Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of the wall, which would be unsightly to say the least. It is easy to hold bowed timber in a
straight line when it is resting on the floor, as it will be nailed to the floor at regular
intervals. It is not so easy to straighten timber two and a half metres in the air. For this
reason, I recommend you cut the top wall plates into position before the bottom wall
plates, as this process will result in the better timber being used at the top of the walls.
One by one choose the straightest timber for the wall concerned and position it
between the lines designating the wall position. The end of the timber that is square and
free of cracks will be positioned lengthwise, overhanging the chalk line representing the
internal position of the outside wall (inside of the bottom bale boxing) by 120 mm. This
will enable the top plate to be fixed to the internal face of the top boxing once the bale
walls are built. If you have a timber floor use two 75 mm bullet head nails to skew nail the
wall plate to the floor. Put one nail at each end of the wall plate. Standard bullet head
nails are ideal as they will later be removed and it is unlikely that the head will pull off
during removal. Next we need to cut the wall plate to the correct length.
Beneath the other end of the wall plate there will be a chalk line on the floor
representing the position of the intersecting wall. Transfer a line from the floor to the top
of the wall plate representing the position of the intersecting wall. Use a square to mark
across the width of the wall plate and then cut the wall plate at the desired length. When
cutting the top plates it is important that the top plates are only joined at the intersection
of a right-angle wall (see Figure 6.4). Continue this process for all of the walls for the
complete house. You will find it a lot simpler if you first fit all the walls at right angles to
the external wall. When this is done the next wall that is parallel to the outside wall can be
laid across the ends of the other wall plates that have already been cut to length.
Figure 6.4
Marking the junction of three timber-framed walls
3. Marking the top wall plates
The walls will be assembled lying flat on the floor with the bottom plate close to its final
fixed position. As I am sure you can imagine, this would be difficult to do with all the wall
plates for the complete house still positioned on the floor so they must be removed. As
