11 Golden Rules of Framing
Test yourself: How many do you know? How many do you use?
Why spend time setting those beams? What use is there for bowed and knotty lumber? When is it crucial to be precise, and when is that less of a priority? Check out your familiarity with the 11 key framing rules in this slideshow.
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Start solid. Concrete is imprecise work, so it’s on the framer to ensure beams carrying the first floor are at the right height, and if not, either dropped as necessary or raised up on shims that won’t compress. Time spent on setting the beam makes the rest of the job go faster.
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Waste nothing. Every pallet of incoming lumber should be culled so that the straightest pieces can be set aside for the places where straightness matters most (plates, king and jack studs, etc.). Crooked, bowed, waney, and knotty lumber has its place, though. These defects matter very little when the piece is being cut short for cripples, blocking, or temporary supports.
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When in doubt, check. Before hooking your tape on the edge of the floor frame for measurements, be sure that the floor frame itself is aligned with the mudsill it connects to. When in doubt, plumb up from the edge of the mudsill with a short level and then mark the position of the interior face of the wall framing from the level.
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Learn the shorthand. There’s more to laying out top and bottom wall plates than pulling a tape and marking X’s for each stud position. If you don’t already, get in the habit of marking every component – kings, jacks, cripples, intersections, blocking, and more – to ensure you don’t have to waste time later fixing mistakes.
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Efficiency is king. Framing involves repetitive tasks, such as cutting dozens of pieces to the exact same length. Learn to take advantage of situations where it’s easy and convenient to cut several pieces to length in one pass, often before the wood even leaves the lumber pallet it arrived on.
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Know where it counts. Level, plumb, square, straight and flush are crucial. Tight fitting butt joints, perfect notches, and precise cuts often aren’t.
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Work smart. Wet and heavy are common themes when working with framing lumber. If you don’t have machines to help with lifting, at least work smart by tackling heavy lifts in teams of two or more.
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Plumb and level aren’t enough. Every wall that is tipped into place should be rigged up with a string that runs from one end to the other so that it can be checked and adjusted with springboards along its length. Although the method is different, joists, rafters, and beams must also be kept straight to ease the parts that are installed after.
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Eliminate redundancy. A well-framed wall isn’t measured by the amount of lumber you put into it. Eliminate framing members that have no purpose in order to create space for more insulation. Remember, wood is a terrible form of insulation compared to insulation itself.
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Only measure when you need to. Tape measures are indispensable, but they’re also a chance to introduce errors. When possible, mark pieces in position rather than measuring them, and cut wall and roof sheathing in place during or after installation to improve accuracy.
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Know the end before you start. Don’t start setting joists, sheathing, or any other framing components without paying attention to how the pieces will pace out when you get to the other end. A little foresight will allow you to adjust layout to avoid potentially weak, problematic, or just plain inconvenient fastening situations.
View Comments
Justin, a lot of the text is too small to read.
BobboMax is right.
Pics should also be large enough to fill the majority of the screen. Great information, but needs to be easier to look at, and read!
Agreed.
To make those fractions easier to read, you could spell them out: 1/4-in.
As to your first feature about girder pockets why not use these https://www.strongtie.com/search/?q=GH ? they're perfect, require no extra work and if your bean size isn't listed Simpson will make customs. As to your "I'm not building a piano" or similar comment, I disagree. If you try to build it perfect, it won't be but it will likely be good enough. If you try to build it "good enough" it also won't be.
agreed, can you repost with larger print?
Those little gaps in the mudsills can let mice in
Q.: Would it hurt to wear a hard hat while lifting end walls?
A.: Certainly less than getting beaned with that monster!
Under "smart" wall-framing, your diagram showed rough openings being framed without jack-studs. Is that really smarter than conventional framing, or just an editorial error?
Regarding slide #9 on eliminating redundancy, additional adjustments might have to be made when eliminating framing. For example, with a single top plate, the joists or rafters would likely need to line up exactly over the studs to avoid overstressing a single top plate. Steel straps would probably be required to splice single top plates as well. Load path issues like these are addressed in AWC’s Wood Frame Construction Manual available at http://www.awc.org.
I don't think anyone at FH reads these comments but your points are valid. I've made comments and asked questions that never get answered, accepts by other readers.
I don't like that slideshow format with sometimes tiny images on the black background and several blank pages mixed in just for fun. I've got a large monitor, but the tiny print becomes large blurry print. The workmanship is poor.
I found the slideshow very useful. As for small print, the zoom feature for the display easily remedies this.
However, when I find something worth bitching about, I'll let you know.