68 FINE HOMEBUILDING

efore I started building houseswith factory-made walls, my five-man crew needed two weeks toframe a house. Today, the job gets

done in just five days, with a crew of three.Building with factory-framed walls

demands good planning and an organizedapproach to the work that is done on site,which I’ll discuss ahead. Once you makethese adjustments, you’ll be surprised by thebenefits you discover (sidebar facing page). Itwasn’t easy persuading my crew to switch tofactory-built walls, but now they wouldn’tthink of building any other way.

Factory-built wall panels can be ordered indifferent ways. You can get them framed,

with or without sheathing; you can have thesiding installed; you can even have wall panelsdelivered with the windows installed. Butwindows break, and finished surfaces likesiding can be damaged easily. So I build all myhouses using factory-framed and sheathedpanels for exterior walls, and factory-framed(no sheathing) panels for interior walls. Wallpanels can be fabricated to any length, butthey typically come in 12-ft. to 16-ft. lengthsthat a small crew can handle easily.

Computers engineer the wallsBuilding with factory-made walls is a lot likebuilding with roof trusses (see “Rolling RoofTrusses,” FHB #168, pp. 94-99). Engineers at

the plant plot your plans into a computer, andunless you specify otherwise, their softwareautomatically calculates the engineering val-ues for headers, posts, and shear walls. Theresulting wall-by-wall drawings provide adistinct advantage over conventional framingplans because you can use them to edit theframing with unprecedented detail.

I build the same house plans over and overagain. For me, the advantage of this system isthat I can incorporate what I learn during theconstruction of one house into the plans for thenext house. For example, if the plumber saysthe framing over a sink is blocking a vent, Ican make a note and forward the change to thefactory. But even on a custom home, you can

BY FERNANDO PAGÉS RUIZ

Better FramingFactory- Delivered to your site,

prefabricated panels can save timeand improve quality on productionhouses or a custom home

with

B

look at the factory’s framing plans before theybuild walls and specify detailed informationlike hold-down locations, complicated shear-wall nailing, or blocking for kitchen cabinets.The plant’s computer then makes sure allthese details are framed in the right places.

Plan ahead to get walls on timeThe only drawback and the greatest learningcurve with factory-framed walls is orderingthe walls and timing their delivery. You can’tjust call the plant and get walls at a moment’snotice. You have to requisition walls in advance to get them delivered on time.

Some building contractors wait until thefoundation has been poured before ordering

1. A smaller crew. One skilled framerand two helpers can erect factory-built walls faster than a five-member crew couldbuild them.

2. A faster job. An average house con-structed with factory-built walls can be fullyframed in five or fewer days.

3. The quality is unbeatable. Every stud is cutwith radial-arm-saw accuracy. In the factory, it’s easy forworkers to frame rough openings precisely and to nail everysquare inch of sheathing without missing a stud.

4. Weather is not a concern. Rainy days don’tslow production, and the controlled environment of the fac-tory means framing lumber and sheathing stay clean anddry throughout the process.

5. Prices are stable. Because the factory builds somany houses, the manufacturer can order lumber and passalong some of the savings to builders.

6. Minimal waste. Offcuts are minimal;so is the amount of unusable lumber. As a result, the site stays clean, and your waste-disposal expenses are trimmed significantly.

7. Special details are no problem.Before the factory builds the walls, you can edit the com-puter-generated plans. It’s easy to eliminate unnecessarystuds, add blocking for towel racks or cabinets, or make other framing alterations.

Built Walls

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7reasonsto let

someoneelse frame

the walls

70 FINE HOMEBUILDING

walls. The factory then can send a represen-tative to measure the foundation and adjustthe plan dimensions accordingly. If you canafford the downtime, this is the safest wayto do the ordering.

I don’t like to add idle time to my construc-tion schedule, so I order walls before break-ing ground. The factory builds according tomy house plans without verifying any of thejob-site measurements. This approach meansI have to make sure the foundation is perfect.But the extra effort is worthwhile because thewalls arrive on the job the day after the slabgoes in. Of course, if the house has a basementor crawlspace foundation, I don’t want thewalls to arrive until the first-floor deck hasbeen framed and sheathed.

If you give two weeks’ notice, you shouldhave walls on schedule. But keep in mind thatyour framer must be just as punctual. Whenthe walls arrive, someone must be there to

unload and organize them. It’s important tomake sure each wall section is placed in a con-venient spot.

It’s still up to the framers to set the panels square, plumb, and levelWhen the delivery truck arrives, framershave to unload the walls in sequence andstack them in order of use: interior walls inthe center, exterior walls at the perimeter, andsecond-story walls on blocks out of the way.The placement of second-story walls is criti-cal because there’s little room to move aroundlarge components. Factory components comelabeled, so all you have to do is refer to the fac-tory’s plans to find out which walls go where.

