Dear Pat: We are building a room addition to our house. A group of friends is going to help frame and raise the walls. What is the best way to raise them, and how do we take care of bowed wall studs? ...

Once you know how to build a stud wall on a DIY basis, you can step into any remodeling project feeling confident that you have one of the most useful home improvement skills under your belt. Simple ...

Dear James: We are building a guest house using wood stud walls. We plan to build the walls on the ground and raise them. What is the easiest method to do this and have nice, flat walls? -- Laurie S.

Voltaire wrote Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien, often translated as "The perfect is the enemy of the good;" he might well have been talking about residential construction. You run the gamut from the ...

When you build a wall, the studs should be spaced equidistant from each other. Here's why the standard is 16 inches "on center", and an easy way to mark them. "16 inches on center" means the center of ...

Shear walls are walls specifically designed to resist lateral loads, transferring the load from the wall above to the wall below and, ultimately, out through the foundation. This is a critical role in ...