View ChannelsFeatured: Finance
View ShowroomsFeatured: Radiantec - Radiant Solar Heating

BobVila.com

Home

Framing the Back Wall of the Affordable Home

Bob joins General Contractor Wes Lohr as they frame the back wall of the affordable home in Mashpee, Massachusetts. Lohr walks Bob through the framing process as the deck is marked for stud placement, doors, and windows. Lohr explains the labor and time savings that materials and tools like a nail gun bring to the framing job. Lohr's brother Scott lays out and nails the entire wall from the header to the jack stud, the king stud, and the top plate that will receive the second-floor deck. This traditional stick-built wall will be squared and snapped with a line for the plywood before the sheathing goes on.

Get Adobe Flash Player to see this content.

Chapters from this episode

Framing the Back Wall of the Affordable Home Now Playing

Framing the Back Wall of the Affordable Home

Framing the Mashpee Home with Pressure-Treated Lumber Now Playing

Framing the Mashpee Home with Pressure-Treated Lumber

Sheathing and Raising the First Wall Now Playing

Sheathing and Raising the First Wall

Choosing Between a Poured Foundation or a Crawlspace Now Playing

Choosing Between a Poured Foundation or a Crawlspace

Clip Transcript For:

Framing the Back Wall of the Affordable Home

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" So Wes take us to the next step we're essentially getting ready to put up the back wall of the house right sure what we've done within her swearing that she even. Hand my brother Scott is laying out the first wall that we're going to build. So and it's it's just one long 36 foot. Outside wall with what a back door and a few windows and it exactly I'm. Don't we take a pop up there. He's got his plan here what is Dorn is is laying out right now it's going to lay out what the windows are gonna go. He'll lay out all the studs that are going on the walls. And I believe. There's a slider back here as well. All right so he's just positioning them sixteen inches on center and of course what your brother's been laying out. One of them will be at the top up here now. This is a header I assume as you can see we've pre cut our headers out of this door four by eight solid material. And how that's going to go up here. Now why using pulls up both four by instead of sandwich in a couple of two by as -- loose strip of plywood in between actually comes down to a labor saving. -- it's very quick and efficient for us to use the four by its. We cut it one's life -- else it's just -- places this. You don't have to worry about lining up to two by tens important piece of plywood in the middle it's it's it's a big time today there. What he's laying down right now is. What we call -- it's to receive an interior wall that's going to be coming and one perpendicular to it right. OK now we start to get the idea and the opening that he's leaving here. Represents. A sliding patio door this is exactly with a slot a will be OK so are we in the kitchen. Their kitchen is right over here and this will be the dining room the slider off the dining room and the first thing is going to do -- attach the king stud. To our or by a better. King stud her first full length stud that goes on either side better that is and then sistered onto the king stud you've got. Jack ground it'll be a Jack stud will be cut to go directly under the four by and not a give it up doesn't support we need to hold the second death. -- You can also see with the four by eight -- that. He's able to get complete nailing into the sides. If there were 22 by -- it be easier to split through the two by tens and not just have to rest of -- situation sure and this really makes it solid. What size nails is he actually shooting in those are sixteen penny spike clears all galvanized spikes on -- On all our friends. Galvanized yeah it does stick tells house as opposed to some sort of prefab I mean wouldn't. This is a tradition especially tradition it just who saves us a lot of time and energy. But the nail guns -- that -- And we've put a triple -- it's basically three of the two by fours nailed together. It's to allow the ball coming at the side wall coming in and allow for sheet rocked him so that you have a nice point. It's. Our next step here -- this took place another lineal two by four. That's going to become our top plate. We hold that in about three and a half inches to accept the top plate coming in from the sidewalk on the -- look at them and what it started it was gonna span any seams that we had our first plate and give this structure the -- will be determined. Yeah and once you've got that done -- reputed to -- it. The next thing again we square the wall picture of the wall systems where sort of goes up it'll be level snap a line for our plywood and."

