Category Habitat for Humanity International

CONTRARY TO WHAT PEOPLE MAY

think, having a lot of brothers is not always fun. I know. I am the only girl in a family with six children. When there are so many kids, vou need a big house, but our family could not afford one.

We used to live in a very small house with just two and a half bed­rooms. This may sound funny, but there were only two bedrooms, plus a space next to the washer and dryer where my oldest brother slept. My parents and baby brother slept in one of the bedrooms, and the other bed­room was for my other three brothers and me. My oldest brother didn’t have much room next to the washer and
dryer, but at least he didn’t have to share a room with three brothers.

Sharing a room with so many

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brothers was not much fun for me or for them. But one day when 1 came home from school, I heard some very exciting news. My parents sat us all down in the living room and told us that we were being given the oppor­tunity to get a bigger house by an organization called Habitat for I lumanity. I just kept thinking about the bedroom that they told me I’d have all to myself. I could hardly sleep that night.

We now live in our Habitat home. Habitat really helped my family and changed my life forever.

-Ashley Hanners

frames square. This makes for quality con­struction and an easier time nailing the top and bottom plates.

Distribute studs, corners, and channels

Ask your crew to distribute studs along one ol the exterior through walls, with one stud per layout mark. Place the studs against the two tacked-down plates. Where corners and chan­nels are required, decide which corner style you want to use. The sidebar on the facing page explains the main types of corners and channels. You can build corners and channels in place as you frame the walls, or you can build them all at once in a central location.

then distribute them and insert them in the walls as needed.

Keep your eyes open for studs that are bowed, twisted, or crowned. Set them aside to use for blocking and roof braces. This ensures a more uniform finished wall and makes it easier for finish carpenters to install cabinets, countertops, and interior trim. Its always good to think about how to make future tasks easier.

Nail on the top and bottom plates

It’s finally time to pry apart the two wall plates, that you tacked together in step 2. Working on one wall at a time, separate the top wall plate

In addition to being a carpenter for the past 50 years, I’ve also been a gardener my entire life, and I see a lot of similarities between framing and gardening. If you take the time to prepare the ground, add lots of compost, plant good seeds, mulch well, and nurture young plants, you can’t help but grow out­standing vegetables. The situation is similar when you’re framing walls, if you take the time to lay out, cut, and correctly position every part of every wall, then the actual fram­ing will go smoothly and you’ll produce a quality building.

A Habitat volunteer once said to me, “Now the fun starts,” as we began to nail together all the wall pieces. I guess everything in life is rel alive. If you have to stand out in the blazing sun building walls day in and day out, the joy of framing does eventually wear off. On the

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other hand, when working as a team, a group of people building walls will see a lot of progress in one day, and that is satisfying.

Before I start building walls, I a ways begin by cleaning up the work area. Some scrap will have been generated as you cut the parts for the walls and there’s no need to leave it lying around for someone to trip over.

Begin with door and window assemblies

1 begin framing by building the door and win­dow assemblies. All window headers and most door headers need top cripples (sometimes called jacks) and all rough sills need bottom cripples (see the illustration below). A chop – saw volunteer has probably already cut these to size, grouped them, and labeled them. Grab an armload and carry them to their proper locations. Check to see that the cripples match

the lengths written on each header, livery header takes a cripple im each end and one on each layout mark. Pay close attention! Place bottom cripples perpendicular to the wall plates, exactly where they will be nailed in place. 1 also place a trimmer and a king stud next to each window opening before I do any nailing.

To make toenailing cripples to headers eas­ier, back up the cripple with your foot before starting the first two 8d toenails (see the photo at right). Make sure each 2x cripple is on its layout mark and flush with the sides of the header, then drive the nails home. After nailing off one side, toenail two more <8d nails into the other side. Repeat the process until all the top cripples for each wall have been nailed to their headers.

Attaching the bottom cripples to rough windowsills is easier. Move the rough sill to the upper ends of the cripples placed against the plates. There should be one cripple at each end of the sill and one at each layout mark. Drive two 16d nails about 4 in. from each edge of the rough sill into each cripple. When nailing near the end of 2xs, set the nail back from the end and drive it at an angle or blunt the nail point to reduce your chances of split­ting the board.

