Framing a Wall for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMXCIX

Window jack studs & sill

We aren't absolutely certain, but we rather suspect that some of the worst "free" advice offered by freelancers comes has been written about the most basic tasks. By "basic," we mean foundational: if you get these wrong, your entire project might well collapse. We can't be sure, of course, but we rather suspect that anyone who could follow the instructions written by returning DotD Michael Straessle in his HomeSteady.com post, "How to Frame Exterior Walls," would find that their home wasn't all that steady when they were done.

One of the dead giveaways that the six-time winner was out of his comfort zone was that the references he claimed to have used didn't even address his topic. That was normal for a lot of authors at eHow.com; Straessle included. That might not have mattered if what he wrote was actually even close to accurate... but it wasn't. Some of the lowlights of his instruction set include

• Lay out studs 16" OC the length of the wall and nail them to the sill and top plate. then, "Measure and mark the location of the door. The rough opening should be 2-inches larger in both directions."  – Shouldn't you mark the door (and windows) before setting the studs? Sure you should!
• After you, "Place a stud at each mark and secure them with the 16d nails," the next step is to, "Place a row of 2 by 4-inch lumber on the bottom of one of the rows overlapping the butt joints and nail them together. This is the bottom plate." WTF does "overlapping the butt joints" even mean? And on what planet is the the bottom plate?
• Here's how Mikey would handle the top plate, which is supposed to be double: "Cut as many 2 by 4-inch pieces of lumber to 14 ½-inches [sic; it's ASCII code for 14½] as needed to join the butt joints at the top of the wall. Secure them in place by nailing through the studs as well as the top plate." This moron actually thinks the top plate is doubled by nailing in blocking against the plate itself? What an idiot!

Some of his other stupidity includes instructions like,

• "Next, cut as many cripple studs as it takes to span the opening between the two studs just installed on 16-inch centers." – No, Mike, you maintain the existing 16-inch centers for the entire wall, not space cripples according to the king studs.
• "Cut two pieces of the 2 by 4-inch lumber that are two inches taller than the window. Secure them to the top of the sill and against the two studs with the 16d nails" – .He actually says to set the window's jack studs on the sill? Idiocy!
• Stressle gets confused about king and jack studs for both the window and the door. Sigh.

All this from a freelancer who intoned, with his serious voice, the following in his introduction:

"The importance of a correctly constructed exterior wall is obvious, but the specifics can sometimes be vague."

Vague? This guy says "vague"? and then proceeds to write some of the worst framing instructions we've seen yet (and we've seen a lot)? He never mentions 2-by-6 framing for exterior walls, thinks all headers are doubled 2-by-6s, clearly doesn't understand laying out framing for a wall with a window or door, and said something absolutely baffling to explain a doubled top plate. Yeah: this guy is eminently qualified for a Dumbass of the Day award, one from our dangerous stupidity collection.

DDIY - FRAMING