How To Layout like a PRO with String and Batter Boards

we are you going oh okay my bad my bad hey what's up guys welcome back to the channel for today's quick video I wanted to take you through the steps of laying out a building now this is for a post frame structure which is what we're doing but this could be utilized these tips and tricks for really anything so it doesn't matter what you're laying out if you got a if you got to find straight line square lines you don't know how to do that well maybe this video is for you so this building in particular is 40 foot by 56 foot long now when we lay it out we actually lay it out an inch and a half less around the entire perimeter and that is because we're just laying out for our columns not the entire outside structure because we're digging some piers we're gonna set columns and then we'll build around that and that extra inch and a half is our 2x4 or 2x6 wall Gertz that'll go on the outside so when you hear us saying some dimensions that don't make quite sense know that we're actually subtracting an inch and a half so we're actually gonna look for thirty nine foot nine inch by fifty five foot nine inch first thing we're gonna do back here is we we kind of already know because this pad was put in by our excavator he makes them a slightly larger than our site we're just going to arbitrarily grab a couple points or this point to go off of and Greg is gonna measure down and you're gonna mark 55 nine so I'm just gonna hook this nail that I set here in the corner and this is kind of the easiest way to do it at first is just set some nails in the ground you got a mark so now that we have these back two points marked what we'll do is we'll use those as our constants and we'll figure out the other two corners of our building by pulling a triangle or using the Pythagorean theorem I don't like to do math per se so I have a nice app on my calculator which is the construction Master Pro if you're looking right here this is the app and all I'm going to do I'm gonna type in was 39 foot 9 inch run 55 foot 9 inch rise and that's gonna give me a diagonal dimension of 68 foot 5 and 5/8 now what we've done is we've got one of our tape measures is now pulled off of that first nail that we set and we've got another tape measure that is pulled off of that first line that we marked out at 55 foot nine now the important thing to also remember is that when you start measuring larger distances if you're not using a steel tape if you're using a fiberglass tape specifically they will stretch and your dimensions can be inaccurate so you don't want to over pull against your dimensions you just want to get a nice taut pole on both of your tapes and then I'm going to go 68 5 5/8 find 39 9 I'm gonna put those right together make sure my strings are nice and taut and that's where I'm gonna set another nail okay so now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to take the same two tape measures and now we're just gonna pull it the opposite way so I'm gonna pull the diagonal off of Greg's line down there and then I'll pull my 39 foot 9 dimension from Zach's corner down there and we're looking for that same 68 5 and 5/8 now the thing to remember is that this is not an accurate like perfect mark because right now what we're doing is we're finding our corner points so that we can set up our batter boards which I'll show you that in just a couple minutes when I designate this last corner thirty nine nine and sixty eight five five eighths all right so now that we have the four corners we can set up our batter boards what we're doing right now is we're checking for grade and we're trying to find the highest point here on the pad we already know that it's probably back here in this corner so we're using our Stabila 350 rotary laser which is set up over by Zach what I'm Zak finding the highest point is this gonna be it Greg back here so what we're gonna do with that grade mark is that will be the top of our sonotube that we'll use to set our concrete pier and it's going to fluctuate across this grade on this pad because the customer did not want to put in a full pad yet because of how high it is going to be on that far end so our tubes will be sticking out of the ground probably about a foot or so the other thing that we're going to use that elevation on the grade stick for is setting our batter boards because the fact that this site is not perfectly level that means if we just set our batter boards let's say an eyeball dimension of six eight inches off of the ground as we get to that end where the grade goes downhill it's not going to be perfectly level our string line whoa and then that will mean that our dimensions could potentially be off so we'll actually use the grade stick to set the tops of these batter boards all to the exact same dimension now all we're gonna do is we're gonna take a 2x4 usually about an eight footer and we're gonna kind of eyeball it to be on an angle to this pad so we want we don't want it to be too straight this way parallel with the pad we want it to be cutting it in almost a perfect 45 if possible and then we're just gonna go ahead and drive our jet stakes into this ground which this is such as a bent jet stake man let's grab a straight one now where is where is your elevation Greg how low do we want to go all right so now we're just gonna go ahead and set that batter board right at elevation plus six inches and we'll do this exact same thing on all four batter boards now here on this batter board we're starting to get a little bit further out of the ground and there's a little bit more movement so what I like to do is just grab one of these grade stakes drive it in at a nice angle and then I just throw screw in and that'll really stiffen it up so when we pull on these things with our strings they shouldn't move too much now that we have our four batter boards out we got to set our string lines on the batter board and that's where these pins come into play because now we're going to run this string line and once again this is a temporary thing because we will double check all of these string dimensions with a tape measure after they're all set but for now we're gonna visually eyeball setting the string over top of these marks and then we'll nail them to the batter boards okay Greg I like mine so I'm just setting a single nail here that is where my mark is and that is where the string is over top of the nail that we placed earlier now what we want to do is we want to make sure that this is this string is nice and taut but it's not a tow-rope so we're not gonna use it to pull something with we just need to make sure it's nice and taut what I like to do is kind of pull it tight get it close and then this is my this is my knot here I mean using this for a long time it's really good all you're gonna do is you're gonna take your string and I'll go through this slow and twist your hand around and grab the string see how it just wrapped around my hand you're gonna twist it around your hand and then you're gonna grab the string through that hole that loop you just made and that now is