Build a Closet - Measuring and Labeling

I am Bill with BGB Builders. Our project today is building a closet. Our first step is going to be laying out our walls. For this step Im going to the need the help of my lovely wife, an employee, Genna Frishman. First thing were going to do is decide how big to make our closet. Now, in this area you can see really the only thing Im constrained by are my windows. So, what Im going to do is take a measurement from the corner to the window. I have got 63 inches. Now, what Im going to do is deduct four inches from that; three of which being from my window trim, and another inch to make up the difference for the drywall plus just a little bit just to be safe. So, Im going to mark my wall at 59 inches, and I will do the same on the other side. Now, lets mark our wall. As we said, were going to use 59 inches, and were going to mark 59 inches to the outside of our wall. Were going to take off three-and-a-half for the width of this bottom plate. Now, we will do the same thing on this side, with the only difference being that I have taken a few inches off just because I want that closet to be a little wider than I do want it to be deep. We will get that Genna to mark us at 51-and-a-half inches, our window was the same, 63, but like I said, I held it back a little farther, so go ahead and mark the outside of that plate, and then once again on the inside at three-and-a-half back. Now, lets go ahead and snap our chalk lines. Now, if Genna holds the chalk line at the outside measurement here. Now, we have pulled this measurement off of that wall at 59 inches as well, and that assumes that this outside wall is square, but Im going to show you here in a second how to double check that measurement. We will do that again. We roll our chalk line back each time to make sure we get some more chalk on it, and we will do the inside of the stud now.

We will do this one more time for this wall, once again at the outside, and lastly on the inside. Now, the last thing I want to do when Im laying out my walls is to make sure that Im square. What I do is use a principle that we have all learned in math class probably back in elementary school called the Pythagorean Triple; a2+b2=c2.

What Im going to do is use the three sides of the triangle to make sure that Im square. So, what Im going to do is mark three foot on this side, Im going to mark four foot. Can you hold that? Thank you. Were going to mark four foot on this side, and that hopefully is going to leave us with 60 inches or five foot. So, lets hold our tape at the four foot mark, albeit the three foot mark, and we have got 60 inches as you can see. We know our closet is square. Lets move on to the next step, which would be the construction of our walls.