this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
305 points (97.2% liked)
Woodworking
7875 readers
7 users here now
A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca whose father was inspired to start woodworking by Norm and the New Yankee Workshop.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Old framing was not 2x4. Some of it was, but everyone has their own size they sold as 2x4. You couldn't mix and match.
I used to do home renos. Pre sixties era homes in southern Ontario had actual 2x4s. They were all same dimensions, and using modern stuff meant making up this difference with plywood rips.
I've seen houses like that too. I saw other houses not far away (build in 1885) where the 2x4's matched modern dimensions. Still other houses I've seen the dimensions where something else. Anything since the standard the sizes are all the same.
This is about whatever was available where you happen to live at the time they built.
Most we demo'd and reno'd where sized equally and so drywall could go flush back over top, and pulling out a stud from a doorway you could reuse elsewhere to match.
There was only a few where it looked liked somebody had assembled their house from random scraps. Instead of full studs sometimes they were 3 vertical pieces nailed against 2 or 3 other pieces to make a Stud, and the dimensions were all over the map