Erecting walls

To anyone who has done platform framing before, building walls is the most obvious of activities. For novices, there is a lot of complexity to work through, a lot of learning to be done. I spent most of my time reading, drawing, pondering, conversating. Oh, and resting my hammering arm.

We could frame with either 2x4 or 2x6. 2x6s costs a little more, the lumber is usually a little better, the wall is stronger, and there's more space for in-wall insulation. Stick-built houses around here are usually built with 2x6s, but spaced 24" O.C. (instead of 16" O.C. for 2x4s), to use less wood. That's fine, but then you need stronger sheathing and drywall to span the larger gaps, so the savings are reduced.

Because our building is so small (12' x 10'), losing 4" in each dimension to thicker walls seemed like a lot to lose. Also, heavy insulation isn't important with the use patterns we're expecting in this building. So, we went with 2x4s.

Even though stud spacing for 2x4s is typically 16" in a house, in our little building I chose 24". The main reason is that the 10' dimensions don't work out well with 16" stud spacing. You end up with a couple studs really close together. If I spaced the rafters at 16" to match, I'd have 2 rafters really close together, too. Sheathing ends need to meet right on studs/rafters, and irregularly spaced studs/rafters make that a bit messy. We saw that on the floor, where the middle section of subfloor had to be 6' and 4', not 2' and 8', which would have let me use a full sheet.

It's not a bad idea to make studs and rafters line up. Then the roof load is transferred straight in to the studs, without relying on the top plates to carry that load. In fact, this is a key element of Advanced Framing, allowing a single top plate instead of the traditional double top plate. I'm keeping the double top plate, because it makes joining the walls at the corners easier (as a novice, I need easy).

The building is only a single story, so the wall can be a little weaker, than a 2-story building. So, we picked 2x4s 24" O.C.

When I bought the lumber to frame the walls, I ordered pre-cut studs. This way they're all the same length - I don't have to count on my ability to cut to length reliably.

My first time framing a window:

Once framed, we tilted up the wall to see how it felt.

Being so big means I have plenty of muscle. Picking up the wall frame was easy. Easy enough that we decided to sheath the wall while it's flat on the ground. That forced some decisions about the sheathing at the gable end and letting the sheathing hang down to tie in to the floor system. To work that out, we had to think about the overhang at the gable end, and I decided we needed lookouts.

Julie really enjoyed the chiseling work.

Once that was taken care of, we proceeded to sheath up the wall. I used 10d galvanized box nails to fasten the sheathing. What a pain in the ass. They bend easily. A knot, or a bad hammer hit, and they'd buckle over. The galvanization meant they stuck in the wood really well, and were hard to pull out. The heads usually folded or pulled off in the process, so there was nothing to grab on to. Often I just flattened the nail in to the sheathing. It looks sloppy, but I had little choice.

After the first piece of sheathing was done, I stepped back to look at the work, and saw that the wall wasn't squared. Arggg! I forgot to square before sheathing! I spent a day figuring out what to do. Keep it as-is? Remove 50 difficult nails? Cut the lumber to square? Cut the wall apart and rebuild? After careful study, I decided that it was close enough to be workable, and continued. I did trim the sheathing on one side so the next piece of sheathing could fit properly.

Finally, the sheathing was done and I picked up the wall. It was very heavy, but I still was able to pick it up alone.

Once up, Julie held it steady while I shifted it back and forth until it was in just the right spot (in 2 dimensions) and plum (measured at both ends) and braced.

Bill helped me tilt up, align, and stabilize the 2nd wall, which will get the door.

The remaining walls continued in a similar vein. I got faster each time. I built the 4th wall and tilted it up in 1 day, which is like 8x slower than a pro. I'm improving!

The 3rd & 4th walls only got 1 piece of sheathing before going up, because the remaining sheathing has to go on the outside of the 1st & 2nd walls, too. Also, we'll use the gap to pass up the rafter units.

The next step is porch beams, then the roof. Here's the pocket where they'll rest on the wall (the plywood needs to be cut away) and the beams themselves. The beams are from trees on our site, full-dimensioned 2x6.