King Studs for Dummies

Header, jack studs, and king studs

We have no one on staff who attended journalism school, but we suspect that the notion that any "communications" graduate can write knowledgeably on any topic is a J-school tenet of faith. We respectfully disagree, since some people can't write knowledgeably about anything. We'll cut them some slack, though; and admit that, given some background, most people could at least sound knowledgeable about most things. Then again, there's WiseGEEK.com's Mary McMahon (formerly known as S. E. Smith)... our bullshit detector simply went wild when we read, "What Is a King Stud?" (now, believe it or not, at AboutMechanics.com).

McMahon got off on the wrong foot in her very first sentence:

"A king stud is a specialized type of stud which is used in post and beam construction to support an opening such as a door or window."

We beg to differ, Mary, because:

• A king stud does not "support [the] opening"; king studs bracket the opening and the header and jack studs transfer the weight of the overlying structure to the foundation.
• King studs aren't used in post and beam construction, In fact, post and beam construction is more likely in a pole barn than a house, but king studs are everywhere.

We wish WiseGEEK published references like eHow.com (sometimes) does, because it would be instructive to see what the original said and McMahon garbled into these claims:

• "In post and beam construction, a structure is framed with a series of studs spaced at identical intervals." That's not post and beam, that's modern framing with dimensional lumber.
• "...studs run from the floor to the ceiling..."
• "[king] studs are located just outside the framing of the door or window on both sides to hold the headers..." In reality, the jack studs support the ends of the header; the king studs are there to square the opening.
• "When a new home is built, king studs are usually required around doors and windows..." We're pretty sure they're always required...

We pretty much ran out of room and time to point out and correct all of McMahon's conflations, misstatements, and downright errors. We will, however, take the time to disabuse this idiot freelancer of the notion that post-and-beam construction is the modern standard. Instead, we'll let the carpentry experts at the Hammer Zone explain that, "post-and-beam framing... fell out of favor in the 1800's." Given McMahon's obvious ignorance of construction and framing, not to mention her insistence on blathering about post-and-beam, is it any wonder we decided to give Mary her second Dumbass of the Day award?

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