How to Build a Partition Wall Beginner's Guide

hi everybody I'm Liam's CJ drill and today I'm going to show you how to do a little framing we're gonna frame a partition wall and so what we're going to do so I'm going to start off with a bottom plate and a single top plate now I'm going to show you some differences with a double top plate and when you would want to use that but because we're doing a partition all we need is a single top plate so let me show you let's get started - okay so when you're framing you have what's called a bottom plate or a sole plate that's that's gonna be this here and you have a top plate that would be this piece of wood here alright the one you have between your top plate and your your bottom plate or your sole plate our studs and that's generally how a partition wall is created it's just that a single top plate now when a wall is load-bearing well then you got a double up the top plate so it's gonna look something like this top plate is doubled and it's doubled because it's carrying a load okay so let me show you a real life example of what it looks like okay so this is what they call double top plate construction and it's a double plate because it's carrying a load this is the joist above and that's how you can tell whether or not a wall is load-bearing because it's gonna run perpendicular to the joist okay a partition wall all right which is what we're gonna build today actually instead running perpendicular to the joist that's what this is this is a joist here okay the plate runs parallel it runs parallel with the joist because there it's not carrying a load it's just a partition alright so what do we have we have our bottom plate and our top plate and what we're gonna do is we're gonna flip them on the sides just like this and we're gonna bring them together two plates together now the next thing you want to do is you want to take your tape measure all right and we're gonna start at the end the bill 16 inches on center all right so what does that really mean you hear that a lot stud Center 16 inches on center I my tape measure here and notice how the 16 is marked in red you'll find that a lot with tape measures okay they mark stud Center for you with denoting the number in red so I'm gonna mark it with my white pencil right there and I'm gonna just continue on down the the piece of lumber okay so I've marked 32 now I'm gonna slide down I'm gonna keep going and I'm gonna go down to 48 because 16 and 32 it makes 48 come on in close let me show you so the 48 is also denoted in red come down to the end of the plates you'll notice that they're even alright you want to make certain that your top plate in your bottom plate are are even at the end now I come down to my first mark and I'm gonna take my speed square here alright what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna strike my line just like this so now my top plate my bottom plate are marked for the stud and I'm gonna continue on down this is where my next stud goes cuz we even remember we marked it okay so I'm going to line up my speed square and I'm gonna strike my line so here's the thing about a 2 by 4 2 by 4 really isn't 2 inches by 4 inches it's really one and a half inches of hide-and so the center of a 2 by 4 isn't 1 inch because it's not really 2 inches wide it's really 3/4 of an inch that's the center of a 2 by 4 so I'm gonna mark that for you so this is just for demonstration purposes you couldn't do this with every stun I'm doing it so you can see actually how its how its laid out okay what stud Center really means 16 inches on center really means it's not the distance between each stud okay 16 inches on center means from the center of one stud to the center of the next is 16 inches okay so now we're going to start attaching our pieces of wood and I'm going to build a little a short wall for demonstration purposes so here's our wall it's a visual and what I'm going to do is I'm going to lay it down flat I'm gonna run a tape measure across so you can see where it's 16 on center okay now what will do is will span the length of it let's start at the very front okay if you come across we does sit on the side 16 and we're gonna move on down let's move on down the tape measure here the next step 32 let's keep going next step 48 okay so we're gonna move on I'm gonna frame up on an actual project that I'm doing now it's not a wall that's as wide as the demo wall that I've shown you and I've done a demo because we wanted to show you really how 16 inches on Center works I think good idea of how it worked now we're gonna frame up okay what you're gonna need is you're gonna need come on in close because I want to show you the nail this is a 16 penny nail and you're gonna want this for framing so don't forget your eye protection have a good hammer handy and a level now there may be a temptation to use a shorter level like a torpedo level but I got to tell you when it comes to framing the longer the level the better and more accurate the read so braced up against the wall and that's what it helped me when I start driving in the nails okay so now the second thing you want to do is once you've got a braced up against