Finish the window-frame assemblies bv

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nailing on the trimmers and king studs. This is easy to do now because y ou are working flat on the floor. Don’t move these units around. Keep them in place where they will be nailed to the plates. Nail the window trimmers flush with the ends of the bottom cripples. Secure the trimmers to the rough sill with just two 16dnails each. Then nail the king studs along­side them so they are flush with the top of the Hop cripples and with the bottom of the trim­mers. Secure the king studs on each side bv driving two 16d nails into a 2x header or four or five 16d nails into a larger header. Finally,

drive a nail near the top of the trimmer into the king stud. T he trimmers will be perma­nently nailed later, before you install the exte­rior sheathing or set the windows. As for door trimmers, wail to install them until after the walls have been raised.

With all the walls plated and the window and door frames nailed together, you’re ready to frame the walls. At tins stage, its smart to check vour work. Make sure that the framing members are flush with each other and nailed tightly together. Keep the door and window

WHETHER YOU USE a store-bought layout stick or make your own, this tool will save you a lot of time when marking plates in preparation for wall con­struction. A stick like the one shown here can be used to lay out studs on 16-in. and 24-in. centers.

To make your own layout stick, cut a series of ІУг-in.-wide strips from a panel of 34-in.-thick ply­wood. Cut one strip 497? in. long and five strips 97? in. long. Glue and nail the short pieces to the long piece at right angles and at the spacing shown in the illustration. The З-in. legs allow you 😮 mark top and bottom plates at the same time. The 5-in. legs make it easy to mark two plates side by side and to mark headers and rough sills along with the plates.

indicate the studs’ locations. This will give vou a 14k:-in.-wide rough opening for the medi­cine cabinet. Write UMC>> on the plates between the two stud locations.

Include blocking requirements when mark­ing up plates. As explained in the sidebar on p. 89, blocking between studs provides solid backing for important items, such as towel bars, built-in shelves, and so on, which will be installed after the interior walls are finished. II you’re building a porch, this is also the time to mark the location of any porch beams (see chapter 6). Porch beams recess 3 in. inside the walls and require two trimmers underneath to support them.

Mark stud locations last

1 don’t know who made the first layout stick for marking stud locations, but I have been using one for almost 50 years. You can either make one (see the sidebar above) or buy one (see Resources on p. 278). 1 learned howto do stud layouts with a long tape and a small square, but 1 think it is taster and easier to use a layout stick.

Take a look at the building plans. Exterior walls generally have studs spaced 16 in. o. c. Interior wall studs may also be spaced 16 in.

o. c. but are more often 24 in. o. c. When exte­rior walls arc sheathed with plywood orOSB, the studs arc spaced to fit these 4-ft. sheets.

Start the stud layout at one end of a long exterior wall. Place the layout stick on the out – side edge of the plates, with the first tab rin.

beyond the end of the wall. This sets up a 16-ІП.-О. С. or a 24-in.-o. c. layout that will accommodate the 4-ft.-vide sheathing sheets (see the photo at right). Mark both sides of the remaining tabs to note the locations of the next three studs. Move the layout stick, line up the end tab with the last mark, and mark again. ІГ you’re nailing a sheet of OSR at the outside corners for bracing, make sure you lay out a stud 4 ft. from each comer in both directions.

When you come to a door or window

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opening, just continue the stud layout, mark­ing cripple locations on the headers and the rough sills. Lay out all exterior walls and then begin on the interior walls. The layout of inte­rior walls is not as critical as that of exterior walls, because most drvwall hangers use long

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sheets of drvwall, which often run from corner to corner, fust put the stick in a corner against a through wall and start marking. Make sure you put the stud markings on the same side of the plates as the header markings. When you encounter rough plumbing, don’t pat a stud next to a pipe. Give the plumbers room to fin­ish their work. Kach intersecting wall automat­ically has a stud on each end, so there’s no need to mark those locations.

Old codes required that a stud be placed tinder every break in the top plate. Here in the West, this hasn’t been a requirement for nearly 40years, but check with your local building inspector. My guess is that few, if any, areas in

the country still require it. As long as you have a double top plate, locating a stud under a plate break adds little to the structural integ­rity of the frame.

