Figuring the Lumber For Interior Wall Framing - Home Remodeling

Framing a new wall, anywhere in the home will not be very difficult to do. However, removing an interior wall on the other hand could be an enormous task and create some big problems, especially if you remove a loadbearing wall. A loadbearing wall would be something that is holding up another section of the home, like the roof or the floor.

If you're not removing or moving a wall, framing a new wall is a task that most homeowners with very little skill can do quite easily. Let's start with the basics, most walls are built from 2 x 4 framing lumber, which can be purchased at any lumber yard or home improvement center.

Let's start with measuring the length and the height of the wall. For example let's say that the wall you intend to frame is going to be 8'7" long and 8 foot tall. If I was going to figure the lumber for this wall, or how much material I would need. I would start with some simple arithmetic.

We need one bottom plate and one top plate. This would be the lumber that's going to run horizontal or right to left in our wall. So now we know that we need two pieces that will be 8'7" long and since they only sell lumber in 2 foot increments, our choices will be narrowed down to a couple of 10 foot two by fours.

The height of the wall is 8 foot tall and will require us to buy 8 foot two by fours. Now how many two by fours am I going to need? Most walls require 16 inch on center placement of the vertical two by fours, or in other words the two by fours that go up and down will be spaced 16 inches apart. If I was to divide 16 inches into 8'7", that would require 7 - 8 foot two by fours.

It's pretty simple math and don't forget to convert your measurements into inches to make the job easier. 8'7" can be converted to inches by multiplying the number of feet times 12, 12 times eight and then adding 7 to it will give us 103 inches. We can now divide 16 into 103 inches to give us the amount of vertical two by fours needed to frame our interior wall.

Don't forget there's 12 inches in a foot.

House Wood Damage or Wall Framing Tips

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.