New Construction Series: Episode 3-Frame Stage

by Sherri Monroe

New Construction Series: Episode 3-The Frame Stage New Construction Series-Episode 3

The walls are up! This is the moment when your new home finally starts to look like a house. You can walk through the rooms, see where the windows will be, and picture your furniture in place.

But do you know what you are actually looking at?

In episode 2, we covered what goes under your home: post-tension slabs, floaters, brick ledges, and plumbing. Now Texas Oak Realty Group is breaking down the frame stage. These are the details that will soon be hidden behind drywall for good.

1. Headers

Every window and door opening is a gap in the wall, and the weight of the house above still has to go somewhere. That's the job of the header, a beam built across the top of each opening that carries the load around it and down into the frameing on each side.

Wider openings, like a sliding patio door or a big picture window, need stronger headers, When you walk the frame, look above your windows and doors, and you'll see them.

2. Sill Seal and Sheathing

Sill seal is a foam strip installed between the concrete slab and the bottom board of the wall. Concrete is never perfectly smooth, so this layer fills the small gaps. That helps keep out air, moisture and bugs, which your energy bill will thank you for.

Sheathing is the layer of panels, often OSB or plywood, nailed to the outside wall framing. It stiffins the walls, helps the house stand up to wind, and creates the surface the house wraps and exterior finishes attach to.

3. Stick Built vs. Truss Roofs

There are two main ways a roof gets framed:

Stick built roofs are framed piece by piece on site. They offer more design flexibility and can leave more open space in the attic, which is great for storage or vaulted ceilings.
Truss roofs use pre-engineered triangular frames built off site and set in place with a crane. They go up quickly and consistently, which is why many production builders use them. The trade off is that the webbing inside each truss takes up attic space, so there's usually less space for storage.

Buyer Tip: Never cut or modify a roof truss, even for a future attic project. Trusses are engineered as a complete unit, and altering one can compromise a whole roof.

4. The "Waterfall" and Taping Around Windows and Doors

Windows and doors are some of the most common places for water to sneak into a home, so how they're sealed at this stages matters a lot.

Flashing tape is applied around each opening in a specific order, starting at the bottom, then sides, then top. Each layer overlaps the one below it, like shingles on a roof, so any water that gets behind the siding or brick runs down and out instead of into your walls. That's the waterfall effect.

Buyer Tip: When you visit the frame stage, look at the tape around your windows. You want clean, overlapping layers with no gaps, wrinkles or loose edges.

Why This Stage Matters

Once the insulation and drywall go in, everything you see at the frame stage is covered up for good. It's one of the best times to bring in a third-party inspector and one of the best reasons to have an agent who understands new construction walking the house with you.

Catch up on the series: New Construction Series: Episode 1 , New Construction Series: Episode 2

New Construction Series: Episode 3-Frame Stage

by Sherri Monroe

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