How to Frame a Bathroom Layout

Use a tape measure and floor plan to locate the walls. Transfer the measurements to marks on the subfloor. Typically, the outside corners of the room will be marked along with how the room's walls are shared with other adjacent walls. Use the marks and a chalk line to indicate the layout of the entire floor.

Draw the chalk-covered line out of the chalk box and hold the string on the two marks. Snap the line so the chalk will create a straight line between the marks. Map out the entire floor.

Frame the house from the exterior walls first to the interior walls second. Some contractors will build an entire outside wall while it lays flat on the subfloor. Then they stand the wall up, and brace and nail it into place around the perimeter of the house. They use the same process for interior walls, usually constructing the long walls first, standing them up and nailing the walls to the floor and to each other.

Examine the walls surrounding the bathroom on the floor plan. Each continuous wall can be measured from the plan because it is drawn at 1/4-inch scale. Calculate the length of the longest continuous wall that is part of the bathroom. Cut two boards that are 2-by-4-inch to this length. One board is the bottom plate and will rest on the subfloor. The other board forms the top plate and will support the ceiling.

Place your top and bottom plate together on the floor so the end of the wood is aligned. Put your tape measure over the joint where the two boards meet and hook the tape on the end of the boards. Your wall studs must be positioned at 16 inches on center. Your wall stud is a 2-by-4-inch board that is actually 1 1/2-inches thick. When you look on your tape measure, you will notice that the 16-inch mark on the tape is in red ink, while the other measurement marks are black.

Mark your board at the 16-inch mark minus 3/4 inch, or at 15 1/4 inches. Your 15 1/4-inch mark represents the side of the stud. Mark an X over the 16-inch mark, representing the center of the stud. Go to your next red measurement, or 32 inches. Move back 3/4 inch to 31 1/4 inches for your outside line. Make an X at 32 inches. Continue across the length of the plates.

Mark an X at the end of each plate, since all walls begin and end with a stud. Place your framing square over your two aligned plates. Position the thin side of the framing square so it crosses the boards perpendicularly. The fatter side of the square will drop at a slight angle and line up with the length of the boards. The thin side of the framing square is the exact thickness of a stud.

Line up the square with your outside mark. Draw a line across both sides of the framing square. This shows the location of the stud on both pieces of wood. Lift the framing square and make a big X between each pair of lines. Repeat for all of your marks. Your plates have been marked for 16 inches on center.

Measure, transfer and mark your door openings in the wall layout. Write and mark directly on the plates how the studs will be arranged to frame out the door correctly. You will need a jack stud on either side of most door openings and a king stud outside of each jack stud.

Load bearing headers are not needed on most interior door walls. A jack stud is usually 81 inches tall and used for a 6-foot, 8-inch-tall standard door opening. The jack stud is a short stud used to support a header. A king stud is a full height stud that supports the jack stud.

Cut 2-by-4-inch boards 93 inches tall for most standard 8-foot-high ceilings. Lay out your top and bottom plates on the 2-inch and long side so your stud marks face inward.

Make a stud corner by nailing two studs together in an L-shape along their length. This is necessary if your wall ends in a corner with another wall. Turn your studs so they are crown side up. The studs will be on their 2-inch and long sides as well.

Position the studs between the plates at your marked stud locations. Place your jack and king studs at the location of the door. Nail your corners, kings and standard studs to the plates. Drive two nails through the outside of the plate into the ends of each stud.

Position and nail your jack studs. Pound two nails through the bottom plate into the bottom ends of the stud. Pound other nails joining the jack to the adjacent king stud every 12 inches.

Measure and cut a 2-by-4-inch board as a header over the door. Measure between the king studs over the top of the jack studs. Nail the header through the sides of the kings into the ends of the header. Measure from the top of the header to the bottom of the top plate.

Cut two cripple studs this size. Space the cripple studs 16 inches on center between the header and top plate. Nail two nails through the header into the end of the cripple stud and two nails through the top plate into the cripple studs.

Pound two full-length studs at the end of the plates that are next to an intersecting wall to allow for finishing. Nail the studs together, as well as to the plates. Stand up your wall. This is best done with two or more people.

Line up the wall with the chalk lines on the floor. Nail the bottom plate to the floor joists with two nails at each joist. Brace the wall if it is standing alone by nailing scrap wood to the wall and to the floor at an angle.

Build your remaining bathroom walls the same way. Nail your walls together to frame out your layout.