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Building and renovating Chicago area homes and businesses since 1999
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Custom homes, additions & remodeling across Chicago and the suburbs
Framing is where Bofran Builders started, and it is the one trade we have never handed to a subcontractor. Residential and commercial, wood and steel — our own crew builds the bones of the building, and everything you see later depends on getting them right.
Every framing job comes down to two questions: what kind of building, and what material. Start with the page that matches your project — or answer two quick questions below and we'll point you to the right one.
House framing for new homes, additions, second stories, garages, porches and gut rehabs — including the quirks of Chicago's older housing stock.
Metal stud and wood framing for build-outs, demising walls, multi-unit buildings and mezzanines — for our own projects or as a trade on yours.
Stick framing and structural carpentry in dimensional and engineered lumber — the workhorse of Chicago homes, done with old-school care.
Light-gauge metal stud framing and structural steel — noncombustible, dead straight and immune to rot, for commercial interiors and smart residential uses.
Two questions, no contact info — we'll point you to the right framing service.
House projects live on our residential framing page — costs, timelines and what to expect, whether it's a new build or opening up a load-bearing wall.
See residential framingTap through the project types to compare typical cost, timeline and what's involved. Every one of these is framed by Bofran's own carpenters — the same crew, job after job.
The complete structural shell of a new house: sill plates, floor systems, walls, stairs and roof, framed square and plumb so every trade after us — and every door you close for the next fifty years — works the way it should. We frame for our own custom home projects and for owners and builders who hire framing as its own trade.
The hardest framing in residential work is making new structure carry into a building that has been settling since before you were born. Room additions, bump-outs and full second stories — shored correctly, tied into the existing frame, and weathered-in fast so your house isn't open to the sky a day longer than necessary. Planning one? Start with our home additions page.
Chicago porches carry real legal weight — the city's porch code exists for a reason, and inspectors read deck framing closely. We frame garages, porch systems, deck structures and exterior stairs with the hardware, footings and connections the code book actually asks for, not what's fastest.
Chicago's brick two-flats and workers cottages are worth saving — but behind the plaster, a century of remodels usually left cut joists, out-of-level floors and walls framed by whoever was cheapest in 1974. In a gut rehab we reframe the interior: new walls, sistered or replaced joists, new stairs, flattened floors, corrected load paths.
Metal stud partitions, fire-rated demising walls, ceilings, soffits and blocking — the framing package that turns an empty shell into an office, clinic or restaurant. We frame our own commercial projects and take framing-only scopes for owners and other general contractors.
Sagging floors, cracked headers, joists cut by a plumber decades ago, a wall you want gone that turns out to hold the house up. We diagnose the load path, work with a structural engineer when the fix needs stamped drawings, and install the beams — LVL or steel — that put the building back on its feet.
A Chicago gut rehab our crew reframed: the "before" is a century of dark, chopped-up rooms — the "after" is new walls, corrected framing and a floor plan that finally makes sense. Drag the handle to see the difference framing makes.
Real Bofran project — interior reframe during a full gut rehab, Chicago.
A fast, honest ballpark for the framing trade itself — labor and lumber, walls, floors and roof where they apply. Pick the project, set the size, and the range updates as you move.
Ranges are 2025–2026 Chicago-area planning figures for the framing trade (labor + material) and move with lumber prices, engineering requirements and site access. Want a deeper dive? Try our full house framing cost calculator, or request a free site visit for a firm, itemized number.
Framing usually runs about 15–20% of a project's total construction cost — and it's the 15–20% everything else stands on. Here's how the framing trade tends to price in Chicago, and what moves the number.
