Measure twice and Home Depot

 I’m progressing with layout construction. During a recent flight to Los Angeles I made some notes on building the benchwork for Little Rock yard. On a flight, at least for me, there isn’t a great deal to occupy my time so I usually have a yellow legal pad and pen and begin making notes, and sketching out ideas. 

The benchwork for Little Rock yard is the deepest on the layout and I was concerned about how I would hold it  AND the next two decks above it, up.

The benchwork edge against the aisle will be lined up top to bottom, but the visible area on the 2nd and 3rd decks will only be 12” or less deep. The space beyond this 12” deep benchwork will be backed with a green wall. Behind the green wall will be a staging yard.

The top deck staging yard will be East staging. The 2nd deck staging yard will be a branch line staging yard for coal trains and an interchange track.

While on the flight I dreamed up and sketched a strong, easy to build, structure to hold up Little Rock yard, and leave storage beneath. 

Here is where Home Depot and measuring came in. The posts and beams that hold up my house are a line of 6x6 posts with a 6x12 beam on top. The posts are NINE (9’) feet on center, a nutty idea that the architect we hired, who we’ll NEVER recommend or hire again, came up with. 8’ centers would have seemed more conventional. These posts are the structure I’m hanging Little Rock yard on.

ANYWAY, in order to span 9 feet I need 2x4’s that are 10 feet long.  So I go to Home Depot and walk over to the pile of 8 foot studs. Needing ten foot studs I walk one pile to the left to what I think is a pile of ten foot 2x4’s. At least I ASSumed they were 10 footers.

They were 9 foot pre-cuts. 

A “pre-cut” is a stud cut to a pre determined length so that when it is nailed in between a bottom plate and a double top plate it will yield a wall that is 3/4” TALLER than the desired wall height. In this case the finished wall desired would be 9feet tall. 9’ pre-cut studs are 4 1/2” SHORTER than 9’-3/4” or 104 1/4” tall.

When the carpenters nail these studs into a wall with a bottom plate and a double top plate, the conventional method for framing a wall in the U.S., the rough wall will finish at 108 3/4”. When these rough walls are ready for drywall the dry-wallers will hang the lid first (The ceiling), then hang the walls tight up to the lid, leaving 1/4” gap on the bottom. No sheets will need to be cut, and everything fits together easily. The gap at the bottom gets covered by base molding. 

But because I ASSUMED that the pile of studs next to the 8’ pile would be 10’ studs, I didn’t check. And today when I went down to the basement to begin framing the base for the benchwork in Little Rock, nothing fit.  I need at least 108” to span the posts, these studs are too short. Now I blame Home Depot. 

But actually I should have read the sign that read 104 1/4”.

I can use these studs for a lot of the work I’m doing, so I don’t have to take them back, but I do have to go back to Home Depot for TEN FOOTERS, and bring a tape measure with me.



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