Good Morning Friends,

When laying out for the bolts on the sill plate of a foundation ot the top plate of a masonry wall.

What method would you use to make sure the bolts are in the right location to drill and fit the plate flush to the outside of the wall?

I used to lay the plate on the bolts a bang it with a hammer. That became problematic when the idiot that set the bolts set them at differing heights...That idiot? that would be me.

Then I tried propping the plate on edge along side the bolts and marking the side of the bolts and measuring in from the outside. That worked a little better.

Finally, I began to just lay the plate flat along side the bolts, marked the position with a Simpson angle and measured in and drilled a hole about 1/4" bigger than the bolt. Used a couple washers and copious amounts of sealant under the plate. 

PS I never worked construction. I'm too stupid about construction but, to make up for it, I'm reeeely slow. I'd been fired after the first 15 minutes!

Lay the plate on the blocks, against the bolts. Mark each bolt location on the plate, transfer the mark to the correct location on the plate, drill over sized hole at the mark. galvanized washer/nuts.

Good Morning Fellows,

You both are correct when you laid the plate along the sides of the bolts and measured from half the bolt to the out side of the foundation or wall and drilled with a slightly over sized bit.

  There was ONE time when we had to drill the "plate" before the anchor bolts were installed.     Masonary wall,  two floors tall,  treated 2xs as a cap, sitting under a rubber type roofing.     Drilled the holes, install the "J" style anchor bolts, swung the whole mess onto the top of the wall.    Top course was of a special type of block.   2 rebars sat in a channel, and the "J"s hooked onto them.   The channel was also full of mortar, so the rebars, and the anchor bolts were set in place.   

 

  The only "downside" to this was having the work WITH the Masons,  but we did it with out any serious fighting going on.

 

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'and may the road raise up to meet ye'