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A guy at the lumber yard told me my framing was too tight...
He said, 'You're building a box, not a coffin. Wood moves.' I was putting up a shed wall in my backyard and had every stud jammed in there with no gap. Last weekend I redid it, leaving an eighth inch between the top plate and the header. It went together so much easier and the door actually swings free now. Anyone else get hung up on making things too perfect at first?
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torres.nathan26d ago
Yeah, that's a hard lesson to learn. You fight to get everything tight and square, thinking that's what good work is. But then the wood dries or gets wet and it has nowhere to go, so it pushes itself apart anyway. Leaving that little bit of space feels wrong when you're doing it, but it lets the whole thing settle without fighting itself. That guy gave you solid advice for free.
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ray61326d ago
Used to fight for perfect joints too, but @torres.nathan is right about leaving room to breathe.
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xenam8426d ago
Took me a whole ruined table to learn that. I was so proud of how tight the miters were, then it split like it was mad at me. Now I aim for "good enough" so the wood can do its thing.
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hunt.jennifer26d ago
Read an old book on boat building that talked about this. They called it "seasonal allowance" or something like that. The whole idea was that a perfect fit in the shop would be a broken fit after a year in the water. Makes you realize how much of good work is just planning for things to go wrong later.
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