A typical detail in wood-framed houses is a recess for a standard medicine cabinet. You make it by blocking out a rough opening 14-1/2 in. wide (usually starting 3 in. from the end of the end wall adjacent to the bath sink) and 24 in. tall. I hook my tape on the bottom plate and make marks for the blocks at 4 ft. and 6 ft. above the plate. At this point, I like to add a third block at 2 ft. off the floor. Once the walls are raised, this gives me a built-in ladder so that I can climb up onto the top plates to top off, plumb and line, or spread joists or trusses.
Jud Peake, Oakland, CA
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I enjoy these articles immensely but a diagram and/or a photo would be worth way more than the typical thousand words. Please include that and make these extra valuable and informative and more instructive. Fine Homebuilding is just that Fine Construction Science and Fine Construction Details.
Or you could just use an 8 foot step ladder. Step ladders are cheap, safer, and more flexible with your scaling points. I would expect this advice to be dispensed when the era of platform framing began to be popularized (1920's); not 2012. To keep publishing such a tip shows where Finehomebuilding is currently at professionally.