[-]

More Videos »Related Videos

Converting a Mudroom to a Pantry

The entrance to the back of the house has been modified by removing the small back door and installing a triple-panel sliding glass door that looks onto the newly landscaped backyard. The mudroom was converted into a pantry and outfitted by California Closets. Chloe Durant of California Closets reviews some of the work done in the pantry. The family needed space where they could prepare lunch for the two boys. In this space, a butler's pantry was designed and installed, featuring a deep countertop, drawers for storage, and space down below for recycling. Dave Weston of California Closets explains how the unit was put into the space. The California Closets system operates on rails. The rail is attached to the wall and hangers are attached to the secured rail. These hangers allow partitions to go up and down and holds any amount of weight put upon it. The finished product has four drawers, a couple of compartments for recycling bins, countertop space, and space up above for storage of kitchen appliances.

Tour of an Affordable Home

Bob and developer John Druley walk through a home under construction by Qualker Homes in Falmouth, Massachusetts. This standard design is used for both the market-priced and affordable homes. The overall dimensions of the house are 26 feet by 36 feet. A center-door entry leads to 13-by-18-foot living room on one side and a 16-by-13-foot master bedroom on the other. The back of the house has a 13-by-18-foot kitchen with a back door and a window onto the backyard, a half-bath and laundry, and an entry to the master bedroom with full bath, tub-shower combination, double-bowl sink, and linen closet. The upstairs has two bedrooms with operable skylights and a full bath. This three-bedroom, two-and-one-half bath Cape will be lotteried as an affordable home to eligible families who make between $29,000 and $65,000 per year, and who qualify for a traditional mortgage. The home is stick-built with traditional 2X4 framing, oriented strand board (OSB) exterior sheathing, low-e glass, tilt-in vinyl windows, and gas heat. Bob and Druley point out that an affordable home must be affordable to operate and heat as well as being affordable to purchase.

Plans for the Multi-Level Backyard Deck

Bob comes out the back door of the new addition to the back yard that is currently four feet down from the entry. The new deck will be quite extensive, with various sections that read into one another and onto the sloping back and side yards. Bob reviews the plans that show an extensive deck section at one level, with long stairs cut into the grade in one direction and deck sections that step down to the side yard in the other direction. Tim Berky, the general contractor, is on site to dig the holes for The Footing Tube PVC forms that create the deck footing and pier in one concrete pour. Each costs about $40 and provides a flared design that combats frost heaving when set below the frost line. Berky will pour the concrete to grade so that no concrete will show above it. He will use structural lumber above the grade and face it to hide the lumber. The Footing Tube forms are capped to prevent accidents until the footings are ready to pour. Once they areset in place and backfilled, the concrete is transported to the deck area and shoveled into the forms to set the deck footings and piers.

Efficient Burnham Boiler for Heat and Hot Water

Bob visits with Mark Lundquist of Burnham Hydronics to check out the boiler for the hot-water heating system being installed in the Mashpee, Massachusetts, affordable homes. This Burnham Spirit model is a medium efficiency, easy-to-maintain, sealed-combustion unit. Since it is sealed combustion, it pulls the air it needs directly from the outdoors and vents to the exterior without the use of a chimney or flue. This enables a homeowner to close off the space surrounding the boiler without worrying about available combustion air for the furnace. This model uses standard parts, so any repairs will be fast and easy. The boiler is made of cast iron and has a 25 to 40 year life expectancy. It operates at 84 percent efficiency, so the homeowner will use energy dollars wisely. Charlie Delvecchio of Cape Plumbing breaks out the cost of the boiler to about $1,500 and the baseboard tubing for another $6,000, for a total cost of $7,500 for installation of the home heating system. The domestic hot-water tank is linked to the heating system as hot water from the boiler passes through a coil in the insulated hot-water tank, warming the household water through energy exchange. If the water is maintained at the proper temperature just from this passive exchange, the boiler will never be called upon to heat water for faucets and showers.