Add-Ons for the Dummy Remodeler (2-by-4 Week 2)

typical wall framing

It's only Monday, day two of our 2-by-4 week* and already we're finding that some self-appointed eHow.com freelancers gave their content editors so little to work with that it's impossible to determine which of the two is the real dumbass. Since we don't know who at eHow "edited" "The Materials Needed for a 12x12 Room Addition," now niched at Hunker.com, we are stuck with the author's byline: written by Meg Jernigan. In this case, even getting the lumber dimensions right wouldn't have helped.

Right up front, we know that Jernigan is way over her head, because she (or perhaps her content editor) thinks that you need some heavy-duty lumber to frame the room:

"The ceiling and floor joists should be 12-foot-long 2-foot by 4-foot lengths. Twenty will do the job."

There you go again... that means that each joist is 96 ft³ of wood, or a hair under 2 tons each at 41 lbs/ft³! We just hope the foundation is strong enough for that weight.

But wait: Meg never says a word about foundation, never says a word about a roof. Her description is for a 12x12x8 framed box sitting on the ground, without a foundation or a roof. Duh, duh, dumb. Jernigan gets close to what's needed for framing the walls: she thinks about 28 studs in all (though she gets the length wrong), but she says nothing about sills, top plates, headers, blocking, and other non-stud framing members. She is, by the way, an idiot if she thinks floor joists should be 2-by-4s... She gets other things wrong, too: for one, she talks about drywalling on 16-inch centers, but those 28 studs would have to be on 2-foot centers. She also says that you'd need 63 18"x18" tiles to cover the floor, but says nothing about underlayment or, for that matter, adhesive.

This is just one more speech and drama graduate pretending she knows a-a-a-ll about construction because she's an "experienced" interior decorating writer. Feh: all she is is another Dumbass of the Day, garden-variety.

* a week dedicated to people who seem to think 2-by-4s are 2 feet by 4 feet...

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DDIY - FRAMING