Efficent Framing.

skinnyjimmy

How do you guys go about framing your floors,walls etc.......,for example do you run plates for the whole house or build the walls as you go?,do you sheath your walls before standing? etc.....

I'll be back on later this evening to post some of my techniques.

cbfx3

few of my techniques.. I like to lay out and fasten plates down if I am working on a slab.. usually put down plates while some guys are coming behind standing walls. If it is a plywood floor I like to do it all at the same time.. in this case I will cut top/bottom plates and lay them out with guys slamming them together behind me. I prefer to sheet walls after the fact but high stuff comes pretty easy to us since I have a telescoping forklift with a huge work platform. Very little ladder work if it is a decent site. One little trick I do that I havent seen before with trusses.. I'll cut a buttload of 22 7/16" blocks and will have a guy nailing them to the trusses on 8' centers as they come off the stack. Then when we set the truss we will fasten the blocks to the next truss. keeps them really straight and solid and cuts back on the amount of temporary bracing needed (a run or so of diagonals is about all we need) Much less to tear off when sheeting an full sheets of ply work without having to trim or crank any trusses around so it sheets much faster. Blocking them may slow you down a tad when swinging trusses but I feel alot safer and to me the benefits outweigh the cons..

loneframer

I generally run a 3-4 man crew. Most of my homes are/were built off of pilings and stringers (whalers). I always run out all joists leaving them cantilever long on the sidewalls, then strike a line allowing for the box and sheathing for the setback. Many homes require a fire rating on the deck, so we do one layer of 1/2" with 5/8" T&G over top with paper in between.
On walls, all lines are struck on the deck to verify that all doors will get full trim and mechanicals/fixtures will fit. (many of these floorplans are very tight), plates are cut in pairs and layed out before any framing. All wall parts are cut beforehand and labelled for window/door openings. Walls are stood without sheathing and done later off of pumpjacks, along with papering and windows.
Roof rafters and other parts are calculated and cut in advance to speed installation.

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Gus Dering

Loneframer bustin out some new pics

Now if we could only get him to sheet from the deck and use a house wrap.

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Warren

I don't like to cut all the plates prior to building. They just get in the way and end up getting knocked off the deck or built backwards. We usually work in sections of a house. Most homes we work on are large so we will split up and stay out of each others way. At the beginning, I like to do the first couple sections of joists, then deck up to that point. This gives us a nice flat work area and gets us out of the mud a little. Many times we will set our roof trusses in sections instead of trying to set them all in one day. This requires an extra drive time for the crane, but it reduces errors and stress. Most of the time, there is not enough area to scatter all the trusses to build the hips,girders, etc anyway.
When we set windows, we usually request that they send us a trailer. Many of the yards will leave the trailer and come back for it in a few days when we are finished. This way we don't have windows scattered all over the house making them susceptible to damage and/or theft. We usually have about 40 to 50 window/door units on these homes. One house had over 100.

ClemS

we actually like to frame them tight around here. lap the box with sheathing, and get the walls somewhat straight & plumb... and most of us didn't learn from the habitat for humanity videos either

loneframer

We always label the walls and the floor to reduce setting backwards, because it does happen. I usually set the walls as they are being framed, so not a big risk of mistakes. After the walls are labelled they are pulled back to the center of the building and don't really get in the way.

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KentWhitten

Can't you find some money for a saw stand?

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If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~Lao Tzu

Custom Cabinetry - Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Kennebunkport, Yarmouth, Falmouth, Cumberland, Ogunquit, Maine

Salmon Falls Cabinetry

Framer53

At a minimum a set of horses.
Man that bending over gets old!

oldfrt

He just likes to work on his abs as he's working!


The method you use always depends on the size of the crew.Keeping everyone busy,yet out of the way.
On our past large crews.

One person layed out plates.
One or two did build up.(Headers,Jacks,cut cripples)
Low guy carrying studs to position.
Two starting to nail walls together,low guy supplies headers etc.,pulling in anyone idle to lift walls.
Frame all exterior walls first,cross brace to plump,send someone to start sheathing,finish interior walls,straighten exterior walls while plumbing interior walls,tie in all top plates,straighten long exterior walls ,carry joist into position ...............
I'm tired just thinking about it....

