It took getting yelled at by a framer to fix my layout marks

I was marking my stud layouts with a sharpie for years, just making a line and a quick X to show where the stud goes. Then this old framer in Denver watched me for like 30 seconds on a job last spring and just said 'what the hell are you doing, you're wasting time.' He showed me how to just put a single tick mark at 16 inches and mark which side of the tick the stud lands on with a slash. No more drawing boxes or X's on every single layout. I swear I was adding an extra 20 minutes per wall set doing it my old way. Has anyone else had a moment where a tiny change like that saved you a bunch of time on site?

2 comments

2 Comments

calebw501mo ago

That tick mark and slash method is the way to go. Used to see guys on my crew draw full boxes and arrows around every stud location, just burning time. Switched to a single line with a slash on the layout side and never looked back. Adds up fast when you're marking a whole house.

paul_thompson671mo ago

@calebw50 100% right, 30 seconds per mark adds up quick.