Carpentry as a Career

Some people are meant to be stockbrokers while others are bankers. If you like working with your hands, perhaps you should consider carpentry as a career. A carpenter is someone who builds stuff primarily from wood. He cuts, fits and joins the parts together to form something as basic like a chair or a table.

There are two types of carpenters around. The first is the residential carpenter while the other is commercial. One works in people’s homes while the other gets to work in a construction site like an office and since he gets to work in different places, it requires a lot of certification.

In most construction projects, contractors have more than one carpenter on hand to get the job done.

For starters, a rough carpenter is called in to do rough carpentry work like assemble the frames, formwork, roofing and other large scale work which does not require a polished appearance.

Someone who does a similar job to the rough carpenter is the framer. The difference between the two is that the framer builds the skeletal structure of a building and some of the techniques he uses which the rough carpenter may not be familiar with include balloon framing, platform framing or timber framing.

When he is finished, another carpenter known as a joister comes in to put floor joists that happen to be the horizontal boards that connect the frame of the structure at the level just below the floor so it will be able to hold the weight. This is also used for the deck of a building.

Once this is in place, the finish carpenter or joiner finishes the work done by the two individuals. Some of the things they work on include cabinets, chairs and tables.

As for the doors, windows and other ornamental work, that job is taken cared of by the trim carpenter.

The roofer specializes in roof construction by taking care of the beams, rafters and trusses.

But carpenters do not work only in construction sites. Some find employment in the entertainment industry as part of the stage crew when a film or television show is being made. Their job is to make the set and then dismantle it when the show is over. Other carpenters may also find work in building, maintaining or repairing ships.

Wherever the carpenter works, he has to certain rules to get the job done. Before hammering away, he has to look at the layout then do some measurements. This will enable him to estimate how much materials will be needed and how long it will take to complete. When the materials are ready, some of the wood is cut in the specific shape while other tools are used to increase the accuracy of his work.

When the project is complete, he can look back and be proud of what he did then add this to his portfolio.

You should know that a carpentry career is quite stressful. You will have to bend, climb, kneel and do all sorts of things to get the job done. You are at risk of getting hurt since you could fall, slip or cut yourself when you are working with sharp tools. But if you are able to overcome that, then you will know doubt have a successful career as a carpenter.

oak plywood

really is not all oak.Just the side or sides(top and bottom) that will show are.It is a verneer over various types of sub woods.Most would never know this unless you could see the edges of the sheet.

Oak plywood being a bookmatched verneer shows to the skilled eye that it is a man altered product,as you can see the same grain pattern over and over on thew 4 x 8 plywood sheet.

Red oak ply was apx $32-38 a sheet in summer of 2007.White oak plywood , if you could find it, was $90 + per sheet.Big differance,as most of our white oak is shipped overseas…

fire retardant plywood is too costly to use in your home

Plywood that has been treated with a fire retarder chemical is used in commercial and some industrial buildings.You will know it on sight as it is a pinkish color,not like normal plywood.Hospitals are required to use fire retardant wood in any enclose wall space, studs are metal,but sometimes F.T. wood must be used for backing between the studs.But if there is ever a fire this helps to cut down on combustables.

Fire retardant plywood is expensive and would not be feassiable to use in a home

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How drying wood can save you money.

Kiln dryed vs. Air dried.

Drying wood is not the process of putting it in an oven and driving the moisture out by force and cooking it. A wood kiln does not resemble a kiln for firing clay. Drying wood is critical to its overall performance and value. I?ve read that the kiln drying process is the most time consuming and expensive of the conversion of logs to lumber.

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Building Stairs

Building stairs is not diffcult if you are good with some carpentry skills.A good plan ahead of time,some carpenters math and lay-out is needed to be successful.
This article is for a basic set of stairs that would be for a deck,or a basement stair,ect.If you are looking for finished stairs cases go to—

1st and formost before building your stairs
Consult the national building-code requirements(BOCA) and the local building-code requirements.Somethime theres differant codes for differant locations.If it is an indoor or outdoor stairs ,does make a differance too.You can usally call your local building inspector for the current code.Building Codes are not against you but help protect you and others from hazards.

2nd is design

The most widely held code for stair is 7 5/8″ rise max. and no less than 10″ for tread width.I personally like a 6 1/2 rise,as is mostly required for extior stairs and it is easy for someone who has a physcial problem,to climbing the stairs.You would be suprised how much differance 1″ makes!I also like using 2×12 for my treads.If it is over a 30″ wide stairway,use 3 stringers.That way if anything heavy is moved up or down the steps it will be able to bear it,easily.I always use 2×12 for my stringer too.

Check the headroom (if appalicable) you need apx 6′- 8″ from the nose of the stair that will be directly under the head object for clearance..

Heres a free stair caculator (much thanks to the blocklayer.com)http://www.blocklayer.com/Stairs/StairsEng.aspx

The math part
if the distance between the upper floor(the deck) down to the lower floor (ground) is say 8″ or 96 ”
You would, using a calutor 96″ divided by 6.625 (6 5/8″)= 14.4905″ or 14 and about 1/2 risers which really will not work,we want a very close even number of risers. so … We play around a bit with the fractional part of the desired rise .to find the decimal equi. of 3/4 divide 3 by 4=.75 7/8=.875

96″ divided by 6.875″ (6 7/8″)=13.963 risers which is close enough to the full desired 14 stair risers.

More later

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deck building

Building your 1st deck huh?
Its really more labor than much skill needed,so unless your like me and just plain old lazy,you will be fine.

1.Check local building codes and get the required permits before starting,youi can call you loacl building inspector in the city where you live to obtain this.

2.Get a good plan of how the deck will be.How wide,how long or deep.Will it have a railing?(if its over 2 feet off the ground you need a railing build to code.)If so what typeof deck railing?

2a.What will you build this out of?Pressure treated is the most cost effective,but you can also use cedar.

2b.Where the deck comes upto the house will you exit a door and step down or will it just be and inch or so below the doors threshold?

Will you use screws to hold down the decking boards or just nail them in place(I like screws as the lumber tends to stay in place and screws will not back out

Now Building the deck

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Pole Buildings

These are mostly for storage,but can be converted,or used for almost anything, even commercial uses.

Poles are set in the ground at specified spacing(depending on what material you are using for roof,headers ect)

8′ increments or sections so you can build 8′-16′-24′-32′-40′ -ect. wide.Wall heigh (if you are planning on building them now ort later)should be 8′ or 12′ or 16′ high,plan acordingly. The poles are set deep into the ground (depends on the size and height of the building) and then extends upto the top of the building to support the roof.

These can be put up very quickly , again depending on if you are adding sides for an enclose space or just for a weather cover for hay or equipment.

A pole building

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