Wall Framing Basics

It is important to be aware of proper wall framing basics because the walls of your small house will bear the load from the roof down to the foundation and act as the protector against the elements of changing weather for many years to come. Basic carpentry framing for the walls must be accomplished with future projects in mind such as drywall and kitchen cabinet installation. If the walls are not constructed properly it will make these future projects difficult to achieve.

The framing basics of your wall include the sill plate on the bottom, the wall studs which are the vertical beams, the top sill plate which is the beam running across the top, and the joists which may run through the middle of the wall depending upon the load the walls are going to support.

Framing a wall, or anything else, in a house seems like a simple concept. If you stand outside a house under construction it looks like the builders simply nailed together a bunch of 2x4s in a kind of grid pattern to make a skeleton for the building. There's a lot more to it and especially to do it right. But, to get it right it takes some precise measuring, measuring again and then cutting. The old adage of “measure twice but only cut once” cannot be overstated!

My favorite method for finding the square of a framed wall is to measure from corner to corner. The other common method is the 3-4-5 triangle to get a 90 degree corner.

If you have the chance to pick out your lumber at the supply store then jump at the chance. Sure, it's hard to tell the straightness of pieces that are buried in the middle of a pallet full of lumber. However, if you have fewer than 50 pieces of lumber to buy, then looking down the length of each piece for straightness is worth your time. Keep in mind there will be slight variations that include twisting and curving but the pieces you want to avoid are the ones with obvious and severely noticeable variations. They're best in the firewood pile.

If you have to rent a pneumatic hammer to do your framing it is money well spent. If you have other building projects in mind in the next decade or so then buying one should be part of your budget and will serve you in a lot of ways in the years to come. If you're feeling “luddite-ish” then by all means get yourself the best framing hammer you can buy.

Wall framing basics and construction also include the type of structural sheathing you will use to strengthen the walls, add substance to the insulation that you will be using, and provide a base for applying the house siding.

Standard exterior structural sheathing is usually made of plywood, oriented strand board (OSB), exterior gypsum board, or waferboard. If you are considering another type, be sure it is rated as structural wall sheathing. Some builders put it on a framed wall as it lays horizontal on the floor, while others apply the sheathing after the wall is tipped up. I don't have any recommendations either way but you may want to ask your subcontractor which way is best. They'll probably have a preference one way or the other just because "they've always done it that way".

Tyvek is the most common house wrap around here (the Midwest). It basically serves as a kind of wind jacket for the house, prevents air from leaking in around your doors and windows (mostly), and is also waterproof.

Be sure to have more than one person on hand during wall construction and sheathing because it often requires one or two people to hold things in place while another performs the attaching by nailing everything down.

Wall framing Pictures

The walls start to go up.

This is the north face of the house.

This is looking at the northwest corner.

I climbed up on one of the dirt piles for this shot. This is the south face of the house.

Unfortunately, I had missed the day when the south wall was raised! I heard it took almost a dozen strong firefighters to push and stabilize it (maybe it was best that I wasn't there).

Because there wasn't a second floor to be attached to this wall the building inspector said it had to have continuous members running the full vertical length because of the wind load issue. The original house plans didn't have a framing plan for this wall, so the guys were debating on the best way to do this.

In the end it was framed in 2 halves, left and right. Each half was raised separately, secured to the side wall, then bolted together down the vertical center. This kind of framing job is best left to professionals.

looking at the peak of the wall in the evening light.

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