Adding bottom plates with 2x4s

- [Voiceover] In this video we're going to place the base plates, which go all the way around the floor plan that the framing will rest on. These are made of 2x4's, and if you zoom in here in the corner, you'll see this area that has kind of a confusing array of lines. And I put that there to help you lay out the different components that go within the wall. So if we're just going to look at this wall here. This first area is the interior plywood sheathing. We're going to use high-quality plywood so that it acts as the finished surface.

Inside that we'll have a 2x4, which goes across here. This is line is just the center line of the 2x4. This, here, represents the exterior sheathing, which is a construction-grade plywood. It doesn't look so good, but you're not going to see it. So that doesn't matter. It's less expensive also. And then out here, we have our metal siding. So you have to go to this level of planning in a tiny home. Because every inch matters. To begin the base plates, let's use the rectangle tool, and let's start the first base right plate here.

This is the intersection of these lines, which represent the 2x4's. And I'm going to go ahead and zoom out by rotating the mouse wheel. Hold down Shift, and drag the mouse wheel to pan. And then roll the mouse wheel forward to zoom in. And over here, we want to place the opposite corner right here. If you orbit around, you'll see kind of of a flickering happen, because the surface that you just created is coincident with the surface of the sub-floor.

Press p, and click on the new surface. Move the cursor up, and type 1.5 for one and a half inches. And press Enter. So this new object is sticking above the sub-floor. It's our base plate. And it's composed of individual faces and lines. Press the space bar to go to the select tool, which is over here. Triple click on the object to select everything that is contiguous.

Press g to make it a group. And then let's give it a color. Use the Paint Bucket tool, or press b. Select a color such as this one, and click on the object. We could simulate wood with a texture, and we'll actually do that later with the plywood. But for right now this is just framing, and I think a single color is enough to simulate this. And it helps us to see this better. Now we can see this is not the sub-floor. This is something different.

Okay. I'll press the space bar. Zoom over here. Press r, for rectangle. And I'll continue making my next base plate. Now over here we have a problem, because I don't know where to click. I'm just going to click some arbitrary point like that. Press the space bar. Click this edge. Zoom in. Press m for move, and move it from here to there.

Press the space bar. And then p, pull it up. This time I don't have to type in the value of 1.5. I can just click here, on the top surface of the other base plate. Press the space bar. Triple click to select. And then g for group. And then b for bucket. And click to paint it. To save some time, let's copy this over there.

So I'll use the Move tool. There's no dedicated copy command in SketchUp. Instead, you use the Move tool with an Option. I'm going to move it from this lower end-point. And I'm going to press the Option key, or the Alt key on the PC, to leave the original behind, thereby making a copy. I then need to pan over here. And I need to click right here. Make sure that the red line is dashed.

That way you can be sure that it's going to be horizontally over from the original base plate. Over here, let's see if this is in the right place. It looks like it is. You see? This is the exterior siding, and then the sheathing, and then there's the 2x4. Okay. Let's continue. R for rectangle. I'll click here. And here.

This is the framing for the slide-out. P, click. Click again, on top of the other base plate. Space bar to select. Triple click. G for group. B for bucket. Click. And then move on. Over here we have a similar situation.

R. Click there. We need to click right here. P. And now I don't have another base plate nearby, so I'm just going to click, move up, and type 1.5 Enter. Space bar to select. Triple click. G for group. B for bucket. Click on the new group to paint it. R for rectangle.

Click. And then navigate over here, and let's place it right there. P, pull it up. Click on top. But actually we need to pull it over, too. So we can do that as a separate step. I'll click, and click again. Space bar. Triple click to select everything. G for group. B for bucket.

Click to paint it. Space bar. And click off to the side. So there you have it. We've laid in all the base plates in preparation for building the walls. Let's save this as Tiny House 2.