Few of us were fortunate enough to have an experienced carpenter like Larry Haun to teach us the basics of the craft. With nearly 50 years of experience as a production framer and as a long-time teacher of carpentry and volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, Haun is a master of his trade. Homebuilding Basics: Carpentry offers newcomers to the trade, or anybody interested in acquiring the basic knowledge of carpentry for their own projects, Larry Haun's many years of knowledge and experience building accurately, efficiently, and safely.

INTRODUCTION

1. HAND TOOLS

2. POWER TOOLS

3. ON THE JOB SITE

4. FRAMING FLOORS

5. WALLS AND CEILINGS

6. ROOFS

7. STAIRS

8. FINISH DETAILS

9. SOURCES OF SUPPLY

INDEX

I've tried my hand at many jobs. I worked for several years as a farmer. I was a spiker once, laying railroad track. I taught Spanish and carpentry at night for years, and I even worked as a counselor for the deaf and for wounded Vietnam veterans. But I always came back to carpentry. It must have been the smell and feel of wood.

Not all of carpentry is easy. Moving and cutting lumber all day long can be hard work. Yet I hardly remember a time when I wasn't doing carpentry work. I was born in a farming-ranching region of western Nebraska, and carpentry -- like sleeping and eating -- was something everyone did.

I helped build my first house before I was out of high school. I worked with a kindly old man, a craftsman who taught me "white-overall" carpentry, the way houses were built from Civil War times until about World War II. Hand tools were used to cut the wood and build the homes because few power tools existed. I was deeply impressed by the beauty of the tools this old carpenter had and the skill with which he used them, and I'm thankful for the knowledge he passed along to me.

When I was still a teenager, the post-WWII housing boom was beginning, and I found myself in Albuquerque trying to earn money to go to college by building houses with my older brother Jim. Because returning veterans were able to move into houses with nothing down and payments of $75 a month, the demand for housing was enormous. To meet that demand, we had to change the way we built. So, unlike Henry Ford, who took the automobile to the production line, we took the production line to the building site. We laid aside the white overalls and packed our pickups with tools built for speed. I set aside my handsaw and picked up a power saw that could cut wood to size in seconds, and I tossed my 16-oz. curved-claw hammer in favor of a 22-oz. straight-claw hammer that could drive a 16d nail with one lick.

In 1950, at age 19, I moved to Los Angeles to study at UCLA. I went to school three days a week and worked three days as a journeyman carpenter in the union. I got intellectual food for my mind and physical food for my body. On Sundays I rested.

By the mid-1950s, the building boom in Los Angeles was at its peak. Instead of building one house at a time, we were building 500 or even 5,000 at a time. Every person working in every trade was adapting. New tools, new procedures, and new materials were in evidence everywhere. It is a tribute to American ingenuity that we were able to build thousands of new homes without sacrificing quality for quantity. During these fast-paced days, I learned a lot about carpentry.

Nowadays I realize how fortunate I was to learn how to use hand tools from a traditional master builder when I was young. Today's carpentry is different in that we have all kinds of power tools, nail guns, and hand-held computers that help us build. But carpentry still requires that some basic knowledge of hand tools and layout skills be acquired so we can move on to become masters of our craft. And this is my purpose in writing Homebuilding Basics: Carpentry. I want to share with others what I have learned from my teachers. Just as in my first book, The Very Efficient Carpenter, this second book continues the process of making information available to people about carpentry tools and the techniques for using them.

Homebuilding Basics: Carpentry is a step-by-step guide book to building. There is something in this book for anyone interested in carpentry or home improvement. In it, you will learn how to work safely and how to choose and use the basic hand and power tools for carpentry. You will learn the vocabulary of carpentry so that you can read plans and order building materials. You'll learn the basic steps of how to put together an entire house. And you'll see when precision counts and when it doesn't.

I no longer make my living as a full-time carpenter. Instead, among other things, I now spend a lot of my time writing and teaching the trade. But that doesn't mean I have stopped building.

I help family and friends who need a willing hand. And my younger brother Joe and I work with Habitat for Humanity, building houses where we live in Oregon. Doing this physical work makes me feel good. It must be the smell and feel of wood.

Customer Reviews from Amazon

this is an excellent primer on stick framing, covering everything from tools to layouts of floors, walls, ceilings and roofs. nothing about shingling, drywalling, plastering, etc. - just framing. that's the strength of this book, in the depth of its treatment of the subject. nicely illustrated, there are at least two or three photos or useful diagrams per page. the book's a big step up from your usual how-to, as the author ties in his own personal building experiences, in ways that illustrate the logic of methods and practices.

"Homebuilding Basics: Carpentry" may just be one of the best
carpentry tools you could buy. Larry Haun, a production framer
and carpentry teacher for over 45 years, wanted to "share with
others what I have learned from my teachers." He has certainly
succeeded.

He begins by covering both hand and power tools and explaining
how to choose one version over another depending on the task.
Safety tips and tricks for more effective use are presented in
sidebars.

The jobsite section explains the frame structure of a typical
home in detail: nomenclature, whys and wherefors, and sequence
of tasks.

Next, Haun moves through the actual frame construction from the
foundation sill through the completion of the structure and basic
finishing in sections on framing floors, walls and ceilings, roofs,
stairs and finish details.

This large, well-organized handbook will prove invaluable to anyone
planning to build a home, remodel one, or simply wanting to be able

to recognize proper framing methods and high quality work. It
provides an introduction, list of sources for tools, supplies and
books and an index as well as a slew of excellent illustrations.

Larry Haun currently teaches carpentry in Coos Bay, Oregon and is
the author of "The Very Effectient Carpenter" and a long-time
contributor to "Fine Homebuilding Magazine".

This book is the best I've ever seen as a teaching tool on this subject. It assumes no prior knowledge, everything is very clearly written, and the illustrations make it simple to understand. (In fact, if you scanned through the book and only studied the pictures and read their captions, you would learn a great deal without reading the book's text.)

If you choose to buy this book, it's money well spent.

I would recommend this book to beginning framers, apprentices, and homeowners who want to learn to do there own work. Professional carpenters and journeyman should pass it by. The book itself is very well layed out and complete. It is rather low tech and somewhat dated in the new world of 'hurricane and earthquake' code requirements. But, I like it. it does not promise more than it delivers and what it delivers in content is well presented.

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