| Project | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Garage, porch or deck framing | $14–$25 /sq ft |
| Gut-rehab interior reframe | $12–$25 /sq ft |
| New home structural shell | $18–$35 /sq ft |
| Room addition framing | $20–$40 /sq ft |
| Second-story addition framing | $25–$45 /sq ft |
| Metal stud partition (commercial) | $18–$35 /lin ft |
| Fire-rated demising wall | $30–$60 /lin ft |
| Load-bearing wall removal (LVL) | $4,500–$12,000 |
| Load-bearing wall removal (steel) | $8,000–$25,000 |
| Factor | Impact |
|---|---|
| Lumber market swings | ±10–20% |
| Complex roofs & vaults | Add 15–25% |
| Engineered beams (LVL, steel) | By design |
| Tight city lots & alley access | Add 5–15% |
| Shoring an occupied home | Add 10–20% |
| Project | Duration |
|---|---|
| Garage, porch or deck | 3–10 days |
| Room addition | 1–2 weeks |
| Second story | 1–3 weeks |
| Full house shell | 2–4 weeks |
| Commercial partitions | Days–2 weeks |
A note on honesty: framing quotes that look dramatically cheaper usually got there one of three ways — thinner crews, skipped hardware, or a bid that grows later. Our number includes the connectors, blocking and engineering coordination the inspector will ask about, priced once.
Every stick in a frame has a job. Tap any part of the drawing to see what it does — and what it looks like when a framer gets it wrong. This is the checklist our own crew is graded on.
The vertical bones of every wall, typically 2x4 or 2x6 spaced 16 inches on center. They carry the roof and floors above down toward the foundation and give every finish surface something straight to attach to.
What bad framing looks like: studs installed without "crowning" — sorting each stick so its natural bow faces the same way — which shows up later as wavy drywall you can see down a hallway in raking light.
We frame in both, so we have no reason to sell you either. Toggle what you care about most — the answer usually picks itself once you know the building type.
| Factor | Wood framing | Steel framing |
|---|---|---|
| Material cost | Lower for houses; moves with the lumber marketWood | Stable pricing; competitive at commercial scale |
| Labor | Every residential crew speaks wood fluentlyWood | Faster for repetitive partition runsSteel |
| Straightness over time | Quality depends on culling and crowning the lumber | Dead straight, and stays that way — no warp, twist or shrinkSteel |
| Fire | Combustible — fine for most homes by code | Noncombustible; required in many commercial assembliesSteel |
| Moisture, rot & termites | Needs detailing at concrete, roofs & grade | Immune to rot and insects; smart against foundation wallsSteel |
| Insulation & energy | Naturally insulating stud baysWood | Conducts heat — needs a thermal break detail on exterior walls |
| Structural spans | Engineered lumber (LVL, glulam) covers most homes | Structural steel carries the longest, openest spansSteel |
| Houses & additions | The default — and what Chicago's housing stock is built fromWood | Niche but useful: basement walls, arrow-straight feature walls |
| Commercial interiors | Limited by construction type in many buildings | The standard — metal studs are what the code and landlord expectSteel |
The short version: houses want wood, commercial interiors want steel, and the interesting projects use both — which is why our crew carries both guns.
Framing rewards preparation. Here's how a Bofran framing job runs — whether it's our project end-to-end or your project and our trade.
We read the drawings ourselves — our owner trained as an architect before he built — and we price a complete takeoff: lumber or steel, hardware, beams, labor. If the plans have a structural gap, you hear about it now, not mid-frame.
Structural work in Chicago runs through permits and rough inspections. We coordinate engineered beams, shoring plans and permit drawings with your architect or engineer — or bring in ours.
Material lands, the crew mobilizes, and the structure goes up — plumb, level, square, blocked and strapped. Additions get weathered-in fast; occupied buildings get dust and access protection.
We walk the frame with a straightedge before the inspector walks it with a flashlight. Rough inspection passes, and the next trades inherit a frame they don't have to fight.
Plenty of general contractors offer framing. Almost all of them sub it out. Here's what it means that we never have.
The same carpenters frame every Bofran project — not whichever sub was available that week. That's why the quality doesn't wobble from job to job, and why we can warranty the structure for five years. Bofran Builders is a family-owned Chicago construction company.
Our owner trained as an architect before he started building. Structural drawings get read, questioned and understood — and when something on paper won't work in the field, we catch it before it's framed.
Porch code, permit drawings, rough inspections, snow loads, fire-rated assemblies — 27 years of framing inside Chicago's rulebook means the inspector visit is a formality, not a gamble.
