how to frame a wall 16 inch on center (CC)

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• published: 30 Jan 2010
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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.Hi I'm Bob Schmidt with HomeRemodelWorksho I've made videos on how to lay out on how to build your wall square inside a space how to build plumb walls how to put your framing members in so your wall is nice and flat but has been brought to my attention that I've never actually showed you how to do a typical sixteen inch layout on a stud wall Let's get to work A couple of basic tools that you're going to need to do a typical plate layout is a couple of straight plates of course one representing a top plate of the wall one representing the bottom plate but the other tools that are going to be required is either a framing square or this is called a speed square either one will work for doing what we're going to do When doing a typical layout for a wall as to where you're going to put your studs first thing you do is lay your two plates next to each other your top and bottom plates so they are nice and flush hear on the end just about every standard layout tape that i've ever seen has these red marks at the typical wall stud layout a typical mistake someone makes is they say well I'll go ahead and I'll mark the sixteen and then I'll put my stud one side or the other and we're going to be good these marks are for centers so basically what you have to do is since the width of a typical wall stud is an inch and a half which is three-quarters and three quarters as your tapes hooked on the end of the board go ahead and make your first mark at three-quarters back from every red stud mark so that would be fifteen and a quarter put an X over top of where the red is then come down to thirty one and a quarter put your X over top where the red is forty seven and a quarter and so forth and so on Every wall has to start with a stud you automatically just put an X on the end of your wall you're beginning of your wall then you go ahead and take your framing square there's a thin side to your framing square there's a fat side to your framing square the thin side to your framing square is exactly the same as an inch and a half typical stud so what you do is you take your framing square line it up on your first mark over top of both plates and you put a mark on both sides of the framing square you put an X in between both of them and you know when these plates go into place or when you're building your wall that wall framing stud needs to sit right between these marks a very good question to ask would be is why do I have to concern myself with laying these out sixteen inch on center why not just throw enough in there that it looks good well there's several reasons the basic most important reason is most building material comes in two foot increments drywall comes in four foot widths eight-foot widths or eight foot lengts twelve-foot lengths if you start a sheet of drywall in this very beginning when you get down to the other side that sheet of drywall should break right in the center of the stud having you ready for the next sheet to come off but you also have to concern yourself with what goes in the wall insulation for one example is designed to have exactly the right size to fit inbetween a sixteen inch on center layout not only is insulation a concern but also medicine cabinets are designed to fit in a typical sixteen inch layout as are ironing board fold downs as are pre premade forms for tile backers in showers so that basically a a single piece can slip into this space and give you a more of a watertight in time saving in putting some of your stuff together another huge advantage about sticking with the sixteen inch lay out