Framing Estimate

Ahh Framing....The first step was getting the material. There were several references for estimating the number of 2x4 studs needed for the framing. I went with the recommended method in the Basement book I previously mentioned. Essentially you need untreated 8' 2x4 studs for the vertical framing. Since it's a basement, and the base of the wall will be directly exposed to concrete, you need to get treated wood. Generally, better to get longer lenghts so that you don't need to fit multiple pieces together. Though, I found that anything longer than 12' was really just unmanageable. Not to mention, the longer the piece of wood, the more likely you'll get some bend. So, i tried to get 12' pieces for the top/bottom where possible, and then use 8' pieces other places.

Estimating, I then came up with:

• 220 8' studs -- this would cover the veritical studs in the wall, the 8' top plates of the wall
• 20 treated 8' 2x4s -- needed for the bottom plate of certain wall segments
• 12 treated 12' 2x4s -- needed for longer run bottom plates
• 12 untreated 12' 2x4s -- needed for longer run top plates
• 3 4x8 OSB board -- needed for creating the soffits

I ended up ordering all of this lumber from HomeDepot, and having it delivered -- I wasn't about to haul all of this myself. The downside was that a significant number of these studs were too warped to use. Had i picked my own lumber I could have avoided that, but the time it would have taken to pick through the wood to get this many pieces woudl have been way too long. So, when i came across a piece I could use, I put it to the side. When i built up enough rejects, I took them back to HomeDepot,and exchanged them for hand-picked straing(enough) pieces. I would say about 1 in 3 or 4 pieces was a reject (at least by my standards).

I did end up significantly short though, I would say that i probably had to go back and buy another 30 8' 2x4s. Also, with the soffit work (see my later post about soffits) I went back and purchased a number of 2x3 studs.

So, the overall cost for all the lumber I used was then about $850

Next, a word about tools -- since I was working alone (for the most part), it was unreasonable to just hand-nail all of the pieces. This would have taken a much longer time, and is much harder to hold in place. This nessecitated a framing nailer. Additionally, i needed a mitre saw to make all the cuts. I ended up getting a Porter&Cable framing nailer, and a HomeDepot brand Mitre saw (really just got that one because it had a laser guide, and was cheaper than the other brands). The Gun was $225 and the saw was about $300. Also, i needed a compressor to feed the nail gun. I went with just a small pancake compressor for about $100.

So, to recap cost at this stage:

Moving Drain/Framing around HVAC (Contractor)	$900
Framing Lumber	$850
Framing Tools	$625
Total	$2375