Professional Documents
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Example wall
Specifications:
10 feet long, 8 feet high, a total of 3 electrical device boxes, and drywall on both
sides,
Built in basement with top plate fastened to wood floor joists and bottom plate
fastened to concrete slab.
All wood is standard kiln dried (no pressure treated) and therefore sill gasket is should
be used for all bottom plates. I am not including wire staples as there are too many
options for a reasonable comparison. Also, trim screws are over 10 times more
expensive than bright finishing nails, but finishing nails can be used with metal framing if
a strip of OSB is used at the bottom of the wall.
Wood wall using nails
Materials required:
2 x 4 lumber in 8 foot lengths
$2.84 each.
Studs: total 9
Total cost: $1
$1.88 each x3
$2.84 each.
Studs: total 9
same price
same price
$4.48 each
*price in this example is different from picture above. Photo was taken in Canada in
March, 2013. Prices quoted from US based site in December 2013.
Metal studs, 8 foot length
$3.98 x 9
Total: $35.82
$0.027 each x 6
$11.53 per 75
same box as in the other examples can be used for both metal and wood framing
* In Canada, device box design differs for metal framing vs. wood framing. A box
designed for steel studs cost $5.49 each whereas a box with side brackets was
$3.59 on the same day. Other basic device boxes could be had for even less. In
our example requiring 3 boxes, the $4.15 per box difference amounts to under
$13 total.
Fasteners for device boxes
Plastic grommets are required to protect wiring run through metal framing. A bag of 25
costs $6.72. How many grommets are required for a project will depend on how the
wiring is run. Since our example uses 6 studs, I am factoring in the cost of 6 grommets.
(about $1.61)
Total cost: approximately $54.37
Constant costs for all examples
Drywall costs roughly $10 per sheet depending on what variety is chosen. We need 5
for our project. $50
Each sheet of drywall requires about 45 screws. A 1 pound box containing
approximately 258 screws costs $4.67. Screws for our project will cost about $3.39.
Other expenses include tape, joint compound, primer and paint. For now and stick with
just the basic framing and rocking and add a total of at least $60 to each example
(partially offsets the additional expenses).
Wood framed wall with nails: Total cost: approximately $42.08+ $60 = $102.08
Wood framed wall (screws): Total cost: approximately $43.54+ $60 = $103.54
Wall framed with steel studs: Total cost: approximately $54.37+ $60 = $114.37