Talked to an old carpenter at Home Depot who said I was overcomplicating my framing

3 comments

3 Comments

That old timer probably builds one wall at a time with a speed square and a chalk line... and I bet it works fine for him. But if you're laying out a whole house with engineered lumber and tight tolerances, a lot of that old school "just eyeball it" advice doesn't hold up. I tried the quick route on a shed once and ended up cutting three studs short because I didn't double check the layout. Taking the time to mark everything out and use jigs has saved me way more time than it cost.

grace_knight1917d ago

Your point about double checking layout is solid but gotta call out one thing - three studs short doesn't really happen from eyeballing it, that's just forgetting to account for the bottom plate height or something. I've seen guys who use all those old school methods still pull perfect layouts on engineered lumber, they just run a string line and pop chalk on everything first. The real difference is they use the speed square for quick 90s but still measure each stud location off the tape, not guessing. Jigs are great for repetitive cuts no doubt, but that old timer who writes his cuts on the lumber with a pencil probably ends up with less waste than someone who sets up a whole jig system.

abby_cooper15d ago

Ha, my uncle the contractor says the same thing about pencil marks over power tools.