Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
It takes an enormous amount of lumber to frame a 16,000 square foot house. Our Mega Build will use over 8,000 pieces of lumber—two by fours, sixes, eights and twelves, plus plywood, oriented strand board, treated lumber, laminated-veneered lumber, glulam beams—the list goes on and on. That’s a lot of trees. But throughout our Project House, we’ve chosen to use environmentally-friendly engineered wood products, like the Southern Pine Finger-Jointed Studs to frame the outside and inside walls.
Mega Build Playlist: bit.ly/2zFd35V
Southern Pine Finger-Jointed Studs
To frame the outside walls of the Project House, we’re using 2 X 6 Finger-Jointed studs from Georgia-Pacific. We used 2 X 6’s for outside walls because they’re stronger than 2 X 4’s, plus the extra width allows for more insulation—your outside wall can go from an R-13 to R-19, just by using the 2 X 6’s.
The inside wall studs are Southern Pine Finger-Jointed 2 X 4’s from Temple-Inland.
Finger-jointed studs differ from standard sawn studs in that the finger-jointed studs are made of short pieces of wood that have finger-like joints cut into each end, and then the pieces are glued together, end to end. There are several structural and environmental benefits to this kind of “engineered” lumber.
From Michael: As a builder, I like finger-jointed studs because they’re straighter than solid-sawn studs, which makes for straighter walls and cuts down on builder callbacks. This also helps eliminate nail-pops in drywall and other related wall problems.
Finger-jointed lumber is interchangeable with solid-sawn lumber, so the framing crew doesn’t have to use any special equipment or go to any extraordinary measures when building with finger-jointed studs.
Then there’s the environmental angle. Wood that was once considered too short to be used for structural purposes, and often just went into the landfill is now made into finger-jointed studs. Using finger-jointed studs and other engineered wood products helps protect precious natural resources.
Southern Pine grows in a vast band across the Southern United States, from East Texas to Virginia. It’s the strongest North American softwood species for engineered and framing applications so it’s the perfect lumber for the frame of our Mega Build.
For the base-plate of our outside walls, we used pressure treated 2X6’s. Southern Pine is known for its ability to accept treating more readily than any other softwood species because its unique cellular structure permits uniform penetration of the preservative chemical deep into the cells of the wood. You want to use treated lumber wherever your lumber touches the concrete slab, such as in the base-plates that are the bottom piece of wood on the exterior walls.
It’s fine to use wood that’s pressure-treated with waterborne arsenical preservatives inside residences as long as all sawdust and construction debris are cleaned up and disposed of after construction.
STRENGTHENING THE FRAME
The frame is essentially the skeleton, or backbone, of your house, so it’s important to take whatever steps are necessary to be sure that the frame is as safe and secure as it can possibly be.
Anchor Bolt the Base Plate to the Foundation
I strongly recommend using L-shaped anchor bolts to bind your walls to the concrete slab foundation. Have you ever seen a picture of the aftermath of a tornado, where all that remains of a house is a scraped-clean concrete slab? Anchor bolts can help the frame of a house resist tornadic forces. The bolts are placed in a foundation just after the concrete is poured, while it is still wet, and stick out an inch or two above the foundation. The framers drill holes in the base plate, so the bolts go through the base plate. Then washers and nuts are applied, securely fastening the bottom of the frame to the foundation.
Strap the Walls to the Base Plate
After the wall is up, and the base plate has been bolted to the slab, the walls studs should be further secured to the base plate with steel anchor straps. This will keep the walls from pulling away from the base plate, and the foundation, in the most extreme weather conditions.
Strap the Rafters to the Walls
When the rafters are attached to the walls, the rafters should be further secured to the walls with rafter clips, otherwise known as “hurricane straps”. Most catastrophic failures of residential structures occur when high-force winds exert tremendous upward pressure on the roof of a house, either up under the eaves from the outside, or from inside, through broken windows or a failed garage door. The wind lifts the roof, and the walls collapse.
Brace the Corners with Oriented Strand Board
We’ve sheathed the exterior of the Project House with Oriented Strand Board, or OSB. This will allow your frame to resist the shearing and twisting forces of high winds, and lessen the “racking” effect that can weaken the structure and damage interior walls.
