How To Frame A Door Opening In A New Wall

Hey everybody. Alright so today I'm going to frame in this wall for you and just show you I've got a couple obstacles. I guess one's not an obstacle but I'm gonna be putting in a door right here and then the obstacle is this ductwork coming across overhead here. So I'm going to show you how to do all that. It's actually way simpler than you might imagine so let's get after it. Alright so when we're framing in a door we're going to want to consider not only the width obviously of the door but then just a little bit extra that way allows for the frame and then a little bit extra for shimming so you can get the door properly plumb and straight and square. So this right here is an existing door down at the bottom of the stairs here. It's a 32 inch wide door. That's the door slab but the opening the rough opening you can see is exactly 34 inches. So we got two inches of play and that allows for like I said the frame and then a little bit extra for shimming. So on this door over here that we're gonna frame out for today it's going to be a little larger door. It's a 36 inch door and that's just because it's going into the unfinished part of our basement. That's where our storage is. That way we're able to fit like patio furniture back there in the winter and whatnot. So we're gonna throw a 36 inch door opening right here. So let me show you how to do that. Alright so ideally you'd want one piece of wood going all the way across. This is just a little bit longer than what I have on hand. So I'm gonna make up with this little scrap piece here. While I'm building this whole wall I'm going to connect those pieces with a couple screws just temporarily and then I'll just cut out where the door opening is later on. So like for this door I just have that sill running all the way across. Later I'll come with a saw and just cut that out. Alright so to start to get the length that I need for this wall I really kind of want to plan ahead just a little bit and know where I want this wall to land as well. So for that I've got my laser shooting a line across where I want that next wall to land and we can see that it's on the 101 mark but I'm gonna want to extend that by another three and a half inches for another stud. That way I can put a stud on the end like this and then I can tie this next wall into this wall. So 101 inches plus three and a half I'm at the 104 and a half inch mark so I'll cut this to 104 and a half inches and then so I'll need that for the cell plate along the bottom then I'll need something that length along the top. Alright so now I got my top and my bottom plate cut to length and we can start laying out the stud spacing. So let's start in this corner over here. Alright and just lay out your tape a little ways and we know that a stud is an inch and a half and I want a double stud on the corner so I'll make a mark at an inch and a half and then make another mark at three inches. Alright so that's our double plate on the side or on this corner and we know that we have a 36 inch door so plus two inches 38 inches that's our rough opening from this stud to the next stud over here. So take your tape measure push it to so until it lines up with the end in this last stud that you marked out and then come down here find that 38 inch mark which is right here so that's that stud and then we're going to want another double stud so we got 38 inches plus an inch and a half 39 and a half that's where our next stud is going to be. So it's important to notice that your stud is going to be on this side and this side over here so let me take a square to that. Actually just for illustration purposes you don't have to mark this out but you can mark out the other side of that stud. Alright so this these are our two stud locations right there and right there and then back at this corner where we started we'll put a stud at the end but then we'll mark out there and there so those are our two stud locations here. Alright so then we have 38 inches between this mark and this mark. Alright now that we know where the door is going to be we got that located we got double studs on each side of the door opening now we can just start laying out our regular 16 on center studs as we typically would. So take the tape measure hook it on the end again alright it's on the end in the first stud mark you're going to mark out is actually going to be 15 and a quarter so mark 15 and a quarter alright and then mark ahead so x on that side that's where your studs are going to sit alright because we're going to have a stud on the end and then we're going to come out here first mark is always 15 and a quarter then pick your tape measure up and move the end to that 15 and a quarter mark. Alright so we got the end of the tape measure on the 15 and the quarter mark that just makes the rest of this dummy proof so now you can start marking your 16s so we got 16 x ahead 32 x ahead 48 x ahead 64 x ahead and 80 x ahead. Alright and then this is where our next wall is going to come in right on this green line so imagine this is kind of the end of the wall so you can trace where that green line comes across and then just put an x on this side because we'll put one stud here alright so we'll have a stud here and then we're going to turn this next stud so just roughly split that in half and then we'll put a stud here alright so those are our stud