Know what’s inside your walls.
Everything behind your drywall, in plain English. Thirteen short pages covering the vocabulary you will hear on site, what each member actually does, and the one concept that explains all of it.
The Load Path
Every pound your house weighs has to travel an unbroken path to the earth. Good framing is really just the discipline of never interrupting that path. Read this one first — it makes every other page on this list obvious.
The vocabulary
Stud
The workhorse. Vertical 2×4 or 2×6 members at 16″ on-center that carry load down and back every finish surface.
Top & Bottom Plates
The lumber that caps and anchors a wall. The double top plate ties walls together and spreads load across the studs.
Header
The beam over a window or door. It picks up the load the missing studs would have carried.
LVL Beam
Laminated veneer lumber — stronger and straighter than sawn lumber. The go-to for wall removals.
Joist
The horizontal members framing a floor or ceiling — and the reason your floor does or does not bounce.
Rafter
Sloped roof members cut one at a time. What makes vaulted ceilings and usable attics possible.
Roof Truss
Pre-engineered, craned into place, fast and economical — and never, ever cut without an engineer.
Sheathing
OSB or plywood over studs and rafters. It braces the frame against wind and racking. It is structure.
King & Jack Studs
The pair that frames every opening — one full height, one cut short to carry the header.
Cripple Stud
Short studs above headers and below sills that keep the 16″ layout marching through the opening.
Rim Joist
Caps the ends of every floor joist, carries wall load down — and is the number one rot and air-leak location.
16″ On-Center
The standard spacing. It exists because 48 divides by 16, so every sheet edge lands on lumber.
Trying to figure out a specific wall in your house? Our cost and planning guides go deeper — including how to tell whether a wall is load-bearing before you touch it.
Read the guidesQuestions about your own structure?
Send photos or plans. We answer framing questions from Atlanta homeowners every day, at no charge.
Need the whole project built — not just framed?
The Framing Crew is the structural division of Bitwood Build, a full-service Atlanta general contractor. If your project needs design, permitting, mechanicals, insulation, drywall, trim, and finishes on top of the frame, one call covers all of it — the same crew standard, one point of accountability, one schedule.
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