Because of the sheer number of marks required on walls, it’s a good idea to walk through every “room” after you have finished marking all the plates. Visually check whether all of the wall plates, headers, rough sills, cor­ners, and channels are proper у marked. The time you take to inspect your work now can save vou much more time later. It takes a lot

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longer to tear out studs and frame a door that was missed during layout than it does to take a leisurely but focused stroll through the house to make sure everything is in order.

NAILED BETWEEN STUDS, blocking provides solid backing for items such as towel racks, closet shelves, and safety grab bars. Blocking ensures that the mounting hardware for those devices can be anchored with screws driven into solid wood, so that you don’t have to worry about racks, bars, and shelves pulling loose.

It’s smart to include blocking when marking up wall plates. Cut blocking boards from 2x scraps. As shown in the illustration below, blocking is installed

so that the face of the 2x is flush with the edges of the studs. To help locate blocking, use these stan­dard heights for common bath, kitchen, and storage fixtures:

* Towel bars: Block near the tub and vanity and center 54 in. above the floor.

^ Toilet-paper holder: Block near the toilet and center 24 in. above the floor.

a Toothbrush and soap holder: Block above the sink and center 40 in. above the floor.

^ Safety grab bars: Block near the toilet and near (or in) the bathtub/shower and center 36 in. above the floor.

a Closet shelf and pole: Block 66 in. above the floor; more blocking may be needed if you install wire shelves.

^ Linen-closet shelves: First block above the floor at 20 in., then block every 14 in. thereafter for above-floor measurements of 34 in., 48 in.,

62 in., and 76 in. Don’t forget to block for a shelf or two in the utility room to hold detergent and other laundry items.

ж Kitchen cabinets: Block below 36 in. for base cabinets, above 54 in. and below 84 in. for wall cabinets.

a Shutters: Block at the top and bottom of windows at least 12 in. wide.

tub trap. Measure 15 in. from the wall to the center of the tub trap and make a mark. Then measure 6 in. to each side of the mark (for a 12-in. hole) and strike lines onto the plates. MarkaiTT’bn the outside of these lines on both plates to show the studs’ positions.

Once a tub/shower unit has been installed, plumber will nail it in place to a harking Stud. Measure 32 in. from the corner and mark both plates with keel. The stud location is away from this mark. Toward the inside,
mark the location of a flat stud that will be nailed to the first stud. T he flat stud provides backing for the tub.

Plans often show an in-wall medicine cabi­net (MC) centered over the bathroom sink. The standard rough opening for an in-wall medicine cabinet is 1414 in. wide. To accom­modate one, measure 7/ in. in each direction from the center (directly over the sink’s drain pipe) and mark across both plates with keel, making an “X” on the outside of each line to

It’s important to remember that the framing must accommodate plumbing, heating, and electrical features. Talk to the subcontractors before you even start on the floor. Show them your plans and find out what you can do when it comes time to frame walls so that they can do their work without having to remodel your structure.

You can start by asking the plumber whether there’s anything you can do while laying out the bathroom to make it easier to install the pipes. The plate layout for a typical bathroom is shown in the illustration below. Code requires a minimum of 31 in. from sidewall to sidewall for a toilet. The wall behind a toilet

is usuallv 12: in. from the center of the waste

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drain. Standard bathtubs are usuallv 30 in. wide and 60 in. long. If building on a slab, you may need a 12-in. bv 12-in. access hole in the

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wall so the plumber can hook up or repair the

Building walls is like baking a cake. Success depends on having all the right ingredients. When you mark the plates, you’re setting the exact locations for all of the headers, cripples, studs, corners, and wall intersections associ­ated with each wall in the house.

Mark corners and channels first

When marking up each plate, start with the locations of corners and wall intersections, which are referred to as channels or tees (see the illustration below). As well see shortly, corners and channels require extra studs so that the walls can be properly nailed together once they are raised. The extra studs also provide backing for drywall. Use a channel marker to mark corners and channels on the plates. Store-bought aluminum markers arc available, as shown in the photo at left on the
facing page. It’s also easy to make your own (see the illustration on the facing page).

