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HOW DO I LAYOUT NON LOAD BEARING WALLS?

Now we’ll cover how to layout the wall studs for a typical non-load bearing interior partition. The basics are good to know regardless of what you are framing, a playhouse, tree house, or just standing a wall to create new spaces.

Start with the sole plate, this is the continuous wood plate at the bottom of all walls. The sole plate serves several purposes. It allows secure anchoring of wall to floor, creates a continuous nailing surface for the baseboard, and holds the studs at a secure and consistent distance from each other. I recommend using lumber that has been chemically treated to resist termites and water (in the trades we refer to it as “Wolmanized Plate” or “Treated Plate”).

For purposes of our project we are going to be using 2×4 studs, not 8′-0″ 2×4’s. A stud is actually 92 and 5/8″. Once you add the thickness of the sole plate and two top plates, the resulting wall height will be just a little over 8′-0″. This will be the perfect height for an 8′-0″ finished ceiling.
It is important to realize that all components of a home are built to 4′-0″ modules. This is to accommodate the proper hanging of sheetrock and plywood. At every joint of the sheetrock there needs to be a stud for securing the butt ends of the material.

Set the sole plate on edge on the floor. Immediately along the side of it, place another 2×4 plate. This will serve as one of your top plates and does not need to be treated. With the two plates stacked on edge and side by side, pull you tape measure from left to right marking with a penciled crow’s foot every 16″. Take a tri-square or speed square and strike a line through each pair of the crow’s foot marks. This should give you a continuous line on both pieces of plate material that are an exact distance from the end of the plate. Now, keeping the plates on edge, separate them by approximately 9′-0″. At each of the pencil lines lay a stud on edge that runs perpendicular to the plates.

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