In this HowTo we will cover the 4 basic parts of a house structure.

Yes I know you are saying there are so many items in a house how can it be brought down to just 4 main parts. Well here we will be covering the structure of the home better known as the Framing.

Framing can be thought of as the shell or skeleton of the home. Parts of it are made of Dimensional Lumber such as 2×4’s, Beams, Plywood and others that we will group into this category for now include the Foundation walls. What we are trying to understand is what gives our house its shape and stability on which all other items rely.

The four basic parts are

Vertical Supports
Horizontal Supports
Sheathing
Decking

Lets start off with Vertical Supports.
This group includes all the items that give the height  of the structure and distribute loads from the top of the roof all the way down to the ground the home sits on.

The Footing At the bottom of our house and the first thing to be installed is our footing. This is usually a 1 foot tall by 2 foot wide continuous block of concrete that runs around the outside of our building. The footing transfers the load of the entire building into the soil so the soil it sits on must be stable bedrock or highly compacted soil / gravel with no organic materials.

 As we travel up the side of the house we have the Foundation Walls. Foundation walls are usually made of poured concrete or block and rest on top of the footing. The normal dimension is 8 inch width and will travel the whole perimeter of the building. If you are installing brick on the outside walls of the home a ledge will be added to the top of the foundation wall for the brick to sit on. Foundation walls carry the total load of the house down to the footing.

Posts and Stud Walls
Most people have seen a stud wall before but they may not understand how they work. On the perimeter of the home the stud wall is a load bearing wall this means it will carry the loads of what is above it whether it is the second floor of the building or just the roof system. Although there are various methods and materials used load bearing walls are usually made out of a bottom and top 2×4″ plate which runs horizontal and Stud Grade 2×4’s which have been tested for quality to carry a specific load. The spacing between the studs in the wall is commonly 16 inches on center this means if you measure from the center of the first 2×4 to the center of the next 2×4 they should line up at 16 inches. This distance gives architects and builders a common understanding of how much weight can be supported by that wall. In some instances such as a wall that will support hot tubs or pianos the architect may increase the width of that stud wall or use a Post in the wall to support a beam. 

Posts in wall system work just like posts on your outside deck. If you have taken a look under someones deck you will see 6×6 inch or larger posts that are used for the vertical supports. Under decks we do not want to build a wall system that will inhibit traffic especially if its a second story deck so we use a larger 4×4, 6×6 or 8×8 inch post that are set from 4 to 10 feet apart.

 Inside your homes walls you may see posts used around your Stairs or in great rooms that have a 2 story ceiling. More common is around windows and doors such as your garage door or in a living room where there is a glass wall.

These posts will either be actual dimension or they can be built up with a series of 2×4s that are nailed together but no matter what type of post or stud is inside your wall it is there to transfer loads to the foundation and then down to the footing.

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