Take time to make accurate lavout marks.

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Sloppy work at this stage means trouble after the walls have been raised and you begin to plumb and straighten them. Draw accurate lines along all edges of the marker, including the inside edges of the plates, where one wall intersects another. In other words, mark the inside, the outside, and the top surfaces ol the through-wall plate. This is important. These corner and channel marks also indicate where the double top (or cap) plates will intersect, tying together through walls and butt walls, Use keel to mark an “X on the top plate to let the wall-builder know the location of a corner or channel. Some carpenters write out the word “tee" to note the location of an intersect­ing channel.

Keep layout marks clean and simple

Methods of marking header locations on plates differ regionally. Whichever system you use, keep it simple! Check the floor plans for eadi header location, then position the header on the top plate, aligning the sides of the header with the edges of the plate. Mark down from both ends of the header, across both the top and the bottom plates. On outside walls, make these marks on the outside; on interior walls, make marks on the stud I avoid side.

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Next to the end line, mark an “X" on both plates on the side away from the header to indicate the king-stud location (see the photo onp. 88). King studs are nailed alongside headers and hold door and window frames together. On the other side of the line, under­neath the header, make a long, straight line along both plates to indicate that there will be an opening at that location and dial no sluds should be nailed there.

No matter what the plans indicate, keep interior wall headers at least I ‘/* in. avvav from

corners and channels so you’ll have space on which to nail door and window trim. In hurri­cane and earthquake /ones, exterior walls must not have window or door openings less than 4 ft. from an exterior corner.

Above all, mark clearly. These plates will be pulled up and moved during framing. Gear marks improve the odds that all framing members will be attached accurately.

Stud length, header height, and other‘‘stan­dard” dimensions vary somewhat from region to region. Find out what is standard in vour area. Out West, where Fm accustomed to framing, we use a stud that is 924 n. long.

I leaders for doors and windows are usually held 6 ft. 10 in. off the subfloor. Check the height in your region, though—in some places, the standard is 6 IT. 104 in. Headers for pockel doors and closet bifold doors may need to be higher to allow room for an over­head track.

Door and window sizes are noted on the plans with designations such as 3/0 x 6/8 (36 in. by 80 in.) or 5/0 x 4/0 (60 in. by 48 in.). Carpenters will say, “There’s a thrcc-oh by six-eight door…” or “We’ve got a five-oil by fbur-oh window going in this wall.” The first measurement is the width, the second is the height, and both are expressed in feet/inches. These dimensions are the actual door or win­dow dimensions. To figure out your rough openings, you’ll have to add space for the jambs and trimmer studs. This is discussed in the following pages.

After you have a list of headers and all their

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dimensions for every opening in the house, you can cut and nail them together. Guide – lines for sizing and building headers are explained in the sidebar on p. 83. If a door header requires cripples, mark their length on the header, then place the header along the plate where the doorway will be. On window headers, mark the length of the top and bot­tom cripples, then place each header near the plate location where it will be installed (see the photo at left).

Cut trimmers, rough sills, and cripples

Trimmers are cut and installed in pairs. The two trimmer studs set on the bottom plate support the ends of the header. Trimmers for 6/8 doors and windows are tvpicallv SO1/ in. long (81 in. in parts of the country where the header height is 6 ft. 10/ in.). Cut two trim­mers for everv window less than 8 ft. wide. For

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windows that are 8 ft. or wider, double up the trimmers on each side. Although you can cut door trimmers at this stage, I prefer to wait until the walls have been raised.

The width of a rough window opening tells you how long to make the rough sill.

Taking the trimmers into account, the rough still for a window is 3 in. shorter than the win­dow header. Tack rough sills to the header with one 8d nail, and make sure that the. sizes of the window and cripples are marked on the header or sill. For windows that are 6 ft. or wider, you’ll need to double up on the rough sills and shorten the cripples by 1 / in.

