Produce a Timber Frame Wall Panel

Lets focus on an easy wall, without any door or window openings. We can reach the more difficult panels later.

The typical height for a panel is 2.453 metres. This can be a standard ceiling height for some homes. In addition it easily accommodates plasterboard and plywood/OSB.

A wall comprises of timbers with dimensions of 38mm deep and 140mm in width and can be found in an assortment of lengths, ranging from 2.1 and then rising in 300mm increments as much as 5.4 m long. For the sake with this example we uses lengths of 4.8m CLS C16 grade timbers.

The wall we wish to make is on the gable of the house, hence no windows or doors. The gable wall is actually 9.5m but we must break that on to a far more manageable size. We take the 9.5 m wall and divide by two to get two walls of 4.75 m long. This is much simpler to deal with.

Divide 4.75 by 0.4 (the vertical stud centres) to obtain 11.87. Round the amount right down to 11 and you can add 2 to create the number of studs around 13. Now you understand how many vertical uprights are in the panel.

You may recall that the typical height for a wall panel is 2.453. This is comprised of the vertical studs plus a double sole plate and a double-header wholesale timber plates.

All meaning is that on the floor you set two lengths of 4.75 m long timber to that you simply fix the bottom of the studs and you then fit two lengths of 4.75 m long timber to the top of the wall panel. You can use two 90mm paslode nails fired from a claw gun or two 100mm galvanised wire nails using a hammer.

Now you need to sort out what size to cut them.

So if we've two number timbers of dimension 38 x 140 mm to top and bottom of the wall then all we need to do is subtract 152mm from the overall height of the wall to get our vertical stud size that is 2.301 m.

Cut 13 studs at 2.301 me long ensuring that your cuts are plumb. Very important to get the length and the plumb cut right to ensure a great tight fit.

Clear a space on the ground and place two lengths of timber lengthways on the ground. These will undoubtedly be used to produce your panel on. Keeping the ends of the panel off the bottom causes it to be easier to repair the very best and bottom plates to the vertical studs.

Now you can start nailing the panel together keeping the edge of the vertical studs flush with the the surface of the sole plate and header plate. Fix the top and bottom of every stud with two number nails either 90mm paslode nails fired from a nail gun or 100mm galvanised wire nails if you're utilizing a hammer. Ensure that the studs are not twisted in the frame and are plumb from top of the wall to the bottom.

Work the right path over the panel fixing the studs at 400mm centres. This just means leaving a range of 400mm from the centre of just one stud to the next.

You can even use the edge of the stud and simply go from edge to edge. Keep working and soon you have nailed up all the vertical studs to the top and bottom plates.

Now you can add plywood or OSB sheets to shrink the frame. That is better done only at that stage ahead of standing the panel up, as the task should go quicker by fixing the sheets to the frame when it is lying on the ground.

Fix the plywood or OSB to each vertical stud at 150mm centres and around the perimeter of each sheet at 75mm centres. (An engineer can help you of this type by performing mathematical calculations to offer you a precise figure as you are able to follow.)

Just be aware the panel can be very heavy so make sure you involve some extra pairs of hands or mechanical lifting gear to help you.

But if you should be lacking helping hands you can leave this before the panel is fully fixed and braced.