TO TIE JOINING walls together, the double top plate must overlap the top plate at each wall intersection.
1. If you’re nimble, you can perch on top of the framing to hammer overlapping joints together.
2• Otherwise, do the job on a ladder.
3. It’s good practice to drive a toenail (or two) into the overlapping plate. A toenail pulls the joining walls together before the top is nailed off.
STEP7 Plumb and Line the Walls
Theword “plumbing,” when used in the con — text of framing a house, means making sure that the walls are standing straight up and down.“Lining’’ means straightening the top plate along the length of each wall. It’s important that all the walls are plumbed and lined accurately. Anything else is unacceptable.
Badly plumbed or crooked walls cause significant problems later—cabinets won’t tit Щ properly, doors won’t close correctly, and fm — ishedsurfaces (both inside and outside) will be wavy.
If the exterior walls were squared and sheathed before being raised, they should
be plumb. Otherwise, plumb them now that they are upright. To lest for plumb, use an accurate level that is at least 4 ft. long or make a plumb stick, as shown in the sidebar on p. 106. Plumbing a wall is best done with two people: one to hold the level and one to move the wall and nail off the bracing.
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Plumb the exterior walls first
Hold a level or plumb stick in a corner to see whether the bubble is centered in the vial.
If not, the wall must be moved laterally. Sometimes a wall can be moved a bit with a bodily shove. If you can pv. sh the wall plumb, install a temporary 2x diagonal brace to keep it that way (sec the bottom left photo on
