How to Do Rough Framing

This step by step article covers the basics of rough framing, with solutions and tips that should help you understand and learn the basics needed to do rough framing.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• tape measure, framing square, measuring square, chalk line, hammer, saw, nail puller optional

1. 

   A good blueprint by a good designer before you start your job will go a long way in any framing project, a big problem a lot of people and or even contractors have is having a blueprint made by someone who has the degree needed to make the blueprints but really has no idea how to frame and more then likely never has, resulting in running into problems that you will have no idea how or why. These days finding a good designer and or set of blueprints to be made for your project can get a little over overwhelming with all the options these days. A simple to use solution if needed is to have freelance construction pros world wide contact you that meat all your project needs, you can post it a marketplace like FreelanceConstructionEstimator.net where you would sign up free as a project manager and post your project to the marketplace and start getting free quotes within hrs. OK, so your blueprint is all set and lumber is on the job. We are ready to start building the floor and understanding square, simple rule of square is 6-8-10 that is 6' of rise and 8' of run the measurement across is 10'(being in square can also be checked by checking to see if both corner to corner measurements are the same check the foundation for sq.) A problem you can run into if you build your floor out of square is that all your roof rafters will have to be cut different sizes and or your truss will not fit right.(floor off foundation is ok) Checking for square is a must if you don't want to add any more work to the job then you already have. Think of it like this, all framing is done by building the project from the roof down or setting up the floor to meet the needs of the roof above. When building the floor the first thing that is needed is to add your seal plate (common seal plate is 2x6 treated) then snap all the outside floor lines to the seal plate but you will snap the inside line of the bond board for the floor lines. (bond board is sometimes the same boards as your floor joist, and or it is the broad that raps the outside of your floor nailed in to the back side of all floor joist with 3 16-D nails) Check for load points coming down from the roof so that you can add in the needed layout marks for the support(i.e 2 to 3 floor joist nailed together) next figure out the hole for the stairs, first by adding 1" to your finish opening size then putting the layout marks on your seal plate.(layout marks will be covered later and they apply for all layout marks)

2. Joist layout, when laying out your joist you need to think about the walls above so that when you layout and frame your walls they end up stud over joist and or roof rafter over stud and stud over joist. The reason being is to transfer all roof loads onto all concrete and or floor support. Every floor joist that you layout needs to be started by pulling a measurement to 15-1/4" and make a mark from that mark you will mark down every 16" for all common joist(on your marks you make a line if your pulling the measurements from the right you would put a x for a joist to the left of your line and if pulling from the left it would go to the right) If you want to use 24" centers and not 16" your first measurement would be 23-1/4" then measure out your 24" centers

3. After sheeting is done on the sub-floor is time to start the layout, To help you understand where all your walls are going and how to layout your top and bottom plates you snap all your wall lines on the floor. Then you want to cut and fill in all the wall lines with your top and bottom plates, (top and bottom plates are the lumber that is nail to the floor and ceiling and from here out referred to as plates) After all plates are cut and in place you start your wall stud layout onto your plates. Note: when cutting your plates you need one bottom plate and two top plates, the 2nd top plate is used to tie in all the wall together. Tip find your longest wall snap a line then snap a sq line down the center of the house, use that line to check all layouts before building.

4. 

   X's and O's, are the normal layout marks used by contractors X meaning where a full stud goes and O's anywhere a cut stud goes(O's are the studs used in door ways, windows, etc) To start your layout you should make 4-1/2" marks with 3 X's for everywhere a wall runs into the side of another wall, them 3 stud are so you can nail one wall to the other also they make your drywall nailing backer. Then add the same 3 marks to any wall that ends without being nailed to a different wall, After all your 3 X's are in (or wall BUCKS) you will start your stud layout this is a very important step to save a ton of time later. Every wall that you layout needs to be started by pulling a measurement to 15-1/4" and make a mark from that mark you will mark down every 16" for your wall studs, (on your marks you make a line if your pulling the measurements from the right you would put a x for a stud to the left of your line and if pulling from the left it would go to the right) If you want to use 24" stud center and not 16" your first measurement would be 23-1/4" then measure out your 24" centers. Note: for rough in measurements you add the following, a 3' door the opening needs to be 3'2-1/2" (add 2-1/2" to all rough door opening) a 32" window the rough opening should be 33-1/4" (add 1-1/4" to every window rough opening) and a 4' Bi-fold door the rough opening should be 4'2-1/4 (add 2-1/4 to every bi-fold door opening) (add 2 16-D nails in next to each stud)

5. Starting your stairs, Understanding your rise and run, when figuring out what size stair treads and risers to use you will need two measurements, 1st this one is almost optional depending how much room you have from where your stair hole starts to where you want your stairs to end, Lets say space is a factor and your stair hole doesn't start at a wall. Get yourself a string and tie a plum-bob or little nut or bolt to it then drop it down from the stair hole where the stairs need to start and get yourself a mark made on the floor. For this example we will say that your measurement from where your stairs start to where they need to end is 10'10" 2nd we will need the rise that is the measurement from the top of your floor to your floor and our example measurement will be 9'. Now that you got your two measurements the easy way to figure out your numbers that you will need for your risers is, By default your 8' rise should have 13 risers, 9' rise should have 14 risers and 10' rise should have 16 risers. Now the example has 9' rise convert that into inches 108" and divide it by 14, 108/14= 7-5/8. Now lets figure out your run (standard tread run is 10") since we know that we have 14 risers we now know that we have 13 runs or stair treads. (you always have one less tread then you do rise) Take your measurement ours is 10'10" convert that into inches 130" and divide it by 13, 130/13= 10" now that you know your rise and run numbers your all set to start your layout

