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Building and erecting the walls

Here all the preparation of the wall plates made sense .

The first thing Darrell did was to lay out the floor plan on the floor .

With a chalk line we snapped out the inward edge of the floor plate 5 1/2 inches in from the corners . All the other outer walls were similarly marked out by measuring from this datum . These were checked for square by the 3,4,5 Pythagoras method of determining a right angled triangle .
Next the internal walls were marked on the floor , again by measurement and by consulting the plans .

Then the sole and lower top plates were made and laid out in position with great care to ensure dimensional accuracy . each pair pinned together .

With reference to the plans the windows and doors and their corresponding studs were marked out on both plates . Next came the joins between walls . Finally the basic studs at 16 " centers . Full length studs ( purchases as 92 3/8 to make 8' ceilings inc the three plates minus the ceiling thickness ) were marked with a single line with an X to show which side the stud went . Trimmers were marked with a T .
Once everything was marked out the pinned pairs were separated .

For the external walls the sole plates were pinned by toe nailing with them vertically in position along the lines so that they would not slip as the walls were erected and they rotated 90 degrees to settle over the marks . The top plates were placed roughly were they would be needed together with the Douglass Fir headers . ( Douglass Fir is redder in tint and stronger than the other common timber , Hemlock Fir )
The king studs were gun nailed accurately to their headers . These were then end nailed on the marks on the plates .Next came the trimmers , then the ordinary studs . Special attention was paid to the corners and where other walls joined to ensure that there would be a stud to nail to and to support the sheet rock or plasterboard as it is called in the UK . Where there were windows short trimmers and "cripple studs" were fitted . These were topped with a double 2 x 4 header to give an opening the same size as the specified window or 1 / 4 bigger . Door openings are about 2 " bigger than the door but this can be determined accurately from tables given by the door manufacturers .

Out came the string line and the sole plate line was checked for straightness and adjusted where necessary with a sledge hammer ! likewise the top plate line . except where joining pieces were to be the ultimate top plate was nailed on . Then the frame was measured corner to corner and adjusted to ensure squareness till both diagonals measured the same then pinned down ready for the sheeting .

The 7/16 9 x 4 osb sheets were laid out carefully , pinned with hand drive nails before being finally nailed with 2 1/4 gun nails every six inches at the edges and every foot internally . The osb comes marked already to ease this process . The top of the sheets being on the top plate and the foot overhanging the sole plate . This covers the rim joist when the window is erected . . The osb over the windows was cut out slightly oversized .

These off cuts come in handy to save using full sheets above and below windows .Now the hammering was over and it was time to erect the wall . As the wall we had made was 36 feet long it needed a pair of wall jacks to lift it . These operate with a 2 x 4 and ratchet themselves up it with a lever action . The toe nails keep the wall from sliding as it is erected . Darrell and me worked our jacks , at first from the floor and then from a ladder in unison and up the wall went till it got easier as it reached the balance point and it fell into place .
Quickly we secured it in place with 2 x 4 braces , had a breather , packed up and thus ended another fine day in paradise !


More Pictures and details here !

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