Framing

  • Common Causes for Structural Home Framing Failure - If you're starting to have problems with your home like large cracks in the walls, either on the inside or the outside, there's a good chance that you have some sort of structural home framing failure. This could be caused by a few different things, so let's take a look at all three this of them.
  • Wood Framing and Building Hardware Tips - If you're framing a house today, there's a good chance that it has more hardware in the home today than five years ago. It's starting to get a little overkill and I don't really know how much more hardware one of these wood framed houses can actually take.
  • What Causes Cracks In Your Roof Framing? - There are a few different things that could cause cracks in your roof framing rafters and other structural components that are used while building your roof. Some of these cracks are actually in the lumber and no one ever did anything about them, while building the roof.
  • Roof Framing Secrets - Plan, Measure Then Build - When I first started working in construction, I was 16 years old and my first job was building stairs with my father. Within a few years I got to help my dad build some extremely difficult custom home roofs. These roofs required about five days for two men to cut and assemble.
  • 5 Simple Rules for Beginner House Framing - If you haven't ever built a house before and you don't have any experience building a house, I would like to share five simple rules for beginner house framing with you. These five simple rules aren't going to solve all of your problems, but they're going to provide you with a step in the right direction.
  • Floor Joisting Framing Secrets - I was about 18 years old, when my dad needed to build a floor that was going to be located inside of an industrial tilt up building. The floor joisting framing secrets that I'm about to share with you, were learned on this particular job.
  • The Best Carpenter That I Ever Knew - My dad could build anything. I watched him build a room addition on our house when I was a child, build furniture in the garage and even built his own campers for his truck. My dad is truly the best carpenter that I ever knew and remains so to this day.
  • Problems Created From Roof Leaks to Roof Framing - You're not going to need to be a construction specialist or have 50 years of experience in the construction industry to look at a section of your roof framing that is suffering from water damage, to get a pretty good idea that you might have a roof leak.
  • Five Tips for Easier Gable Roof Framing - If you're planning on building a gable roof, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick up a couple of books or read a few articles, especially if you don't have any idea how to build one. Let me see if I can help you, by providing five tips for easier gable roof framing.
  • Wall Framing Stud Tips - Contractor Secrets - One of the biggest problems with framing studs today is that they are cut from the center or near the center of small trees. I don't know if it's true, but a friend of mine was telling me that the average tree cut down today is no bigger than 6 inches in diameter.
  • House Framers Use Different Words on the East Coast - When I first started working as a house framer in Southern California, there were more terms for more different things than you could possibly ever imagine. Some of these contractors got their training on the East Coast or Midwest and eventually migrated to the west coast.
  • Dangers of Using Damaged Lumber - Home Construction - It's not as common as it used to be, when large framing contractor's would save money ordering damaged lumber or inferior building products. This might be a thing of the past in some areas, but there are still framing contractors and lumber companies who you need to be careful with, especially when the lumber they're sending out to your job can cause an accident.
  • Always Think Ahead While Framing A House - One of the most important things that my father taught me and his grandfather taught him, was the importance of thinking ahead while we were framing the house. If a carpenter is working by the hour and isn't getting paid by what he produces on a daily basis, he's not going to be very concerned about thinking ahead.
  • How Much Can Lumber Shrink? - This has been one of the biggest problems in the construction business for years. The bigger the piece of lumber, the more it can shrink. There are large pieces of lumber that have been kiln dried where most of the moisture has been removed and this wood seems to remain the same size and rarely shrinks.
  • Wall Framing Tips - Figuring the Materials - It doesn't really make any difference, whether you have experienced framing walls, or if this is going to be the first wall that you have ever framed. We can always learn something, if we keep an open mind, and enjoy reading.
  • Wall Framing Tips - Building the Wall - Hopefully you've read the article on how to figure out how much materials you will need to purchase, before building the wall. Once you have figured out and purchased your building materials, it's time to learn how to assemble the wall.
  • Caulking the Bottom Framing Plates for Pest Control -
    Insects like ants and cockroaches, can fit through the smallest cracks, whether they're on the outside of your house or they're on the inside of your house, if these cracks are open, insects are going to be using them on a regular basis.
  • Framing Exterior Walls with 2 X 6 - Framing the exterior walls with 2 x 6 studs instead of 2 x 4 can definitely add to the price of the home. In addition to the cost of the lumber, you also have an increase in the labor, insulation, window and door trimming.
  • 24 Inch on Center Wall Framing - If you're building a home and you want to cut costs just a little bit further, you can always frame all of your interior non-bearing walls 24 inches on center. You cannot however use this for your exterior or bearing walls. I would suggest that you check with your local building department, before you frame any of your walls 24 inches on center.
  • Built up Framing Headers - The header is the framing support that holds up the floor or roof above it. Normally the window or door header will be the thickness of the wall width. If the wall is 2 x 6, the header is going to be 5 1/2 inches wide or the same thickness as the width of the 2 x 6 wall.
  • The Truth about Contractor Referral Directories - Here's a question that every homeowner asked themselves at least once. Where can I find a dependable contractor? When I was a child you would look through the yellow pages or start asking around the neighborhood, until you found someone that could work on your home.
  • Wood Truss Roof Repairs - Home Framing Advice - It's not common to find damaged roof trusses when building a new house, but every once in a while you will run into a problem where a truss has been damaged or even destroyed. This could hold up the final buildings completion date if not taken care of, immediately.
  • How Important Is It to Have the Right Window and Door Sizes? - Framing layout is one of the most important parts in new home construction. Not only will the doors and windows affect the positioning of stud placement, but plumbing and electrical fixtures will also play a big part in where those studs will be placed.
  • Simple Gable Roof Framing Plan - Contractor Secrets Revealed - I've been framing roofs and working on new homes for over 30 years and it's about time that I reveal some of the secrets that most contractors hold dearly to their heart. Some of the roof framing secrets have been passed down to me from my grandfather.
  • Plywood Roof Sheeting - Roof Framing Trade Secrets - Most framing contractor's look at the building plans and order all of the material, according to those that are specified on the plans. This works out fine, and can often save you money, but rarely produces the best home that you could possibly frame.