Cut the cripples after you have cut all the headers, trimmers, and rough sills. Use a story pole, and make sure that your head is clear and your mind is focused. Making a mistake in the cripple length can result in window frames not fitting inside their openings, but

voumavnot know that until all the walls

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have been built and raised. 1 once cut all of a houses top cripples I in. too long. As a
result, 1 had to remove every door and win­dow header and shorten all of the cripples. Not a good way to start the week.

Cut enough top and bottom cripples to nail one on each end of every header and rough sill and one every 15 in. or 24 in. o. c., depending on the stud spacing. A chopsaw set up on a good work platform is great for cut­ting cripples (see the photo above). A stop block, secured to the worktable or to an exten­sion attached to the chopsaw, will enable you to cut identical cripples quickly and precisely.

SPANNING THE DISTANCE above window and door openings, headers transfer the weight of the roof down through the trimmers, making it pos­sible to have openings in a wall with­out compromising its strength. There are three things you need to know about headers: length, cross-sectional dimensions, and construction details.

Header Lengths

Window and door manufacturers typically provide recommended rough opening sizes for the prehung units thev sell. To determine the length of a header, you can simply add 3 in. to the rough opening size; this is the combined thickness of the trimmers that support the ends of the header.

a – The length of a door header is usu­ally 5 in. greater than the width of the door. Therefore, a 3/0 door (36 in. wide) needs a 41-in. header. The extra 5 in. includes 3 in. for the trimmer thickness, I / in. for two X-in.-thick door jambs, and A in. of clearance space for setting the door plumb.

a A set of bifold (or sliding) doors t у p і ca 11 у req u і res a s h оrter header than a regular door—just 3 in. longer than the combined width of the pair of doors. For example, a set of 5/0 (60-in.) bifold doors requires a 63-in.-long header, which provides 1A in. on each side for the trimmers. After the trimmers are wrapped with drywall, vou’re left with a

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59-in.-wide opening, which allows the bifold doors to overlap 1 in.

^ The standard header length for vinyl-framed windows is 3 in. longer than the rough opening.

For wood-frame windows, headers are cut 5 in. longer than the rough opening, just like door headers are. Make sure that the window sizes meet code requirements for daylight, ventilation, and egress.

Header Cross Section and Construction

ж The header in a nonbearing wall can be a single 2x. In a load-bearing wall, the length a header spans determines its cross-sectional mea­surement. For a 3/0 exterior door or a 4/0 window in a 2×4 wall, code
requires at least a 4×4 header. A 5/0 or 6/0 window requires a 4×6 header. An 8/0 window needs at least a 4×8 header. In 2×6 walls, simply increase the thickness of the header to 5J4 in.

+ Headers can be constructed in manv

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ways. They must be as wide as the wall in which they are installed. In

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cold regions, headers are built with gaps so that foam or fiberglass insula­tion can be added. Talk to builders in vour area to find out what’s done

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locally, and check with the building inspector to make sure the headers you plan to use will meet code.

WALL FRAMING ANATOMY

information on a story pole reduces the chance of error and speeds the entire framing process.

FRAMING LUMBER CAN be heavy.

A 2×4 stud isn’t a big deal, but a wet, 16-ft. 2×12 sure is—and there are many boards of that heft even in a small house. Dor’t carry lumber by holding the board at your waist; this puts undue strain on your elbows and lower back. Instead, grab a long, heavy board at its balance point and, in one fluid motion, lift and flip it gently onto your shoul­der. With your entire body helping absorb and distribute the weight, the load is much easier to carry.

Tool Talk MAKING A STORY POLE

THE BEST WAY to obtain accurate lengths for cripples and trimmers is to make a story pole. As the name sug­gests, this straight length of wood (I use a 2×4) tells a story. In this case, it’s the description of a wall layout, with the locations of sills and headers for windows and doors providing the measurements for cutting cripples and trimmers. Wi:h a story pole, you do all the measur­ing once, double-check everything, then use the pole as a reference for the entire layout. Instead of repeatedly measuring crip­ples and trimmers with a tape measure, you simply transfer the layout marks from the story pole.

