alternative way back we build as many walls as we can at one time and then we raise them wolves are always built and raised in a certain order I'd like to be able to tell you what that order is but each house is different in general we try to raise the long walls first but in reality it's one of those things you have to learn by doing let's go gently with this thing now now it's just a matter of fitting them all together that's got her signed sealed and delivered we gonna fly this one in a ways huh that's it the thing to realize here is that because these plates were fitted tightly together on the floor they'll fit tightly now that they're raised we make sure each plate is on his chalk line and then we nail it to the floor well let's raise it we can't forget to raise the garage walls yeah raise these walls right up on the bolts okay I'll have to lift her over you got the wall already here we go then with a short piece of two by it's easy to shift them into place crank her down we're here working on this slab now although the bottom place down here of every interior wall has to be fastened to the concrete on the outside it wasn't any problem we have bolts there coming up through the foundation here on these interior walls we can fasten them down with this gun it's a powder actuated tool it has a clip and these blank shells fire pin here's a pen it's basically just a hardened nail with the washer on it we load that gun by pulling the barrel forward just like that shoving it back then this pin goes in the end of the barrel and it's ready to fire it's important to remember that this is a firearm and it needs to be treated with respect matter of fact if you're working on a construction site you need to have a license to operate this tool so be careful of it protect others and look out for yourself to wear protective lenses and put these on your ears [Music] well it's finally the right time and we've got enough room to build our rake wall remember this is the end wall we snapped out on the floor the top of it follows the slope of the roof on a rake wall we nail the bottom plate on first then we bring up another plate identical with the bottom and flush up one end now the tops of these stairs run long and will be marked and cut the moment right now I'm placing them flush with the layout marks on the plate good once their position Joan I transfer the chalk line we originally snapped on the floor to the studs this line is where we'll cut them then with our saw set at eighteen and a half degrees we cut one end of the top plate to the angle of the roof slope we but that in to the through wall and lay the plate right on that chalk line we mark a square cut on the other end then place and cut the shorter rake plate at the ridge we leave a gap between the plates for a beam since the top ends of the studs are in their correct position I can sight down and run a layout on this plate with the plate out of the way and the saw gives set at eighteen and a half degrees we can cut the studs and [ __ ] Selene then the plate gets nailed on there's a lot more about rake walls in the book are we ready well let's do it then everybody together top we go that's one stage two stage we're doing it we're doing it we're doing it just keep going looking good looking real good we just have to knock the double plate up here at the corner to get these two walls to join yeah walls over nine feet tall normally need a block in the middle to help strengthen the wall that's the code [Music] well we're now nailing off where our DoublePlay slap at the corners and channels we want to draw these walls up tight to one another right on layout sometimes that means using toenails to bring them together and then a couple of sixteen through the lab here it is again this is what we do with the toenail here you can see that we're nailing it right on the layout marks this is a corner and again we want it to be drawn tight flesh with the outside here in the odds and ends category often you have to use a play strap to tie one wall to another in this case the garage to the main house [Music] we're ready to plumb our building plumb means that we want to make these walls straight up and down now you can use a 6 or an 8 foot level to do that but a lot of carpenters like to use this 2 foot level we attach it to a stud at the bottom here and at the top we put on a 1 by extension that allows us to reach this top plate now the most important thing about this plump stick is to make sure that's accurate there's a way to do that take it and place it flat against the wall like this put that bubble right in the center make a mark here at the top and one at the bottom and turn that stud all the way over put it right on those marks and check your plumb stick this one's right on but a lot of times it's not a lot of times this level gets beat up or the plumb stick itself is bent so what you can do is loosen the level a little bit take a wedge slip it in here at the top like that or another one maybe down at the bottom it depends on which way the stick has to move put your tape back on and check it again it may take two or three times to get this plumb stick accurate but the important thing to know is that even though you have a bad level and a bold stud you can get it accurate this away starting here in the corner Joe holds the plum stick and I use the stud as a brace with the top end pointed the way the wall needs to move every wall needs to be plumbed most walls need to rack one way or the other then when it's good I nail it off on this wall I'm using a 1 by 6 push stick to rack the wall the bottom end of it is cut at an angle so it can dig into the floor what Joe tells me the wall is plumb I can nail off the braces the next thing to do is eyeball our walls for straight moving them in or out this wall has to come in I've nailed a 1 by 6 to the floor and the top plate and I'm using a short stud as a levering device to bring the wall in out here in the garage the walls have to be straightened but there's no wood floor to nail into so I extended to by out from the wall plate that I can nail my brace to push the wall out a little bit got her it's also important that the header over the garage door is straight so while Joe sites I run two buys to the opposite wall plate and again use the levering device when everything is good we let in a two before brace to keep the garage corner square and the hitter straight another way to align walls is by stretching a dry line from corner to corner and this line is held out an inch and a half in the wall at each corner at the middle of the run Joe checks for straight using a to buy scrap I push the wall in or out when it's good we nail the brace well we have all our walls framed we can straighten up a little bit look around still got a lot of work to do this front wall for example has a lot of windows in it we couldn't get in a permanent brace we'll come back on it later and nail on some plywood shear over here in these doors you'll note we don't have our tremors in we like to wait on door trimmers when we set our door jambs then we'll get good straight stock now this is a one-story house but you might be building two storeys so what's the difference well first of all you have to have a heavier foundation you got to pour a little more concrete but this frame will support a second-story and if you know how to build this first floor here well then you can build a second floor there's very few differences between the first and the second floor you know there really is no big secret to building especially to building this house it's a simple one if you understand how to use tools and understand basic carpentry principles well then you can build this house there's a lot of complicated carpentry in the world and there's a lot of complicated houses but this isn't one of them if you learn how to build this house then you can go on to the more difficult ones [Music]

Channel: finehomebuilding

Views: 815,639

Rating: 4.8711505 out of 5

Keywords: walls, framing, carpenter, carepentry, builder, DIY, construction, homebuilding, house, home

Id: IQmt27qN6AI

Length: 68min 49sec (4129 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 17 2019