Library builder

Before sheathing around windows and doors, the trimmers need to be set. Plumb a trimmer on either side of the window with a 2-ft. or 4-ft. level. The top or bottom of the trimmer may need to pull away from the king stud a bit for it to be plumb. Once the level bubble reads […]

SHEATHING THE WALL Anyone who has witnessed the damage caused by an earthquake or high wind knows the importance of properly in­stalled interior and exterior wall sheathing (shear walls). In the serious 1992 Northridge quake near Los Angeles, shear walls saved many buildings—and many lives. Wall sheathing provides strong lateral (horizontal) and vertical strength. It […]

Over the years I’ve learned the hard way to be extremely wary of ladders. While they are often in­dispensable, they need to be treated with the same respect accorded a powersaw. A fall from a ladder can seriously injure or kill you, and every carpenter (and many homeowners) can tell of injuries related to a […]

To tie the two double top plates together, nail the overlapping double top plate of the butt walls to the double top plates of the through walls with two 16d nails (see the photo on p. 122). Do this job accurately, and it will make iteasier to plumb and straighten the walls. When there are […]

Like barn raisings of old, it often takes a few warm bodies to raise a framed, unsheathed wall. For raising sheathed walls, it takes even more people or a wall jack. For your safety, don’t try either job solo. And, as always, start with a clear deck. With the first wall assembled, align the bottom […]

see carpenters raising the wall and then standing on ladders to nail on the dou­ble top plate, the job is much quicker and easier to do while the wall is still on the deck. On butt walls, the double top plate laps over the top plate ЗУ2 in. (for a 2×4 wall) so that it […]

Three-stud channel   stud is nailed in flush with the end of the plate. The second stud is nailed in flat alongside the first so that when the intersecting wall is raised, it can be nailed into the flat stud. A blocked-up corner can be built by nail­ing three equally spaced blocks in place of […]

Once the door and window frames are assembled, you can start nailing walls together. Start by scattering enough 921/4-in. studs to frame one of the exte­rior through walls, which I always build and raise first. Later you’ll frame and raise the butt walls, which are generally shorter and rise up between the through walls. Scatter […]

Once the plates are marked up and detailed, you can begin to assemble the walls. When I first started framing walls, carpenters used to toenail a stud in each corner, string the top plate across from stud to stud, and then work off a ladder to nail in the remaining studs. Each wall took a […]

Keep your mind focused when measur­ing and cutting cripples and trimmers. A mistake here can cause you big headaches and lots of extra work later on. I recall cutting all the top window cripples 1 in. too long for the first floor of an apartment house we were build­ing. I didn’t catch the mistake until […]