First is to select the wood you are going to use, there is treated and untreated wood, 95% of a home is built with untreated wood and places that touch the ground or the concrete slab are required to have treated wood because the treated wood has a chemical that helps the wood from rotting and falling apart. In treated wood they are literally forcing the chemicals in to the wood under pressure, so when the wood starts to dry it can turn in to weird shapes and can come unusable so it is important to only buy what you are going to us because the wood will become unusable within weeks of buying it. This does not happen as bad on wood that is not treated but you still want to use it soon after you buy it. Below is a photo of a piece of warped treated wood.
There are only a few things that you need to have to build a wall from the store. Primarily it is going to be nails but there are going to be a few thing you are going to have to buy that are tools if you don't have them already. Below is a list of tools that I think are required and some tools the I will mark with an * that is not need but will speed up the process if you are doing a big project
- A Hammer
- Carpentry pencil
- Framing square
- Tape Measure (+16ft)
- Circular Saw
- Chalk line
- Level
- Eye Protection
- Plum bob
- Handsaw
- 16d common nails (3.5 inch and 2.5)
- Work gloves
- 2"4" by 8 feet
- Miter Saw*
- Air compressor*
- Framing Nailer*
The wall height in many homes is 8 feet; lumber yards sell dimensional lumber cut 92-1/2-inches long. These boards are “studs” and, when nailed to a bottom and a top plate, you will have a wall that is 8 feet high after drywall is hung. Mark the top and bottom plates where the studs will go. An effective technique for doing this is to layer one over the other exactly where the floor plate will rest. Make the marks on 16-inch centers but, instead of measuring from the edge of the wall. Separate the two plates and lay the studs in between, just as they will fit in the finished wall. You will assemble it on the floor before lifting the entire unit in one piece. Nail the studs into place from the outside of the plates, using two or three nails at the end of each. Once the wall is framed the on the ground take you tape measure from each opposing (diagonal) corners and take down the measurement, it will be the same number if the is square, if the numbers do not match up then you can move the top or bottom plate until the the numbers a re the same then you can put up bracing and then lift the wall. Even small walls can be heavy because they are green wood and it still usually has a fair amount of water in them, so get a friend to help you lift the wall. The next step will be to hang the drywall but that will be in a coming blog post.
Note: I Have also made this whole blog post in to a video which can be seen below