Lumber gets culled and crowned, subfloors get glued and screwed, studs get checked with a straightedge before drywall. The difference shows up every day you live or work in the building.
Owners, architects and other general contractors hire us for framing-only scopes. We bid from drawings, carry the insurance paperwork, show up when the schedule says, and leave the site ready for the next trade.
Framing is exactly what our written structural warranty covers. If we build your frame, we stand behind it — in writing, for five years.
From Lincoln Park two-flats to Lake Forest custom homes and West Loop build-outs, Bofran Builders frames across the city and the North Shore. We know the local building stock — balloon frames, brick shells, bungalows — because we've had our hands inside all of it.
Don't see your area? Get in touch — we likely serve it too.
"The deck and staircase construction on a residential building was completed fast, under budget and with high quality. Even the city inspector was impressed with the workmanship."
"Our architect recommended Bofran Builders and we couldn't be happier. Frank and his team worked with us throughout building our new home, making excellent suggestions. Built on schedule despite permit obstacles — and more affordable than other contractors. The craftsmanship is phenomenal."
"They did a great job replacing both support beams on our rooftop pergola — a tricky job with heavy materials in a tight space. I appreciated the attention to detail matching the existing accents and the timeliness to finish."
For the framing trade itself — labor and material — most Chicago projects land in these ranges: garages, porches and decks $14–$25 per square foot, gut-rehab reframes $12–$25, new home shells $18–$35, room additions $20–$40 and second stories $25–$45. Commercial partition framing prices by the wall, roughly $18–$60 per linear foot depending on ratings. As a rule of thumb, framing is about 15–20% of a project's total construction cost. Try the framing cost calculator above for a range tailored to your project.
Yes — and that's less common than you'd think. Most residential crews only frame wood; most commercial drywall outfits only run metal studs. Our crew does both, which means the material gets chosen by the building and the code instead of by what the contractor happens to know. See our wood framing and steel framing pages for how we decide.
Both. Residential framing covers new homes, additions, second stories, garages, porches and gut rehabs — details on our residential framing page. Commercial framing covers build-outs, demising walls, multi-unit buildings and mezzanines — details on our commercial framing page. Same crew, same standard, different rulebooks — and we know both.
Yes. Framing is where Bofran started, and we still take framing-only scopes for general contractors, developers and owners running their own projects. We bid from your drawings, carry full insurance documentation, mobilize when the schedule says, and turn over a frame that's ready for the next trade. If you've been burned by framing subs who show up late and leave crooked walls, that's exactly the problem we get hired to solve.
Typical Chicago framing timelines with our crew on site: a garage, porch or deck runs 3–10 days, a room addition 1–2 weeks, a second story 1–3 weeks, a full house shell 2–4 weeks, and commercial partition packages anywhere from a few days to two weeks. Weather matters less than people think — we frame through Chicago winters — but engineering and permits before the crew arrives are usually the real schedule driver.
Almost always, yes — structural work in Chicago requires a building permit and a rough framing inspection, and additions or wall removals typically need drawings as well. That's not bad news: the permit process is what puts an inspector's second set of eyes on your structure. We handle permits and inspections as part of the job and have for 27 years. If a contractor suggests skipping the permit on structural work, that tells you everything about the rest of their shortcuts.
Yes — structural repair is a big part of our framing work, especially in Chicago's older housing stock. Sagging floors, cracked or undersized headers, joists cut for plumbing decades ago, bouncy floors and walls out of plumb all have framing fixes: sistering, new beams (LVL or steel), corrected load paths. Where the repair needs stamped engineering, we coordinate the structural engineer and build to the letter of the fix.
Call (773) 969-9097, email bofranbuilders@gmail.com, or send the project form on this page. We'll look at your plans — or your sagging floor — and give you a straight answer on scope, cost and schedule, no obligation.
Tell us what you're framing — a house, an addition, a build-out, or a scope you'd like a reliable framing crew for. We'll reach out within one business day with an honest read on cost and schedule.
We'll get back to you within one business day.