something is you actually want to stand on the wood so you want to stand on your plate make sure your foot is on the top plate and on the stud is gonna keep everything nice and square okay and see what you want to do is you want to tip the nail up slightly toward you it's gonna make it easier for you to drive that nail so that's the first one and then I'm going to drive the second nail here okay so I'm gonna repeat the process I'm going for that Center stud now I'm gonna put my full weight on it put my foot on the top plate that's that's this here that's the top and make sure that it's lined up pretty good it is and look it's lined up nice and now I'm gonna start driving my nail okay so we're moving right along here I've got my line my chalk line struck that's where I'm gonna lay my bottom plate a sector stop now this is what I want to say this framing it gets very very heavy and so if you were to build any larger than this it definitely would need someone to assist you to put it in place but such because this is such a small wall I'll be able to do it myself okay so it's lying right up with my my chalk line and this is very important when you frame up when you frame up and you're not framing in place because you can frame two different ways you can frame up like I showed you or you can run your bottom plate and your top plate and then build your wall in place it's two ways you can do it we've framed up and now we've set our wall in place and I've set it right on the line so here's the thing I've got my bottom plate lined up with the chalk line and now I'm just going to tip it in the place now what you have to keep in mind is a structure is longer diagonally than it is up and down so just account for a little space up here you know subtract half an inch so that when you tip it into place you'll be able to clear well we're gonna have to shim it and let me tell you why we got a little bit of a gap here at the top okay you want to have a nice snug fit when you start nailing it into place so what you want to do is you want to put a shim in want to put your shims at the top top plate or you want to put your shims in at the bottom plate whatever is gonna be easier for you okay and I want to show you how that's done now let me show you the shim looks like oh these are shims all right and if you notice it's like a wedge like that's like a piece of cheese you think of a cheese wedge all right and it's thicker at the top and it narrows as you get to the bottom well when you shim a structure okay when you're shimming what you want to do is you want to come from both sides of the plate and you want to slowly tap the sides in okay so we've got our shoes here remember I said you want to come from both sides right well I've got them in place right so now I just got to give it a little tap I'm gonna tap each side snug it up snug that up again snug it up I wanna make certain that my frame is nice and solid and it is it's solidly in place now because Lois shims have elevated it know before you start attacking anything see anything this makes our net is plumb okay okay and you put your level on there and it's looking nice looks nice may have to tap it a little bit if it isn't quite plumb and you also wanna I hope you can get a good read cuz a little bit of a mark there okay so there's our shims there right there shims and it's nice and tight and I got to tell you it's dead-on straight ready to go now what I'll do is I'll now let in place because it's all straight on the Ellen in place and then you'll have to cut the cut the shoes off and isn't a utility knife is good now that everything is plumb remember that plumb is up and down its vertical so once everything is plumb and that's Jim did you like where it is it's time to attach the side the top plate in the bottom plate and you want to use those same 16 penny nails so that's it our wall is up it's nice and solid this is Lea saying you you can do this see you next time you

Channel: seejanedrill

Views: 1,282,822

Rating: 4.8351593 out of 5

Keywords: framing, carpentry, how to frame, frame a wall, partition wall, stud center, build wall, diy, diy wall, do it yourself, how to build, 16 penny nail, framing nail, framing tips, how-to, how to, construction, construct a wall, 16 inches center, on center, framing a wall, plumb, level, framing hammer, frame up wall, wall stud, attach wall, wall top plate, wall base plate, distance between studs, measuring for wall, shim, shimming a wall, wall shim, shims, wall construction

Id: uZHcWUU-FbQ

Length: 11min 47sec (707 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 27 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/SuperiorPeach]

I need to build a partition wall in my house in a hallway. Naturally I searched YouTube for advice, and found this woman, Leah, from a channel called See Jane Drill. This woman is so impressive and skilled, and a very good teacher. Just the explanation of how shims work is worth the price of admission. It feels great to see a woman take herself seriously as a craftsperson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkoCWUJt10w Her video on how to use a tape measure just changed my life.