I want to continue to help people with their dream of building their own house. If you haven’t read the first article in this series How to Build Your Own House feel free to clink the link and find out how to get a good, cheap, solid foundation.
For everyone else… Shall We Commence!
Quick Recap
We have decided to build a small (roughly 320 sq. feet) house using quick cheap and easy methods with limited tools so anyone can have their cake and eat it to.
We discussed using railroad ties for the foundation and using a 1/2-3/4 inch gravel base for drainage. We have arranged these ties equal distance from one another and have leveled them using our dimensional lumber and level. So what is next on our road to freedom?
Tools for this Job
As always you can upgrade any tool on the list, what I have here is bare bones. Try and borrow whenever possible to save as much as possible.
For this portion of the build you will need the following
- Speed Square- easily measure and mark dimensional lumber and edges of plywood
- Hand Saw- to cut dimensional lumber
- Hammer- To affix nails)
- Saw Horse- Used to hold dimensional lumber for easy cutting
- Drill/Driver- Tool to affix screws into lumber and plywood
- Nails- To add structural integrity to building
- Screws- To add structural integrity to building
- Measuring tape 25 ft- To measure distances
- Level (3 feet minimum)- To make sure things are level
- Mallet (To assuage materials into their proper locations)
Floor Joist Basics
We finally got the hard stuff out of the way. Once you leveled your foundation things get way easier moving forward.
You can began to install your floor joist. you will be placing them equally distanced away from each other excluding the last piece which will fall at 16 feet 1 inch away from the 1st piece.
The are a few things that are required here.
- The 2×8’s must be perpendicular to the railroad ties otherwise any piece of lumber outside of the 3 on top of the railroad ties would have no support. This probably seems like a no brainer but you would be surprised how easy it is to get lost doing something brand new to you
- The 2×8’s will be space 16 inches from one another. you will use the middle of the lumber as that indicator. This means with the thickness of the 2×8 being 1.5 inches the boards will be about 14.5 inches from each other. This would make the middle portion of both pieces of lumber 16 inches exactly.
- When installing dimensional lumber for floors and ceilings you must locate the crown. It is an are of the lumber that is raised on the surface of the 1.5″ area on either side. The crown will bulge out and this will be the portion of the lumber that will be facing out. A easy way to remember is crown up.
The Ground Floor Frame
Now that we have gone the essentials of the floor joist we can start installing the floor. Set the start piece crown up. The lumber should overhang roughly 6 inches on either side of the railroad foundation. We won’t worry about nailing anything down at the moment. You will use your measuring tape to mark the start and end mark for each board making sure they lie 16 inches from each other (middle of the lumber) this is easier done with the speed square.
After marking every position on each railroad tie beam of the foundation you can layout your dimensional lumber and use your measuring tape to make sure that everything lines up. You should have laid out 17 boards total to cover the entire distance.
After all the boards are laid out, place the level across multiple boards (perpendicular) at various places to make sure that everything is level, which if you leveled the foundation properly is almost a certainty. With that done in most cases this would be a time to do some math and solve for the hypotenuse to make sure that the floor was square now that we know it is plumb or level. Instead we will use the ole 3-4-5 rule by Pythagoras himself. I won’t go into the details of the method so we can focus on the build.
It’s quite simple really, You will measure from one corner diagonally to the other. If those distances are equal then your structure is square if they are not move the 1st or last 2×8 to make them equal and the affix them in place using a method called toe nailing. This is merely using a 3″ plus nail at roughly 45 degree angle in the bottom 4th of the wood to affix it to the railroad tie foundation. You will do this to the end boards at all 3 areas where they sit on the railroad tie foundation beams.
Once this is done grab 2 more unused 2x8s and instal them in the same direction as the railroad ties, at the end of the 1st 2×8 piece and last 2×8 piece connecting them together and making a large complete square.
There are a couple ways to do this, the easiest way being to take some scrap wood and screw it on the top portion (crowned) of the ends (where it will attach to the other piece on either side) of the 2×8 piece you are connected to the 2 pieces nailed to the railroad ties. The scrap wood will allow you to sit the new piece directly against the 2 others and nail it in. You can also just use a helper to hold it even if one is available or you hold one side and have lumber stacked up on the other side holding it roughly even while you nail it in.
Finishing the joist
Next you will go through each floor joist, measure again to make sure they are properly distanced at 16 inches and toe nailing each down after confirmation. As with the the first two boards, you will toe nail them each at the 3 locations they overlap with the railroad ties. After completing this task you can nail the ends with 3 nails to the two boards that make the end of the square (the boards going the same direction as the railroad ties)
Once this is done you will have a fairly solid floor frame but to stiffen it we will be doing a bit more. Your next step is to measure the distance between each board (should be right around 14.5″ give or take a 1/4 of a inch if the board wasn’t completely straight ) and cut a 2×8 to that size using the saw horse and the hand saw and placing them between the 2×8’s in the floor on either side of the middle railroad tie. Stagger them so you can easily nail each into place with a few nails. you will do this at every board. You may need the mallet at this stage to massage some of the 14.5″ pieces into place.
Congratulations
You got yourself a floor frame. Remember the essentials before beginning your project starting with the bare bones tools.
Always have the crown of the dimensional lumber facing up. The weight of plywood, flooring, furniture, yourself etc will level it out overtime as long as it is facing skyward.
Check if the end pieces of the floor are square before nailing them down and them install the end pieces to keep the rest of the 2x8s square as well.
Wear gloves for everything you can and nail every piece for structural rigidity.
I hope this has been helpful to you. Let me know in the comments if you want to see more.
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