I am currently building a new 2 story home approx 1400 sf in Alabama. I am making changes to a set of stock plans I purchased. The downstairs walls are built with 2×6 as the original plans called for. I am increasing the upstairs from a short knee wall to a full 8ft wall, and I am considering using 2×4 material instead of 2 x6 for various reasons. Anyone see a good reason why I shouldn’t or can’t ? How about using 2 x6 for the exterior walls and 2×4 for the interiors ? I am building outside of the city limits in a rural area so I basically can do what I want but I still want it to be structually sound. Expert builders and carpenters….LET ME HEAR FROM YOU !!! Thanks, I appreciate it in advance.
Jcrew2
Edited 2/25/2005 3:22 am ET by jcrew2
Replies
Why did the plans call for 2x6 walls in the first place? Thicker insulation?
Residential walls for second AND first floors are built with 2x4's all the time. As long as you use 16" o.c. spacing and the loads are transferred properly from the second floor walls to the first floor walls, you should be fine.
Try posting this in the "Construction Techniques" folder over at Breaktime. You'll get lots of great information there.
Al Mollitor, Sharon MA
I'm a residential framing contractor in MA and I see homes framed with 2X6 exterior walls and 2X4 interior walls all the time. Now framing one exterior floor with 2x4 and one with 2x6 is odd, but I don't see a problem with it. I'd have to really see your plans to say for certain, but 99% of the time on a two story structure, the 2x6 framing is only used for the additional insulation capacity.
I'm assuming that you want to go to 2x4 framing for the economics of it all? Have you really put to paper what you will be saving? It's really not much. If this were my own home, I would frame all the exterior walls with 2x6 and all the interior walls with 2x4. But I'm in New England and insulation is everything around here.
Good luck with your project.
around here the 2x6 is needed to meet energy standards.
Here is an odd reverse. we did a house one time thta the garage was listed 2x4, as it did not need to be insulated. However the upstairs bonus room above the garage was listedin 2x6 as it was a heated space.
we built it all out of 2x6. this will give the owner an option later to insulate and maybe finish the garage into living space.
the cost difference was less then a few hun, gave option ot owner and he went for it.
I'm also up in MA and most houses here are 2x4 first and second floor walls (inter and exter), some will go 2x6 for greater insulation but its not need for anything structural. If you are concerned with energy standard, you can look into http://www.icynene.com/ foam spray insulation. It is much better than the fiberglass but you'll pay 3x as much. If your going to be there for a while then it may pay off, depends on energy costs where you are. If you go that route then you can stay with 2x4.
I've seen some really screwy stock plans, so make sure you have your HVAC and plumber look at them and see if the framing work for them, it will save you headaches if you can change things before it is framed. Also, if you do go 2x6, make sure you order the windows and doors with jambs for 2x6 framing.
Where are you in MA? I used to live there; I thought code was R19 in all exterior walls which means 2x6's with the pink stuff.
Mike
Natick.
Just built my grandmother a new house after a fire and used 2x4's with r 11. All the new houses around here are all the same. The code is this program called mass check which is easiest to do with a free computer program. You put in all the window sizes and u values, doors sizes and u's, wall and ceiling sizes, etc and insulation then the program tells you if you pass the energy standard or not. If you don't, then you increase usually the ceiling to r 38 but you can use better windows, etc.
My inspector is a nice guy, very easy to deal with.
If you are building in Alabama why are you using 2 by 6's in the first place? I would just use high efficiency (R-13) fiberglass and 2 by 4's everywhere. Up here (Dakotas), everything is 2 by 6 for insulation values, except the tract built rip-em-off homes, but all interior walls are 2 by 4. Garages are generally 2 by 4 attached to a 2 by 6 house.