locations alright then I'm going to take a speed square and just transfer these marks up to this green plate on top here now I'm within the door opening here okay but yet I still have these two marks here that are marking the 16 on center locations I'm not going to transfer these up to the green plate just because I'm not going to have a stud from in the door opening obviously but I probably will have some smaller studs above the door opening so I'm just going to extend these marks like that that'll just help you later on so you don't have to go back and remark out your 16s for above the door alright I just noticed one little mistake that I made so when I marked out this location right here for this stud that's going to be there I put it on the wrong side actually it's going to be on this back side alright so mark out your stud location on this back side here and then on the front side for the green tree so what that means is if I put my my green plate's going to sit right where it is right here I'll have a stud right here then when I go to put the top plate on I'm actually going to take it like this turn it 180 and it's going to sit on top right here alright so if you follow this corner that's going to be on this back side and sorry about the added noise my furnace just kicked in but anyways alright so before we can get the height of the wall that we need we can see that right where the green plate is located that's where this wall is going to be so if we follow that up we'll see that there's nothing to really tie it into on the top so what I've done is cut a couple of these spacers and those will screw in they'll sit flat like this obviously and then flush with the bottom of the floor joist so I'll screw those in and that will give me something to mount the top of the wall to right so here I'm just stacking the two plates on top of one another and then I'm taking a from the top of the stack plates to the bottom of the floor joist and that's going to give me the height of the stud same thing for under the HVAC alright so the two studs for the door frame so the two inside studs are going to be a little bit shorter than the rest but I just measured and I need 90 and a quarter inches for one two and then three studs and then I can tell that this one's going to land underneath the ductwork and that was 81 and a quarter so I'll need one two three four five of those studs at 81 and a quarter and then I'll come back for these two inside studs but they should be the same as the rest of these door studs I think was 81 and a half yeah 81 and a half so I got one two three at 90 and a quarter two at 81 and a half and five at 81 and a quarter I think and here I'm just taking a measurement of where I need to cut the top plate in order for it to drop down underneath the ductwork so now I've got my top and bottom plate all marked out and I've got my studs all cut to length so now it's just a matter of lining those studs up on the marks and nailing them in place for this I'm just using a battery operated framing nailer and I'm using two nails in the top and two nails in the bottom all right so I've got most of the wall put together I just cut a piece so this is where the the wall drops down for the HVAC coming across and I just cut this piece to fit right in there so I'll just have to nail that in from the top and then that way from the side and then I'll have to cut a piece that stretches from there to there as the header once I get that in then I can do a couple short studs above the door so this should be 38 plus three inches and it is so we're at 41 inches so I'll just cut a piece to 41 inches all right so I've got two more marks right here right here for just the regular 16s that we marked out earlier and they are seven inches actually I should measure from the end because that's what it's going to want to be so I'm going to cut them at seven and an eighth because I think this has a slight bow to it like that and actually here instead of using this little piece I should have actually cut a piece that kind of spans between the stud spacing and that would have just provided a little bit more rigidity but in the end this worked just fine and now you can watch me struggle to get this wall in place it was a somewhat tight fit but that's kind of what you want and I just used a hammer to knock it in place until it was lined up perfectly with the laser line and to attach it to the adjacent wall and then up at the top plate I just used some two and a half inch screws and then to attach the bottom of the wall to the ground I used a ram set gun and this is basically a nail and a load and the nail is fired into the ground by the load when you strike the top of this with a hammer all right and all that's left to do is cut out the sill plate within the door opening so I've got my reciprocating saw right here I've got the blade on backwards and then just cut it out so yeah that's pretty much all there is to this if you guys enjoyed this video and you found it helpful it'd be awesome if you could hit that like button down below that just helps me grow my channel and it also lets youtube know that this was a decent video and maybe it should pass it on to some other people to watch and while you're down there consider hitting that subscribe button as well that way you're notified every time I release a new video thanks everybody for watching and until next time