Just as in conventional framing, you start bysnapping lines on the foundation or the floordeck. You then stand up perimeter walls, nailoff double plates, and install temporary braces.Next, you erect the interior walls, taking care

not to box a panel section into a room, kindof like not painting yourself into a corner.

The most critical step is lining up the topplates, then squaring and straightening thewalls (photos above). Because the panels typi-cally come in 12-ft. or 16-ft. sections, you haveto mate several to create a long wall. To keepthe panels level, the top plates must line upflush before you nail two walls together. Some-times you need to shim the bottom plate ofone wall to level it with the adjacent panel.

One of the nice things about factory walls isthat the top plates come marked at every intersection. This makes light work of mea-suring and fitting the double plate while leav-ing cutouts for intersecting walls. Most of the

“It wasn’t easy persuading my crew to switch to factory-built walls, but now they wouldn’t think of building any other way.”

Shim the bottom plate. To correct imperfec-tions in the floor framing, drive a wedge under the bottom plate. When the top platesare level, nail the wall sections together, andremove the shim.

Nail the end studs together to join wallsections. When the top plates in adjoiningpanels are level and flush, nail the end studstogether with 16d nails.

Add the doubleplate over wall intersections. Makesure to bridge theintersection of twowall panels with adouble top plate.The top plates aremarked for inter-secting walls (insetphoto).

SETTING WALL PANELS

First, get adjoining panels level, flush, and plumb.

double plates come preassembled, but youhave to cut and fit plates over wall joints.

On exterior panel joints and corners, thesheathing overlays the adjacent panel to createa structural splice. It’s important to remem-ber to nail the sheathing on these corners andlaps. My framers nail off every panel beforemoving to the next wall section.

Once all the perimeter walls are up, it’s important to square the house and align theplates with a string. After the walls are plumband true, we brace them with 2x4s and con-tinue with the second floor.

Are factory-built walls the futureof framing?Just as roof-truss manufacturers have estab-lished themselves by providing one-stop engineering and production services, wallmanufacturers can deliver an inte-grated structural package. Thisproves most beneficial to buildersin earthquake and hurricane re-gions, where pre-engineered shear-wall systems can speed up job-siteconstruction and reduce the needfor elaborate hold-down systems.

Hardware companies, wall manufacturers,and truss plants have teamed up to develop awhole-house systems approach to framing,which promises to coordinate the delivery ofa pre-engineered component system suitableto any hazard area from Northern Californiato Southern Florida.

I advocate using advanced framing techniquesthat reduce lumber consumption. One obsta-cle to implementing such techniques is train-ing framers on the subtleties of optimizedstructural framing and energy-efficient detailing. Because the panel factory providescustom-engineering services, I can designwalls using these advanced techniques.

One day, factory-built walls may become asconventional as roof trusses. Until then, Ithrive on the competitive advantage that wallpanels provide me. �

Fernando Pagés Ruiz is a builderand writer in Lincoln, Neb. He isthe author of Building an Afford-able House: Trade Secrets forHigh-Value, Low-Cost Construc-tion (The Taunton Press, 2005).Photos by the author.

Then brace each section securely.

Nail off the intersections from outside. Thewall sheathing extends over intersectionsand corners to create a structural splice. Nailthe sections together from the outside.

Plumb and brace each wall section. As youset the wall sections, check them for plumb,and temporarily brace them with a 2x4 every8 ft. to 12 ft.

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3Reverse plan orientation.If you forget to tell the panel factorythat you have decided to reverse thefloor plan (garage on the left insteadof on the right), you have just com-mitted a common error that can’t befixed inexpensively. The walls will beframed backward and inside out,with the sheathing on the interiorface of the exterior walls. Once youfinish fixing this “little” oversight byflipping the walls, reframing theopenings, and stripping, then rein-stalling the exterior sheathing, youcould have framed the house twice.

Changes and options. If yousend the factory your plans and thennegotiate changes with your cus-tomer, don’t be surprised to discoverthat the factory already has builtyour walls by the time you submitthe modifications. If the changes areminor, it’s not difficult to remodelwalls on site, although you defeatthe advantages of using factory-built walls.

Foundation fudges. Beforethe factory-built walls are delivered,take the time to check the founda-tion for square and level. It’s easierto deal with dimension and squaringmistakes than the ills of poor level-ing. You can fix slightly out-of-squarefoundations by building the floordeck slightly oversize in both direc-tions. This allows you to square offthe deck and lose the foundation error. And you can add plywoodstrips as spacers between wall sec-tions to gain an inch or two.

A foundation that’s not level pre-sents a bigger problem because thewalls come off the assembly linesquare and true. Exterior walls won’tconform to dips in the slab orstemwalls. You’ll have to fix theseproblems by shimming the mudsill.

common mistakesand how to avoidthem