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Monday, June 24, 2013

Almost Finished Framing the First Floor



So I started framing the first floor. And, since I’ve never done framing before of this magnitude, I figured I would build out 12′ sections, raising them myself and see how it goes. It went pretty well. In fact I am 4 wall sections away from finishing the first floor framing. I even took a little video for everybody to see it. It took me a good solid day, about 10 hours to get this framing you see here in the pictures done.



Before I start getting comments like “Hey, where’s the header on that window?”, or ” You forgot a couple 2×10′s on that door header!”  I didn’t put all the headers on so the weight of the wall wasn’t more than I could lift up on my own. I was a little nervous lifting that first section, but once I got the hang of it, the lifting of the walls went well.



The most time consuming thing about the framing the walls are the door and window openings. Doors require a header and trimmers while windows require cripples in addition to these. Trimmers go on the inside of the door or window jam and essentially hold up the header. The cripples support under the window opening under the sill. All the measurements and cuts are the most time consuming part, at least for a novice owner builder.




I posted a couple pictures of the windows I picked out as well. I’m going with a low to middle of the road window since I can’t afford to spend $10,000 on windows right now. I found a place in North Georgia that buys building materials, then sells to the public. I found these 6′ and 5′ windows for under $100 a piece. They are beige and they don’t have grates, like a lot of Georgia houses do. I didn’t want to buy white, builder grade vinyl windows, like you see everywhere around here.



I researched Silverline, the brand of window I bought, and they are made by Anderson. We’ll, Anderson bought the Silverline brand. I saw a lot of mixed feedback about the window brand, but at the end of the day I really can’t spend a lot of money on the windows or I won’t be able to finish the house. From what I could examine and from what other builders I’ve met could tell me, these windows blanket GA in a lot of subdivisions and held up to be a pretty okay window. For the better window you have to spend more, so maybe down the road I’ll get better ones if they don’t live up to what I’ve heard.

I’ll post the video in a little bit in the video category I am building now. Thanks for stopping by. Comment or ask questions.

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