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 it
easier to plumb and straighten the walls. When there are lots of wall plates to nail off, skilled carpenters usually hop right up on the walls to do the job. I have a gymnast daughter who once worked with me during summers. She was great at walking on plates. The plates were wider than her balance beam. But for inexperienced carpenters, it’s easier— and safer—to work from a ladder (to learn about working on a ladder safely, see the sidebar on p. 123).
The corner marks you drew on the plates earlier act as guides when nailing off the top plates. Make sure that the double top plate is on these lines and
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that the top plates of both walls are touching, just as they were on the floor. If necessary, toenail a 1 6d nail into the top plate of the through wall up into the double top plate of the butt wall to draw everything together (see the photo on the facing page).
A woman once called me after moving into a fairly new house, wondering why her pictures wouldn’t hang flat against the wall. She thought she was doing
something wrong. The real problem was that her wall was leaning in 1V2 in. from top to bottom! This kind of error is not acceptable. Take care not to make the same mistake. Once the walls are up and tied together, you need to plumb and line them.
Plumbing means making sure the walls are standing straight up and down. Lining means straightening the top plates from one end of a wall to the other. Neither job is difficult, but it’s