your your loop that is also kind of like one of those cinch loops so you can kind of tighten it up but the best part is if you don't like it you can just pull it and it comes right out but once again flip your hand pull that little string through the hole the loop you made and there you go I always like to give it a little tug and then once you snug it back it won't come undone on you but now this string line is over top of our nail and we'll use these two nails mine and the one down there that greg has and we'll pull measurements off of there to the other side bat board to get our 39 foot 90 dimension so we're just gonna use that nice little notch in your tape measure set it on the nail head and once again these are just temporary marks I mean they might be perfect we'll see but I'm gonna measure over and I want to mark right on my batter board at 39 foot nine inches and we'll do that on the other end as well okay for this string line we're gonna go ahead and do the same thing Dini in the algorri good and we're going to pull the string over top of these nails and then we'll measure to the other end that way even if this one isn't exactly perfect over top of our nails at least when we go to pull the other dimension off of it the 55 foot 9 inches away that will be accurate to this line so at least we know we're staying consistent yeah okay okay Greg now this is another example of why it's good to use the laser to lay out your jet stakes and your batter boards because if your batter boards are not all consistent in playing with each other at the same elevation it can really mess this up you see how we're just floating right over this guy now imagine if this string line was going downhill at a pretty steep percentage it could potentially be pushing down on this string line and hindering it so we want them to kind of be nice and free and if you're at the same plane on all of your batter boards that will be good so just another tip and trick something to consider when you're laying out your batter boards now laying out a site is not always a three-man job I usually say to men is the most efficient but a third person is always nice especially when you're laying out those first initial triangles because you have three points you know your nail is set at two points and sometimes the nail does not want to stay put this site here is a little bit damp or coming out of winter and we just got about three-quarter inch rain so it's a pretty it's a pretty mushy site so having Zach here today specifically or having Greg here or heck having me here makes it a little bit easier so now we have all of our string lines up we set them off of those pins that we use the tape measures to determine the exact corners of our building now what we're going to do since we have the string lines up we'll go back and double-check every make sure that all four of our wall dimensions are correct but then we'll also double check that 68 5 and 5/8 diagonal dimension to ensure that it's perfectly square and once that's done we're ready to start laying out all of our post locations for the building now what you're gonna see if you're looking at this tape measure is that I'm at 40 foot 9 inch I want to be a 39-foot 9 inch but what I do is we always like to burn a foot so if you hear saying burn a foot instead of holding the other end at the exact edge of the tape measure we lose one foot maybe we'll show you what we're shut we're doing at the other end I'm looking for 39 foot 9 so I'm gonna have Zack burn a foot and that means now I'm looking for 40 foot and I know if you look at that we're probably an eighth of an inch off so this is what we do I'm gonna come in here and where my string Line was you always want to make sure that you pull the nail so I'm just gonna mark this over an eighth of an inch which was about the thickness of my string and I'm gonna reset my nail reset my string and then we can double-check this again looking for 40 40 foot 9 inch so right there I'd say we're pretty good and we'll do that on all four dimensions okay you burn in a foot Zack all right so I am at 56 foot 9 inch we're good here okay now you come down here Zack and we're it's gonna go around and we're gonna check all four dimensions they should be pretty close sometimes they're 1/8 inch here they're just because we were eyeballing setting them over top of our nails you'll know if it's off when you pull diagonal if it ain't perfect on the diagonal that's when you know the dimensions up go ahead to that diagonal there and we're looking for that 68 5 and 5/8 this is where this is where it really matters burning the foot so 69 5 and 5/8 I can't even make this stuff up guys you haven't even seen a cut line or an editor nothing 69 5 and 5/8 there's a couple that I got the focus point like there's a couple that I couldn't get the focus you know holodecks give them a skid loader though you realize behind I think its beauty lies inside behind well they say that if you can see it from the front wait till you see it from the back come on guys we were just talking about Greg's truck get your minds out of the gutter so that is how we lay out our sights and at this point now we've have some nice string lines that are on those batter boards that are defining the exact outside dimension of our columns so for us because we're doing post frame we're gonna go ahead and mark every eight foot for our post locations and our door jams but hey maybe if you're just doing a sidewalk or something like that you could use your string lines to you know form up your outside dimension whatever it is I mean this is a very simplistic thing but this is how we do it I hope it helped one of you guys out there and if it did then it was worth taking some time away from our day to make it for you so if you did like it make sure you hit that subscribe button or hit the thumbs up to let me know that you liked it and we'll catch you guys in the next video we're gonna get to work now I've learned my mistake I don't want to paint my tape measure because people on YouTube lose their freakin mind if you paint over your tape measure even though it comes off now here we're not burning a foot we're hooked right on the nail there that we plumb down from our string line and remember for us since we are running eight foot centers on our columns but these pins are an inch and a half in from the end I'm actually gonna take an inch and a half off from my eight foot dimension and I'm gonna mark seven foot ten and a half and then I'm gonna mark fifteen ten and a half seven ten and a half fifteen ten and a half twenty four no Greg you can't spray a tape measurer thing is trash now yeah that'd be cool

Channel: RR Buildings

Views: 478,520

Rating: 4.9610534 out of 5

Keywords: layout like a pro, layout, layout with string, layout with batter boards, batter boards, how to use batter boards, how layout like a pro, laying out a building, building layout with string, knots, knot, mason line, concrete form stake, jet stake, site layout

Id: 8m-G9qrDpng

Length: 15min 11sec (911 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 14 2020