Tack the Bottom Plate to the Line Before Framing Walls on the Floor

The Problem

Sheathing a wall after it's standing means working off ladders — slower, more dangerous, and harder to keep square. Sheathing it flat on the floor is better in every way, but only if the wall is actually straight and square when the sheathing locks it in place. A bottom plate that wanders off the line while you frame bakes the error into the wall permanently.

The Technique

Pin the plate to the layout before a single stud goes on.

1. Snap your layout line — here, the 5-1/2-inch line off the wall's outside edge — with the floor already squared. That prior squaring is about to pay off.
2. Set the bottom plate with its edge directly on the line and tack it to the floor with toenails about every four feet. Toenail from the stud side of the plate, aiming down at the opposite bottom corner of the plate.
3. Frame the wall and line the plate to the mark as you go: with the plate held dead straight on a squared floor, the wall often doesn't even need to be squared separately before sheathing — five-and-a-half on the five-and-a-half is the squaring.
4. Sheathe the wall flat on the deck, then lift. Raised properly — rotating up, not dragged — the toenails release without the plate kicking out. It takes surprising force to pop the plate loose deliberately, which is exactly why it stays put while you work.
5. One layout habit: don't put a toenail where a stud, king stud, or other framing lands — it'll be in the way when you get there.