Hey Riley, I'm no expert, but the headers over your exterior doorways and windows should be standing 2X6's rather than laying flat like you've done. Your method would never pass code anywhere that I'm aware unless you don't have codes to follow out there in the boonies. Regardless, for peace of mind, every exterior wall should be treated as a load-bearing wall, hence the standing headers. Just my two cents.
Hey Riley, hope these comments fine you’re doing well. On the very first wall that you’re framing to hold up the second floor floor, it should be framed with either 2 x 6 or 2 x 8 material studs and it should be 16 inches on center on center not 24 because it will be caring the load up top. This will make your will much stronger and only cost you 4 more studs. you need to have treated material running along all the concrete surfaces, the horizontal as well as the vertical surfaces. To attach the vertical studs use a (Hiilti gun, Powder actuated guns or ramset ) Powder actuated guns. This will shoot a nail into the concrete so you don’t have to use anchor bolts (just for the vertical studs). you should have 2 king studs and 1 cripple stud, the cripple stud will hold your header up for your opening for your sliding glass door. Wrong with that. Thanks for doing what you do. Love your show…..
Riley - use a push stick - NEVER run your hand along the blade when ripping 2x4's on a table saw - you ARE going to lose fingers if you don't stop following bad practice.
Riley, I have been both an EMT on an Ambulance Squad and an ER Nurse and have done my share of repairing Carpenters who have done things that can only be described as "STOOOPID". If you look at today's' video at 25 minutes and 20 seconds, you will notice how close your fingers are to a rapidly turning saw blade. There is this amazingly simple piece of safety equipment called a push board which can be obtained at no cost by going to your scrap lumber pile and picking up an approximately one foot long piece of 2x4 and using it to push the board you are cutting through the final foot of the cut. Courtney would NOT be happy if she had to pick up your fingers, wrap them in gauze and put them on ice after wrapping you hand and then driving you to the hospital to see if they can sew them back on! (She will probably eventually forgive you - probably - maybe.) Also, FYI, remember the definition a Nurse - "the first person you are going to see when waking up in the ER after saying to your friends - "Watch this!". Other than that, I wait impatiently every weekend for your next episode to begin. I love them. Good luck to you, Courtney, Oliver and all your helpers.
Riley, there's a way easier way to make marks to drill the j-bolt holes. Use two people. One person at each end of the board. Put the board on top of the whole row of bolts then eyeball it from the top with your chalk line. Then simply hit the board with a hammer tap on it all the way down it leaves an imprint on the board that's where you drill !!!! I've built many structures like that it works perfect every time.
Your load bearing center wall should ideally have a stud directly below each floor joist and the door opening in that wall must have a true header to bear the weight from the joists above. Get a short piece of 8” LVL (or double 2x10)with at least one stud under each end of the LVL. Otherwise your joists will sag over that doorway.
Lay the sill plate where you want it and tap on it, the J bolt will make a mark to drill perfectly placed for any position the J bolts are in....
I've been following you two, Oops, now three, for years, since you first bought the property. Something I have always admired about you is that you don't define work as men's work and women's work. The fact that Courtney can swing a hammer, use a shovel and run equipment is what makes a couple a real team. I lost my dear wife in May but that's the way we lived and loved for the 58 years we were married. Cudos to the Ambition Strikes team. I can hardly wait to see Oliver with a hammer in his hand or at the controls of the Cat. Tommy B in Virginia
How cool is it to see little Oliver moving around the place on his own two feet. It's great to see your family doing so well, and keeping things real with all the video's .. Thanks for all you do.
I used to do concrete grinding with just a mask, then I found out the hard way that those masks are just effective enough that you think you are not doing damage. As much work as you do, get a dust shroud and HEPA vacuum. Fine Woodworking has a good article. Festool and Makita both make battery powered units.
Load bearing walls 16" on center and double top plate on that wall.
Your window and door headers need to be installed turned so the 6 “ is facing up. Take 2 2x6 with 1/2” plywood sandwiched between. You may also want to use liquid nail adhesive also. There is no strength in a board laying flat. Have fun, looks great !
Riley did I hear you say the lvl beams will not go on the studs? I’ll wait and see how it turns out but my dad always said the joists or trusses would go on the studs for a straight pressure point to the foundation to help keep the floor or wall from sagging and possibly of a failure. That’s why you build with the 16” or 24” on center. Love the channel.
O'Reilly if you're putting weight on the wall it has to be 16 in on Center so add a stud between all your studs before you put your joist down
I’ve watched my son who is a contractor and he always pre assembled walls with top and bottom plates with headers and king studs then it’s tilted up and nailed down to the sill plate! Really need to do some more u tube university guys!
Always did 16" centers everywhere I've worked...... Pipe wrench can straighten a warped stud. AND building a wall vertically is HARD, assemble it on the floor and set it in place!.
Standard construction techniques I'm accustomed to is to build the walls flat on the ground and then stand it up. You'll have a bottom and top plate. So you end up with two plates on the bottom and two on the top. It cost a little more, but it's so much quicker. I also alway cut my studs the same length and shim between the two bottom plate boards if needed. You even have a machine to lift it into place so you don't have to horse it yourself. Also, framing tolerances is typically within an 1/8 inch, although I like it dead on too.
I know all about measuring mistakes - in high school shop, we had a project to make a hot plate trivet, 1/2 in, tall strips arranged in a grid, 5 strips each way in a sort of oversized tic-tac-toe design. Everyone had a different job, mine was to take a measurement, someone else set the table saw blade, someone else CUT a dado into the strips so they could be joined together. NO ONE bothered to check before cutting enough for everyone - I measured from one side, they measured from the other, and they cut the strips (out of Walnut no less) for a class of about 20, and 10 strips per person. Needless to say, none of the trivets were uniform, we spent time grabbing strips from a box, testing each to see if they fit. BUT, 40+ years later my mother still uses this.
Love your channel. Always happy when a new video of yours shows up in my feed. I stumbled across your channel back when you were starting your EPIC solar build. Since then I have not missed a single video. There are 2 standout things about your videos. 1. Not only do you guys show when you make a mistake but you go our of your way to not only show the mistakes, but actually make a point of showing how you resolved the issue. Too many channels never show when mistakes are made. 2. I love the way Riley turns into a little kid when it comes to machinery. Making dumptruck number 2 was a highlight. Keep the videos coming guys.
@AmbitionStrikes