How to Frame Walls With Stud Spacing at Door Opening

Latch a tape measure's tang to the end of a piece of framing lumber and draw the tape across the board. Mark the wall's overall length on the board's face with a pencil. Place a square over the mark and draw a pencil along the square's edge to create a cut line. Cut the board to length with a circular saw. Measure, mark and cut an identical board. These boards form the top and bottom plates of the wall.

Align the plates' ends and sandwich the plates face to face. Stretch a tape measure along the edges of the plates and mark the location of studs with a pencil, typically every 16 inches, beginning at the wall's corner.

Mark a set of double studs on both sides of the door's rough opening location. Although you may deviate from the 16 inches on center spacing to accommodate the door's rough opening, you must return to the original spacing after the door opening. Place a square over the stud location marks and run a pencil along the square's edge to layout the studs' installation locations.

Measure and mark studs to run between the top and bottom plates. The length of full-height studs equals the finished height of the room minus the thickness of the top plate, bottom plate, tie plate, ceiling coverings and floor coverings. Cut the studs to length with a circular saw. Cut one set of full-height studs, or king studs, for the door opening. The door opening's second, inner set are partial-height jack studs.

Separate the top and bottom plates. Align the full-height studs with the corresponding installation marks on the top and bottom plates. Nail through the exposed faces of the top and bottom plates and into the ends of the studs with a nail gun and framing nails.

Latch the tape measure to the bottom plate's bottom face and stretch the tape measure up the edge of the king studs. Mark the height of the header's bottom edge on the king studs. The header's bottom edge is equivalent to the overall height of the rough opening. Lay out the desired width of the header on the header's face and cut the header to size with a circular saw.

Align the header with its height marks on the king studs and fasten the header between the king studs by nailing through the king studs' and into the ends of the header. Measure, mark and cut jack studs, which stretch from the bottom plate to the underside of the header.

Butt the jack studs' ends against the underside of the header. Align the jack studs' edges with the king studs' edges and fasten the jack studs to the king studs by nailing through the jack studs' inner faces and into the king studs.

Measure the vertical distance between the top side of the header and the underside of the top plate; this measurement is the length of your cripple studs. Measure, mark and cut cripple studs to run between the header and top plate; cripple studs must fall in line with the original, 16 inches on center spacing.

Align the cripple studs with the original, 16 inches on center spacing marks and fasten the cripple studs by nailing through the top plate's upper face and into the cripple studs' ends. Fasten the opposite end of the cripple studs by toe-nailing through the header. Raise and anchor the wall to the sub-floor, adjacent walls or ceiling framing.