I've been watching people do framing on residential homes for a while; both in person and on videos. The framing is very "sloppy" compared to watching a craftsman build a cabinet, for example. The cuts are choppy, edges don't always butt tight, wood splintered from nail guns is ignored, etc…
I assume builders don't worry about all of the minor details because they're moving quickly, working with lower quality materials, and because most framing is hidden behind drywall, roofing materials, etc…
What I'm trying to understand if this is, in fact, an okay thing to do? Are there any advantages to building a house like a master carpenter would build a quality piece of furniture? Are there any disadvantages or problems that creep up from this quality of construction?
Best Answer
Ten years ago I would have said getting any fussier than what you see average framing crews doing would be a waste of time. But in 2009(10?) I was involved in a project that had the framing done by a local Amish community. Hand planes, old timey plum bobs, brace and bits, the works. They didn't spend the time that we, the cabinet and trim guys, spend on our fit and finish (it would take a century to build a house to that level of exactitude), but they were much more conscientious about compensating for the defects found in modern building materials than what we were used to seeing.
The difference it made when it came time to set our cabinets, hang trim, etc. etc. etc. was unbelievable. You could have gone around that house with a fine tooth comb and not found anything out of plum, level, bulged, sagging, crooked or otherwise wanged up by more than an 1/8 of an inch, and that is no exaggeration. To put this in perspective, well let's put it this way: we usually have to add 1/2" scribes to all of our end panels and so forth just in case the framers were having a particularly bad day.
It might have taken them longer to do their part, but the labor saved down the road was well worth it. The trick is knowing where to spend your extra time/effort up front so that it pays dividends down the road.