To make a story pole, select a straight stud and nail a short scrap of 2×4 on one end to act as the bottom plate. Then, mea­suring upward from the

base of the bottom plate, clearly mark the underside of the header at 6 ft. 10 in. (assuming that is the header he’ght). Measure upward another VI? in. for a single flat header, ЗУг in. for a 4×4 header, and 5У> in. for a 4×6 header, making clear marks across the story pole. The distances remaining above the header layout lines are

the lengths of the top cripples. Remember that headers for pocket and bifold doors may be higher, so their cripples will be shorter. Label the layout lines on your story pole to avoid confusion.

To locate windowsills, mea­sure the window height down from the bottom of the header. Measure down another Г/г in. for a single 2x rough sill. The amount remaining is the length of the bottom cripples. The trimmer lengths are measured from the bottom plate to the bottom of the header.

STEP3 Count and Cut the Headers, Rough Sills, Cripples, and Trimmers

1 helped build my first house in 1948. It was a mail-order house brought to our small town by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, then to the site by horse and wagon. Every piece of the house frame was precul and tied in bundles. My job was to untie the bundles and bring the pieces to the carpenters who nailed them together.

Today, the same house pieces are needed, but most of them are cut to length on site. Headers are needed over door and window openings to transfer roof loads down to the
subfloor and foundation. Rough sills support windows. Cripples or jack studs either support a rough sill or transfer weight from a top plate to a header. Trimmers extend on both sides of door and window openings lo support head­ers (see the illustration on p. 84).

Before you can begin cutting or marking framing members, you need some basic infor­mation, including the standard stud length, the height at which headers will be set, the size and location of door and window openings, and the way in which headers will be con- siructed. A good wav to carrv around this

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information is with a story pole, <> explained in the sidebar above. Recording wall-building

Stack, tack, and cut

Plating a wall involves three procedures.

STACK THE PLATES. Place two layers of plate slock (2x4s are used for the wall framing on this house) along the layout line for the wall. These layers will become the top and bottom plates. Reserve the straightest 2x4s for the plates, and use the longest plates (typi­cally 16 ft.) on the longest exterior walls. Pay attention to where the top plate stock hulls together. These butt joints should be at least 4 ft. away from an intersecting wall.

TACK THE PLATES IN PLACE. After you’ve dis – trihuted the plate stock, you can start tacking it down. Using 8d nails, tack, or temporarily nail, the bottom plate to the subfloor right on the line. Drive an 8d nail about 1 ft. from the end of each board and another near each intersecting wall. Tack the top plate directly on top of t he bottom plate. Continue stacking and tacking until you reach the end of the wall.

Helping Hand

Select straight plates. Check 2x plate lumber for bow and twist and select only the straightest boards for plates. This makes for strong, straight walls.

CUT THE PLATES TO LENGTH. As vou’re stack-

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ingand tacking, you’ll also be cutting plates to length with a circular saw. Where 2x plate stock butts together, make sure that the ends are square-cut and that they meet snugly. Although it’s acceptable for the bottom plate to be a little short, the top plate must be as close as possible to the exact length. The bottom plate of a framed wall is nailed to the subfloor. Roof trusses arc na led to the top plates.

When the outside walls have been plated, you can start scattering plate stock for the interior walls. Don’t do this haphazardly, lust as when you were laying out the walls, its best to plate the long, parallel interior walls first. These long walls become through walls into which shorter walls butt. Plate the shortest

walls last. Pav attention to which interior walls

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are butt walls and which ones are through walls. If the walls are plated properly, it is eas­ier to build and raise them. I run all plates
continuously, ignoring door and window openings. The bottom phr. e will be cut from the door openings later.

Plating on a concrete slab and around plumbing

When working on a slab with anchor bolts, use an anchor-bolt marker to locate the holes in exterior wall plates (see p. 57 for more on anchor holts). After the holes are drilled, you

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can fit the bottom plate or the anchor bolts and nail the top plate along the bottom plate’s outside edge (see the illustration on p. 80). It can also be toenailed on edge to the top of the top plate.

If you encounter plumbing in the walls, cut the bottom plate to fit around the obstruction. You can place the top plate alongside the bot­tom plate or toenail the top plate on edge to the bottom plate. These plating strategies maintain the alignment of the top and bottom plates so that your markings will be accurate.