Framing books

[Jared]

What's a good book for framing? I've got "Housebuilding: A Do It Yourself Guide" and I printed the framing manual that is linked on this site, but I didn't find it very useful. Mostly just pictures. I need an up to date book that'll give me some good information on framing on a concrete pad instead of a crawlspace.

[Jimmy_Cason]

Home depot has several framing books on the shelf.
I flipped pages in a couple of them today at lunch time.
One of the easier books to read and understand was called Framing & Rough carpentry.
Also, the library I go to has 3 or four titles on the subject.  
By far, the best book I have found out about from this forum is called Working Alone. I think it is by John Carroll.

Check this page out.
http://www.countryplans.com/books.html

[Amanda_931]

The Wagner (from the link above) seems like it's pretty good.  Pretty good about hand-holding too.

My guess is that you'll never find one book to tell you everything.

[scw]

Jack Sobon wrote a couple goods ones if timber framing is your thing.  I built my cabin from this book.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0882663658/qid=1125593592/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-7053878-1171859?v=glance&s=books

[Daddymem]

We got a cheap copy of the Habitat for Humanities book (http://www.habitatgiftshop.com/product_detail.asp?T1=HAB+11%2D1479) .  While not complete enough to start pounding nails and expect a house to come out of it, it was a good eye opener into all that is involved in building a home.  It was interesting when the author compared the way things are done in the East to the West.  One part I am unclear on has to do with the wall construction.  They build the exterior through walls.  Then in the picture where they say raise those walls, the exterior butt walls don't appear to be constructed on the deck.  The next step I expected was "put together the butt walls" instead it was how to raise the butt walls so they join into the through walls.  Did I miss something?  I'm not sure ho they could build the through walls and the butt walls on the same deck since they would be laying on top of each other. Well, we are searching for the Wagner book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1880029987/countryplanscom/102-2397510-1069726)  on the cheap and the working alone book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561582867/countryplanscom/102-2397510-1069726).  It looks as if maybe I could tackle this beast.  Now if the Town will allow us to live in our trailer while we build, we will be golden!  

[glenn-k]

I don't know the name of one wall from another, but many times I have seen framers build the perimeter walls on the floor, stand them up -nail down the base plates and put up a few studs temporarily at a 60 deg. angle  as braces to hold them until other walls were built.  The braces were nailed to the side of short scrap 2x's nailed to the floor.   They would leave out or cut out a space in the top plate where the extended end of the top plate of the perpendicular wall top plate would nail in.  Some do their layout on the floor including studs, doors window openings etc.  Walls are many times layed out with chalklines.

[Daddymem]

The exterior through walls go from one end of the foundation to the other.  The exterior butt walls fit between these.  Do you build all of them on the deck, then raise them, or build the through walls, raise and brace, then build the butt walls to be raised when completed.  It seems to me that if you try to build all exterior walls before raising any, you will be building walls on top of each other and that might be hard to get things square.

Since we are going to try this on our own, I think there is one thing I'd like to hammer out during the plan stage.  I would like to fit the windows between studs to make an easier build.  Would the extra planning be worth it?  Are there what you would call a standard (translate easy to find, cheaper to buy) window width and height?  We are going for sun-tempered so considerable windows on the southern exposure, we can gang smaller windows between studs in place of wide windows.  Is that a reasonable idea?  I think that since we need the plans drawn up anyways, we may pay for a framing plan, would that be worth it?

[jraabe]

Ken Kern in the Owner Built Home has a section on building site built stopped in windows between the studs and thus eliminating the cripples and headers.

This hardly makes sense today when most windows are dual glazed in a frame and must be trimmed out at least on the interior side.

In fact, my contractor buddies tell me the larger we can make the window/door combinations by mulling them together at the factory the more we will save on labor and materials. These will need a larger header to be sure but the framing and finishing goes quicker with fewer bigger windows.

[Daddymem]

Good, that is the kind of information I want to get into this plan.  I would have hated to get rid of that picture window with two side windows assembly in front of the dining room table.  Things now take on a new dimension, not only is it an analysis of what we want, but what do we think we are capable of doing....great more choices.