No matter what technique you or your contractor decides to use for framing the house, if your home is being framed on-site, the process order is the same. This article explains the most common framing method that most people refer to as a stickbuilt home. Most people think that framing refers only to putting up walls, but it actually refers to the entire structural skeleton of a house, not just its walls.
Phases in Framing the House
The framing process consists of the following phases, generally done in this order:
- Subfloor: The base floor is built below your carpeting or finished flooring and on top of the foundation. A subfloor isn’t always required for a slab foundation but is necessary if the house has a basement.
- Load-bearing walls: These walls are added to support weight on top of the subfloor.
- Interior walls: These walls are erected, along with spaces for doors, windows, fireplaces, and architectural structures, such as dormers and soffits.
- Second story: The framing sub repeats the previous three bullets to create an additional story if required.
- Roof framing: The roof’s frame is put into place.
After finishing the foundation, the first step in the framing process is putting in a subfloor, which serves as a platform for building walls and creates a base to attach flooring. Putting the subfloor in is mostly a wood-based process, and the framer, carpenter, or general contractor generally build it. If you’re building your house on a concrete slab foundation you don’t need a subfloor because your entire house is supported directly by the slab. The following list gives you the instances when you need a subfloor:
- If you build the house on raised or pier-grade beam foundations
- For the upper floors of multistory houses
- As a base floor underneath hardwood floors (even if you’ve built the house on a concrete slab foundation)
The subfloor consists of a few parts, such as:
- Girders: A long heavy piece of wood that spans the floor and provides support.
- Joists: Long narrow boards set in place on their edge resting on sills and girders. The outer joists are the header and stringer joists, and the inside joists are called lap joists.
- Seal: A metal strip or layer of sealing material called caulk designed to protect the wood framing from moisture and bugs. It sits between the footing and the sill.
- Sill or sill plate: A piece of pressure-treated wood anchored to the foundation.
- Subfloor: Plywood lies flat over the joists usually at a perpendicular angle to direction of the floor joists.
After the subfloor is in place, the next step is to put up the walls. Framed walls have a very simple structure. A bottom plank, called a sole plate, is the base for a series of studs set 16 inches apart. A piece of lumber matching the sole plate caps these studs and is called a top plate. A tie plate above the top plates ties the walls together at the junctions. The framing sub creates spaces for windows and doorways that don’t detract from the structural integrity of the wall in the framing. The sub does this job with a header. A header is a large, strong piece of lumber designed to distribute the wall’s weight away from the opening for the door or window. Trimmers are side supports that transfer the weight from the header to the sole plate. Cripples are small pieces of wood that secure narrow gaps and make up wall height.
If the logs are milled in a factory, they’ll likely interlock with a sealer inserted in between, but if the logs are handcrafted, then extra shaping may take place on-site and an insulating gooey material called chinking will need to be applied between the logs. In either case, the logs will be bolted together as they’re stacked.
For multistory residences, contractors use two different methods of framing:
- Platform framing (also known as stick framing) is the most common framing method and allows for multiple levels with unique architectural choices. The framing sub builds the first walls attached to the subfloor. The ceiling joists, or supports, then serve as floor supports or joists for the next story. After installing a new subfloor, the framing sub builds the second story walls on the subfloor platform, just like he did on the story below.
- Balloon framing uses continuous studs running from the sole plate at the base of the house up to the roof. This method allows for the transfer of the weight of the roof and second story directly to the foundation.
Next, the framing sub builds the interior walls, and your home’s interior architecture begins to take shape. All external structures, such as attached decks, require pressure-treated wood and galvanized nails and hardware to make them weather resistant.
Finally, the roofing subcontractor installs the roof using either individual rafters or prebuilt trusses or I-beams. Because you can find multiple roof styles and types of roofing materials, the structural design varies according to the span and weight requirements of the different materials used for framing the house and roofing.