Above and Beyond

In Ottawa most framers now use chainsaws to make there cuts, which are not meant to be used to build homes. The result is butchered cuts, which leads to settling, and will cause the problems mentioned in “KNOW YOUR FRAMING.” Capital Carpentry uses worm drive saws or circular saws which provides an accurate cut that leaves no gaps. This will ensure that you never have any of the settling problems and your home will remain in perfect structural condition for years to come.

Current Project:

Glued and Screwed

“Glued and screwed”. Standard framers nail floor sheathing down with 2” straight nails and may or may not use glue. 2” straight nails provide little hold on the sheathing and negate the use of the glue. 2” nails have a very small head and allow your sheathing to pull away and ripple in the sun and rain and they don’t pull the sheathing down to the joist like a screw does. Screwing your floor right away provides the proper seal you want from your joists to your plywood and will set the glue right. Most builders screw your floor once the drywall is on, when it’s too late. Any joist hangers in your floor should also have glue in the bottom of the hanger to ensure there will be no squeaks. Capital Carpentry glues and screws your floor for a 100% squeak free floor that’s done right the first time.

What causes those ugly little ridges you’ve seen coming down someone’s roof? First, your roof should be sheeted with ½” plywood to span the 2’ centers of the roof trusses. The grain of the plywood is designed to go across the trusses horizontally, (8’ side of sheet parallel to ground). The majority of roofing crews will place sheets vertically up your roof or use 7/16” aspinite which is not designed to span any more than 16”. Most other crews also use chainsaws on your roof.

Capital Carpentry will always recommend ½” plywood and all sheets are cut with skilsaws and step-up blocks, these are used to keep sheathing always running horizontally. In addition, Capital Carpentry uses staples for all roof & wall sheathing, instead of using 2” nails that let the sheathing pull away. We use a ¾” head staple that has 2” of hold into the truss, Instead of a ¼” nail head, with a ¾” head holding down the sheathing it can never pull away.

Bad Cut

Here is a picture of how an average framer would cut out your windows. Notice how they’ve used chainsaws. You can see the cut marks into the “jack studs” and up into the sill plate. Jack studs are shorter studs used to support the headers above your windows & doors.

Now here is a picture of a window cut out by Capital Carpentry with a router. The result is perfect cuts around the window with no gouging of the jack studs this keeps the entire structural strength of the jack stud.

These studs bear the weight put on the header by the second floor or the roof above. Any cut into these studs weakens the support for your second floor or roof. This is the main cause of settling in your home, causing damages that include, drywall cracking, windows and doors jamming, or become unusable and drywall screw & nail heads popping.

Here’s a picture of jack studs cut by Capital Carpentry with a skil saw (circular saw). Perfectly flush cuts and nailed together every 16” on the outside edges of the board to keep them from cupping or pulling away.