A Pass-Through Window the Dummy Way

framing for a pass-through

A not-surprising number of contributors to the erstwhile eHow.com boasted degrees in journalism or "communications" (aren't those the same thing?). It's probably not surprising because so many J-school graduates in the mid-to-late 2000s found themselves unable to use their degrees due to a combination of the rapid demise of newspapers and magazines and economic downturn. Apparently convinced that they had the ability to reword anything, clueless writers like Sidney Johns of HomeSteady.com barfed up boatloads of rubbish like "How to Make a Pass Through Window Between Two Rooms"¹ to pick up a few bucks.

Like many an eHowian pounding out steps for a DIY project, Johns gave a pass to providing references for her plans, choosing to toss out the name of a print book (one she'd probably never seen). We suspect that because, while the steps are pretty much in the right order (how stupid would you have to be to get them wrong?), the details are lacking.

Sidney, of course, starts by telling people to hire professionals to move plumbing and electrical wiring (though she says squat about how to locate them). Once that's out of the way, Johns tells her readers to,

"Create a frame for the window. Cut two 2-by-4-inch boards to the desired width and two to the desired height of the pass-through. Layout the frame so it is 4 inches wide and 2 inches thick. Connect the boards with L-brackets [sic] on the outside corners."

There are so many things wrong with that paragraph. Here's a partial list:

• A framing carpenter wouldn't make the frame before there was even an opening.
• Sidney neglected to allow for the thickness of the lumber in her "dimensions."
• We don't give a rat's ass that this is eHow, you do not use L brackets for framing!

There's more, though – there's always more at eHow:

"Cut out the marked area on the wall with a reciprocating saw. Cut carefully through the studs. Go through one layer at a time, cutting the wall first, then the studs, then the second wall. Use a level to be sure the stud cuts are flat and straight."

Based on that paragraph, it's pretty obvious that Johns neither knows how a reciprocating saw works nor knows how to use a level (or a carpenter's square). And when it comes to assembling the whole works, Sidney says to,

"Insert the frame into the opening and secure them to the exposed studs. Hammer 3-inch general purpose nails into the exposed studs on the top and the bottom of the opening."

Besides the rickety nature of a "frame" held together with "L-brackets," Johns neglected to consider whether the wall is load-bearing, in which case framing should include a header. When push comes to shove, the directions vomited up by our Dumbass of the Day are precisely what we'd expect of  a DIYer who had no earthly idea what she was doing.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_12175563_make-pass-through-window-between-two-rooms.html

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