how to frame a wall 16 inch on center

Bob Schmidt shows you how and why to lay-out a wall during construction to a standard 16 inch on center lay-out. When laying out a top and bottom plate for a typical wall a framing square is usually the most appropriate tool. To begin, flush up top & bottom plate ends, hook tape on flush ends. The first measurement is 15 1/4 inches to side of first stud placement. Each corresponding measurement should be 3/4 of an inch shy of stud marks on typical tape measure. This will give you studs that are on 16 inch center layouts. Sixteen inch center layouts are important for several reasons: many building materials are designed to fit in a 16 inch layout, ie. insulation, medicine cabinets some tile backing inserts & ironing board inserts; when installing cabinets or trim ie. crown, baseboard, these materials need to be attached to framing. If you stay true to 16 inch centers, all you really need to do in a wall is find the first stud and the rest of the studs in the wall are always multiples of 16 inches away. Another consideration when framing a wall is to match the existing structure as far as floor joist layouts, so as to allow space to run heat ducts, plumbing pipes, wiring to electrical panels, without having wall studs in the way and saving you time and money.

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[brian1969a]

Don't know if you can answer this, but we have a house that was built in 1900. Did they use the same 16" stud layout, or did they usually go by a different standard back then? Reason I ask, is I can't use a stud detector (lathe strips under the plaster) and I want to hang crown molding in our dining room, but I don't want to be poking and prodding all over the place, trying to find the studs.

[HomeRemodelWorkshop]

@brian1969a Hey Brian. As a rule yes they did. however due to the size of heat runs,plumbing locations and so on, they would sometimes get creative with their lay-outs. If you use a drill bit to drill plaster(behind where crown will cover) it will be less likely you will blow-out plaster that may happen if you use a trim nail, Hope this helps! +++Bob

[Carmensquilts]

How do you connect 2 or 3 of these to get wall lengths longer than 12 feet? Thanks, cb

[HomeRemodelWorkshop]

@Carmensquilts If you are building interior walls simply lay-out all your plates at the same time and only build and raise 12 or 16 foot sections at a time connect after raising.+++Bob Have enough help available if raising larger sections,

[HomeRemodelWorkshop]

@aiyic When I was in grade school the metric system was what I was to be using in high school ! LOL 30 years later, same old same old! +++Bob

[davidjosephorwell]

Typical.

[HomeRemodelWorkshop]

@Etsuki519 Your material does not start at the center of the corner stud it starts at the corner thus the lay-out needs to be shifted to allow for that.+++Bob

[sgtleroym]

@HomeRemodelWorkshop thanks. I consider myself a rookie, I worked for a contractor for a year and a half and slowly but surely I have been picking up on nothing but bad habits and this was one of them. I had to sit down and measure out to see how I could get the drywall to line up and your method is correct.

Keep it coming with the videos alot of us want to learn the right way. I learned more from you in a short video than I did with that contractor all year

[HomeRemodelWorkshop]

@sgtleroym Interesting that you asked. I am planning on purchasing a HD camera and was planning on remaking many of my videos This may well be the first one! I stand behind my video as being a proper way of starting a lay-out at 15 1/4 then set stud ahead! It is truly not that difficult to understand why all you have to consider are standard material sizes! +++Bob

[sgtleroym]

@HomeRemodelWorkshop can you make a video to show what your talking about or remake this one? everyone and there dog are teaching center to center starting with the first stud which is contrary to what your teaching.

[kalijasin]

This kind of framing is being replaced. The construction industry is starting to go with advanced framing. 2x6s 24" on center.

[britty67]

In the UK timber sheets are in imperial, plaster board in metric which is a complete pain when doing flat roofs.

[EricKirkhuff]

Very well done. Cone comment, Top Joist layout was not as clear as you might be for the Layman. Hard to picture even with your prop. but awesome.

[tconst17]

@Etsuki519 He is laying out interior walls. The first stud will be a drywall nailer, the remaining studs will be 16" OC for drywall layout.

[littlefreak8]

@brian1969a one thing you can do is if you have any pictures hanging on the wall and you know that the nail that they are on are in a stud than you can measure over and figure out where all the other studs are.