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Building Framing Size, Spacing, Other Details give Building Age & History InspectAPedia®  -     How to inspect building framing size and spacing for clues about building age

Here we discuss details about the size and spacing of wood framing members in light construction. These components can help determine the age of a building or of its various parts. The age of a building can be determined quite accurately by documentation, but when documents are not readily available, visual clues such as those available during a professional home inspection can still determine when a house was built.

Here we list some helpful clues to answer the question "how old is the house?" and we provide photographs of key visual clues useful for determining the age of a building. See Framing Methods Age for the history and date ranges of various building framing methods. Also see Nails and Hardware and Saw Cuts, Tool Marks for additional building age clues likely to be available when examining building framing materials.

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Wood Framing Spacing & Framing Member Actual Dimensions can indicate building age

(in process, contributions invited)

In North America, up to about 1930 it was common for dimensional lumber to be full-sized - a 2x4 was really 2" x 4" in cross section. Modern wood framing wall studs 2x4's (a modern dimensional lumber "two by four" is actually 1.5" thick by 3.5" wide) and larger members (x" deep by 1.5" thick). Here are some common intervals or spacings used in frame construction in North America.

• non-standard wood framing spacings, typically in post and beam or hewn beam frame construction
• 14" spaced wooden stud framing - early balloon framing
• 24" spaced wood stud and wood rafter framing, based on a 24" module - all framing, wall studs, floor joists, roof rafters are spaced 24 inches on center. See Arkansas framing above. 24" spacing is also often found between modern roof trusses.
• 16" spaced wooden wall stud and wooden roof rafter or wood roof joist framing

Here is a photograph of post and beam framing with joint number markings.

The observation of framing materials, framing markings, and framing styles provides considerable information about the probable age of a house.

We discuss framing materials and styles here as an aid to house age determination.

Also see our article on " Saw Cuts and Tool Marks" (links at page left).

Log framing and both modern and antique log construction are discussed at Log Home Guide.

Antique and modern trusses are distinguished and modern laminated beams and I-truss beams and wood joists are discussed.

Keep in mind that even when we can identify specific types of building materials and building methods, precise dating of the time of construction of a building remains difficult: old building materials were often re-used, so beams, siding, and other components may appear in a building built later than when the materials were first made.

Also, in the U.S. various states had machines for making cut nails, screws, and sawmills at different times. For example, New York State was industrialized earlier than some western or southern states, so machine-made nails appear earlier in New York than elsewhere.

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AGE of a BUILDING - how to determine
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