It takes an enormous amount of lumber to frame a 16,000 square foot house. Our Mega Build will use over 8,000 pieces of lumber—two by fours, sixes, eights and twelves, plus plywood, oriented strand board, treated lumber, laminated-veneered lumber, glulam beams—the list goes on and on. That’s a lot of trees. But throughout our Project House, we’ve chosen to use environmentally-friendly engineered wood products, like the Southern Pine Finger-Jointed Studs to frame the outside and inside walls.
Mega Build Playlist: bit.ly/2zFd35V
Southern Pine Finger-Jointed Studs
To frame the outside walls of the Project House, we’re using 2 X 6 Finger-Jointed studs from Georgia-Pacific. We used 2 X 6’s for outside walls because they’re stronger than 2 X 4’s, plus the extra width allows for more insulation—your outside wall can go from an R-13 to R-19, just by using the 2 X 6’s.
The inside wall studs are Southern Pine Finger-Jointed 2 X 4’s from Temple-Inland.
Finger-jointed studs differ from standard sawn studs in that the finger-jointed studs are made of short pieces of wood that have finger-like joints cut into each end, and then the pieces are glued together, end to end. There are several structural and environmental benefits to this kind of “engineered” lumber.
From Michael: As a builder, I like finger-jointed studs because they’re straighter than solid-sawn studs, which makes for straighter walls and cuts down on builder callbacks. This also helps eliminate nail-pops in drywall and other related wall problems.
Finger-jointed lumber is interchangeable with solid-sawn lumber, so the framing crew doesn’t have to use any special equipment or go to any extraordinary measures when building with finger-jointed studs.
Then there’s the environmental angle. Wood that was once considered too short to be used for structural purposes, and often just went into the landfill is now made into finger-jointed studs. Using finger-jointed studs and other engineered wood products helps protect precious natural resources.
Southern Pine grows in a vast band across the Southern United States, from East Texas to Virginia. It’s the strongest North American softwood species for engineered and framing applications so it’s the perfect lumber for the frame of our Mega Build.
For the base-plate of our outside walls, we used pressure treated 2X6’s. Southern Pine is known for its ability to accept treating more readily than any other softwood species because its unique cellular structure permits uniform penetration of the preservative chemical deep into the cells of the wood. You want to use treated lumber wherever your lumber touches the concrete slab, such as in the base-plates that are the bottom piece of wood on the exterior walls.
It’s fine to use wood that’s pressure-treated with waterborne arsenical preservatives inside residences as long as all sawdust and construction debris are cleaned up and disposed of after construction.
STRENGTHENING THE FRAME
The frame is essentially the skeleton, or backbone, of your house, so it’s important to take whatever steps are necessary to be sure that the frame is as safe and secure as it can possibly be.
Anchor Bolt the Base Plate to the Foundation
I strongly recommend using L-shaped anchor bolts to bind your walls to the concrete slab foundation. Have you ever seen a picture of the aftermath of a tornado, where all that remains of a house is a scraped-clean concrete slab? Anchor bolts can help the frame of a house resist tornadic forces. The bolts are placed in a foundation just after the concrete is poured, while it is still wet, and stick out an inch or two above the foundation. The framers drill holes in the base plate, so the bolts go through the base plate. Then washers and nuts are applied, securely fastening the bottom of the frame to the foundation.
Strap the Walls to the Base Plate
After the wall is up, and the base plate has been bolted to the slab, the walls studs should be further secured to the base plate with steel anchor straps. This will keep the walls from pulling away from the base plate, and the foundation, in the most extreme weather conditions.
Strap the Rafters to the Walls
When the rafters are attached to the walls, the rafters should be further secured to the walls with rafter clips, otherwise known as “hurricane straps”. Most catastrophic failures of residential structures occur when high-force winds exert tremendous upward pressure on the roof of a house, either up under the eaves from the outside, or from inside, through broken windows or a failed garage door. The wind lifts the roof, and the walls collapse.
Brace the Corners with Oriented Strand Board
We’ve sheathed the exterior of the Project House with Oriented Strand Board, or OSB. This will allow your frame to resist the shearing and twisting forces of high winds, and lessen the “racking” effect that can weaken the structure and damage interior walls.