Working with the same crew for weeks everything starts to go like clockwork.

Now we do a two man crew,less hectic,closer tolerances,fewer jobs needed,and a lot more rewarding.

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ClemS

Tom Struble

nice to see you have a ''helper'' to sweep up

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WNYcarpenter

That's pretty much how we do it, except we like to sheet our walls on the deck.

4 man crew for us. Foreman, lead, helper, and grunt.

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Willie T

Make life easy for your saw man, your ground man who nails the initial braces on, and your truss setters... all at once.

All the saw man has to do is whack up braces about 28-30 inches long. Scraps any length around there will do. Just so long as they are of a length to span one truss to the next.

All the ground man has to do is put one nail in close to one end of the brace. No measuring really necessary.

Give each setting man an accurately cut gauge piece. He hooks the arriving truss to the previously set truss with the gauge, close to where the brace is nailed. He then pivots the brace (or braces) waiting on the previously set truss up over top of the newly arrived truss, and fires away with the nail gun. No measuring nor aligning brace ends or marks necessary.

An additional benefit to this method is that the braces fly up pivoted down (or "up", your choice) along the top chord of the truss, and are not likely to strike anything nor get knocked loose.

The gauge keeps everything accurate... AND it is left in place hanging on the "just set" pair while the next truss is on its way up. (Just a little added security) All your setting man does is slip it up off that pair, and hook the next set. All ready to nail again.

No one, anywhere, has to measure anything nor line up anything. It is super simple to just hook the gauge on.

One hazard to the braces fitting in between trusses, as the second poster here suggests, is that there is VERY LITTLE of the nail points penetrating either end grain of the brace. (a very POOR area to hope will hold a nail) Let your set man trip once and shift even half of his weight against the latest truss set, and he and that truss are likely to come down QUICK. All bracing nails should be in "shear"... never so they can slide right out of a side stressed truss... and never just into end grain.
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And just as a side note. You get caught ignoring that pink bracing sheet around here when setting trusses, and your butt could find itself in a BIG sling real quick. The local Big Brother frowns severely on that.

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Bill Everett - St. Petersburg, FL

WNYcarpenter

That's a good tip! Thanks

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"I knew I lost my wallet as soon as I threw my pants over the fence". -'lil jarhead bro when asking for a wire transfer...

Willie T

Actually some crews find it easier to pivot the brace from the arriving truss to the previously set truss. (the opposite of how I've described it) Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Let your crew decide which works best for them. Some of my guys pivot and hook at the same time. Different strokes.

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"True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and only that which is."
François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Bill Everett - St. Petersburg, FL

Warren

We usually layout 2x4 precuts and use those to brace up. Uses fewer nails, and less blocks to pick up after the roof is done. Usually our crane has a 3 way spreader, and that holds them in decent position until the precut is nailed. When it comes to setting trusses, I do not get in a hurry. If one nail lets go in the middle of our precut brace, the trusses will stay up. If one of those nails lets loose on those blocks????
Like you said though, to each his own. We have come up with many systems for framing in the 25 years I have been doing it. Our methods are a blend of new/old ideas and trial and error.

Willie T

All the extra blocks lying around the floor were an irritation to me too. Once. I tried to get the guys to work with those pivoting braces nailed to the bottom of the top chord (just leave them in place) instead of the top. But it was a hassle to them, and I was also concerned about something falling on the braces, knocking them off. Decided it was worth the minor aggravation to leave the braces on the top. Much safer, and no sprained backs from trying to twist up under to nail.

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"True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and only that which is."
François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Bill Everett - St. Petersburg, FL

WNYcarpenter

The last two truss job we did were 40' in the air, so having a gauge block and a brace you can quickly nail off would've worked well for us....I can see us doing that, then throwing on a longer brace without pulling layout.


the gauge block would even work nicely as a clamp for some of the wonky trusses we get.

__________________
"I knew I lost my wallet as soon as I threw my pants over the fence". -'lil jarhead bro when asking for a wire transfer...

KentWhitten

We use these

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If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~Lao Tzu

Custom Cabinetry - Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Kennebunkport, Yarmouth, Falmouth, Cumberland, Ogunquit, Maine

Salmon Falls Cabinetry