Alternative method of erecting non-structural wall
I finished the structural wall of my workshop, and installed the first section of non-structural wall. This design has a 2×4 inner wall that is structural, an outer 2×3 wall for holding the siding and WRB, with the two walls held together by 2×10 top and bottom plates and OSB gussets.
I was warned it would be time consuming to do it this way, and so far that has proven correct. However, it occurs to me now that there is a dead simple way of adding the outer wall that would be five times faster, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. Can I just delete the plates from the 2×3 wall, and instead make 2×3 I-beams that nail to the 2×10 top and bottom plates?
I will confirm this with the engineer, but I’m hoping to keep working on this through the weekend and he probably won’t respond before Monday. If I have a pretty good inclination that this will be ok, I’ll take my chances and proceed.
I’ve attached the plans and a couple of pictures showing the fully assembled 2×3 wall and and an example of the I-beam I mentioned. I haven’t installed any gussets yet.
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Replies
What is the purpose of the small section of top and bottom plate on the 2x3 studs? If you don't need a continuous second bottom plate and want to eliminate it, why not just toenail all of the 2x3s into the 2x10 bottom plate, and face nail from the top? What you're doing seems like a lot of extra work for no visible benefit.
Do you have all of the studs already cut to length? Is this just to make up the extra missing length because of that?
Talk to your engineer first, but if you don't need the second plate on the outer wall, delete it at your discretion. If you want the second top/bottom plates for ease of wall assembly (nail plates to studs and tip wall into place), then keep them.
You can also make the 2x3 walls in short manageable sections and tip them up one at a time. No reason to bother with big long wall sections that are hard to wrangle.
The lumber I have is a couple of inches too short to just toe nail, so those little pieces are spacers and literally add only about 10 seconds per stud, which is about how much longer it takes me to do a toe nail anyway. I dislike toe nailing, as the stud always moves a little bit as the nail goes in.
Trevor,
I would build the outer-wall on the deck in sections (12 to 16 ft) with the top and bottom plates attached, so you don't need to toe-nail, or mark each stud.
I'm sorry, I don't quite follow. What do you mean by deck? It sounds like you're suggesting what I was originally doing.
Building the walls on the floor deck and standing them. That’s the easiest and fastest way to frame - which is why almost all walls get built that way.
Malcolm --
This is a double wall assembly. The inner walls are load bearing and are already in place. The outer walls would have to be carried if assembled in the deck.
DC,
Backing up a bit, I would have either built both walls as an assembly in sections, or framed the exterior non-loadbearing walls first.
The outer wall is just 2”x3”s. One person could easily move 12 ft sections from the floor deck, or frame them on the grade outside. Putting in each stud separately makes no sense to me.
The other thing this bring up is what your objective should be when you DIY a build - which is to emulate the methods professionals use, and those shown in codes. The mini I-beam studs should be off the table for that reason alone.
I'm with Malcolm. Build in sections somewhere flat and erect. WAY WAY faster than doing stud by stud.
I appreciate the suggestions, however they're not really practical because in order to implement them I'd either need things I don't have (a flat place to assemble the walls), or be able to go back in time (the inner walls are already in place). Building the walls and moving them to the outside is possible, but I'd have to limit it to 8-foot sections or smaller. That seems plausible, but when you consider doors and windows, it's not great. I'd almost certainly end up with wall sections that end part way through a door or window opening. I'd need to pre-build at least some sections 12+ feet, and moving those into place is a 2-person job, and it means temporarily removing a stud from the inner wall to get it to slide through at an angle.
I don't really regret not building the inner and outer walls together. For the same reason as mentioned above regarding door/window openings, some of those sections would be 12-14' long. A double stud wall, with 2x10 double top and bottom plates, 14' long, with a double 2x10 door header and jack studs... that's a job for a crane, or maybe 4 fit people. I have at most 1 helper. I couldn't even lift a single 14' wall with the door header by myself (well, I did, then I dropped it and it exploded).
A lot of the limitations stem from the fact that I pre-installed the 2x10 sill plate last fall. It seemed like a good idea at the time, to get the gap between the insulation and the slab covered (and also keep ducks from eating the foam insulation). In retrospect, I should have just put some temporary protection on it. Live and learn. I'm never erecting another building after this, so I don't know what I'm going to do with these hard earned lessons.
Trevor,
If you decide to go ahead with the I-beam studs, do run the idea by your engineer. It's unclear to me whether they would meet 9.23.10.4
He did get back to me, and he is fine with it. First I'm going to try building a 10' section, but leave off two studs at one end. The I-beam method will be my last resort.
I'm with Malcolm--your little "I beam" pieces look like the kind of thing remodelers make fun of when they find them, even if they are structurally sufficient. I would spend a little more on material and build the outer wall in sections with continuous top and bottom plates. Or if I were committed to installing them individually, I'd run the plates and toenail them. I might be in the minority but I find toenailing to be easy and stronger than end-nailing.
One of the functions of sheathing is to provide shear strength to the walls to keep them from moving diagonally. Is that happening in this wall or is there some other bracing mechanism?
The sheathing is on the interior.
Ran out of nesting, so replying here.
Looks like your plans have a garage door, this would let you assemble on the garage slab and walk the pieces outside. As long as you keep them reasonable length, they can be carried by a single person. Add a temporary diagonal 1x4 to keep the wall section from racking.
For openings, assembly only the opening section as a single piece. If it is bigger than your garage door, do the layout and cut all the pieces on the ground and build it in place.
Add a 2nd plate to your walls. This can sit above the existing 2x10 without issues. The small increase in framing factor doesn't really matter with a double stud wall.
"I'm never erecting another building after this, so I don't know what I'm going to do with these hard earned lessons."
Now you know all the issues, it will be way easier next time. There is always a next time.