How-To
Wall-Framing Layout
Remodeler and Fine Homebuilding editor Justin Fink demonstrates a straightforward way to measure and mark your plates before framing a wall.
In this gem from the Fine Homebuilding Video Vault, remodeler and Fine Homebuilding editor Justin Fink demonstrates how to lay out studs for a basic framed wall.
Related: Watch this episode of Building Skills: Cutting a Door.
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A great tip if you are framing a six by eight foot shed. But, if you are building a house and are concerned with efficiency then you should consider plating all your walls on the snap lines so you can make an allowance in the stud layout for wall thicknesses at the corners. Having all the walls plated and butted will allow you to mark the channels and corners as part of your layout; a quick and easy step that pays back great dividends when you stand and “tie-off” the walls. Larry and Joe Haun do a pretty good job of explaining these traditional carpenter framing techniques in their book and videos.
And please, get up off your knees and start moving before you get fired!
I used to do it like this, when I first started framing. It's too nitpicky, and it slows you down.
Just draw your line on center (the red mark on your tape), on the side of the plate, mark immediately with your square, across both plates, and start laying studs. Just eyeball to see if the center of the stud is placed evenly over your 16 o.c. line on your plates.
Don't worry about being an eighth off. You should easily be able to see if your stud is placed on the center line. If you can't, get glasses.
This guy would get fired eventually, on a lot of framing crews. Nobody wants to wait around for you to "get it perfect". And perfectionism just won't score you points in any company that ever has more than one job running at a time. Maybe in a cabinet shop, or fine finish work, or when you're building your own labor-of-love project, but otherwise, its too slow.
As i've heard said, over and over on sites "You're not building a piano". Another friend of mine, a framer from California, said the company he used to work for would say "A line is a dime". Time wasting steps add up to big dollars over a year. You need to learn how to cut out unnecessary steps.