Tools & Materials
Building a House with Advanced Framing
Builder Mike Guertin explains his progressive approach to framing a high-performance home to minimize lumber cost and maximize insulation.
In this video, builder Mike Guertin explains the benefits of incorporating advanced-framing techniques into select areas of the 2016 Rhode Island FHB House. Though the project is built within a high-wind zone, the home will have far less lumber in its walls and roof than a conventional home in order to cut building costs and to provide more room for insulation. Guertin also explains the logic behind using a variety of manufactured framing components by Weyerhaeuser. Guertin is balancing the use of dimensional lumber and engineered lumber in various parts of the home to ease construction and to help ensure the high-performance walls and roof stay true.
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Mike, at the :07-:08 second mark is a very quick view of two adjacent wall studs, each with two tiny notches at the end. Are these for low voltage wire runs? And what tool and method is used to make them?
bdram
Great details in the assemblies but completely missed the mark on safety & PPE (personal protective equipment). A quick list to start....
- framing with running shoes on
- no hardhats - not even when hoisting a 20+ft long LVL directly overhead
- no visible ear protection
- no safety glasses
- no fall protection framing second floor
- standing on top of plank supported by sawhorses
- standing beyond the safe height on ladders
By far the most scary point in the video is jacking up the second floor end gable 10+ft? above grade while standing on ladders! What consideration was given to fall protection? For such a significant lift if either the base of the wall shifted or something else moved it would have proved to be a very long fall!
I hope future videos will represent both great construction details along with safe working practices.
Hi Mike,
Though I have never met you, I have read many of your articles. It was a pleasure to hear you and see you in action. I especially liked your succinct summary of advanced energy framing: Use less lumber, save money, increase energy efficiency, save more money, reduce environmental impact.
I like to call all that "frugal framing."
A couple of other thoughts:
I'd like to second the observant reader who urges you to up your game as regards safety. Fine Homebuilding's only real flaw as far as I have ever seen is that it regularly features horrendous neglect of safety. This video appears, unfortunately, to carry on that tradition.
Also, there's one other little wrinkle to frugal framing you might want to try (I wrote about and illustrated it in my last book). That's ripping the scraps of plywood, OSB, etc. that pile up on the job site into 6-8" wide strips and using it as drywall backing at corners and on top plates. Saves money. Reduces resource waste. Works great (my drywaller loved it).
----- best, David Gerstel
Safety? Whatcha talking 'bout. Nuttin' wrong with that jobsite. How can northern N.A. ever compete with Mexico. Snapped it in Merida, Mexico in 2016.
Thanks Mike for a very informative video on the uses of engineered lumber.
While I understand that gluing the subfloor will ensure that there aren't squeaks, I'm concerned about the ease or even ability to replace that engineered wood should there be some water leak and that manufactured wood product needs replacement. Shouldn't we be building homes to last and be repairable for at least a couple hundred years? The subfloor in my home is simply screwed and there aren't any squeaks.