6. Make sure that the crow is facing you, set your framing square on the 2x12 then put your square nuts on it and adjust the framing square and square nuts till you can see your measurements for the rise and run right at the end of your board. Tips, put the square nuts on the outside of the framing square and use the inside to adjust to your rise and run measurements, Make sure that your rise and run numbers end right at the end of your board, and when starting to layout all your stairs do it slowly, do it so that very line touches the other perfectly, also your 1st rise isn't on your 2x12 it is that 1st step you take walking down your stairs, that rise will be made out of 3/4" OSB and nailed to the 2x12 (stair stringer) to the main floor that we want the stairs to be installed on. Now you have 14 stair layout marks on your 2x12, go to the 1st stair on the board take your rise line and run it straight back to what would be the bottom side of the stairs. After you get that line in we need to come in 3/4" for the 3/4 OSB that we use to install the stairs, make a new line that will be your cut line. Then you would count down your number of treads or runs we have 13, starting off of the 1st stair we just set up we would count down 13 treads then use the line that's there that would be your next rise and make a line straight Back, Off that line you want to come in 1-1/2 and make a cut mark. The 1-1/2 is the thickness of the treads we are using, (Standard is 1-1/2) Follow them tips above and your chance for success will be very high.

7. 

   Cutting your stairs out, this is the 2nd big mistake people make when building there own stair case, when you cut your layout lines touch the line don't cut the line! Cutting out the 3/4" you need for your 1st riser you would follow these steps, 1st get the width we will say ours is 3', then you want to add up your 7-5/8"(or your rise)+1-1/2+15=24-1/8", so we would cut a 3'x24-1/8" riser out of 3/4" OSB. Now that your 3/4" OSB is cut there is a little trick that will help the hole job finish off right. Whatever your rise is add a 1-1/2" to it and our number then is 9-1/8, then have the 3' part of the 3/4" facing you pull out away from yourself and make the 9-1/8 mark on both sides then get a line going across on the side of the line that is still in front of you write on it rise, and on the other side stringer, use that line as the marks for where your stair stringers start. Building your stair case tips, before cutting your stair risers and treads measure the width of the opening and take off 3" from your measurement then cut your risers and treads to that number. To make up for the 3" we just took off the stair case, we will run a 2x4 down the bottom side of our stairs this 1-1/2 will make your life a lot easier when starting the finish work in the hall going down your stairs case, after drywall, base board, and carpet you have a perfect fit and you shouldn't run into any finish problems. When framing the stair case start with nailing in your risers one at the top and one at the bottom then repeat till all are in. Don't nail your stair treads on till after the stair stringers are installed unless you want to make them 3x heavier then what they could be.

8. 

   Tub decks, These need to be build using 3/4 OSB and 2x4s, placing as many 2x4s as you can on top of a floor joist below because of all the weight that it must hold.

9. 

   Roof trusses, almost all trusses run on a common 24" center you will need to check the plans to find your starting measurement if you doing a hip roof, if its just common gables you would just start your layout by figure in your over hangs like you was pulling the measurement from the fascia boards and make a mark at 23-1/4" then pull your 24" centers. When all trusses are set you pull up off your soffit boards on both ends and make a mark at 48" then use a chalk line to snap that measurement across, that line will be used for all your roof sheeting to start off of. Nailing off your roof and or the number of nails need are different for each town so you will need to check all nailing codes per your town before starting any frame job, the nails used for nailing all sheeting roof,walls,floors is 8-D standard nails.

10. Rafters would need a hole article its self, for this step you would understand it the best if you have a little understanding of rafters.
    I will cover the default rafter lengths per pitch and per foot examples, a 2-12 pitch at one foot long would need a rafter from the tip of your ridge to the tip of your heal height at your wall the rafter is 1'-3/16 long and for the rest of the examples they will look like this 2-12=1'3/16, 3-12=1'3/8, 4-12=1'5/8, 5-12=1'1" 6-12=1'1-5/8, 7-12=1'1-7/8, 8-12=1'2-7/8, 9-12=1'3", 10-12=1'3-5/8, 11-12=1'4-1/4, 12-12=1'5, The number you use when figuring out rafter lengths is half the wall width + you subtract half the width of your ridge board example, let say our gable wall is 20' wide and we are using a 1-1/2 ridge board, the measurement we would use to figure our rafter length is how the example follows, 20'/2 =10", 10'-3/4 =9'1/4 and then lets say our pitch is 6-12, the rafter length needed for this example would be 10'1

Tips & Warnings

• Plan for success, because no plan is a sure plan to fail.

Resources

• get construction material list made online