Home building - is this normal or even legal?

Blaze

Blaze

The Jeeper Reaper
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
My house is constantly pissing me off. I am always fixing stupid shit that either the previous owner or the builder did. I am getting close to being done with fixing all the crap, but last night I ran into something very weird.

I went to hang my new TV on the wall and found out that my one wall in my bedroom (load bearing no less) was on 24" centers. Ordinarily this wouldn't be terrible. A very cheap way to build a house, but whatever. The problem is that the other walls in my bedroom are on 16" centers.

Weird.

So I started poking around with the stud finder. Most of my downstairs rooms are on 16" centers, but a few are on 18" centers. Upstairs most are 24" centers, but some are 16" centers.

Is it normal to build a house with three different stud spacing? Or is the asshole builder who built this house just a fucking moron?
 
Builder is no doubt a moron. Not sure if it's legal though. I wouldn't think 24" centers would be legal for load bearing though.
 
probably more than one crew working on that house. the GC probably had a hard time paying out to the subs....so different sets of carpenters, doing different spacings. the upstairs is probably where the GC figured out he had to cut corners to save a few bucks.
 
Depends on the thickness of the stud. If you use 2x6 studs (common near bathrooms to get additional plumbing clearance), you can go to 24" on center and be fine. If the 18" OC is true (verified with a small nail through the sheetrock unless you know your stud finder is real accurate), then the framer was a moron. I've never heard of 18" OC. Could it be a sister-stud or a cripple?
 
No 2x6 studs, only 2x4 studs. One of my neighbors said that the builder threw up these houses pretty quick and a lot of them have been having issues with things. I know the 18"OC is true, my stud finder is pretty accurate. The entire wall is that way.

We plan on building a new house in the next few years, we just need to get this house finished fixing so we can sell it. That way if something is messed up on our new house I can only blame myself. :lol:
 
If is was a truss house or panelized (centex homes) it is most likley that it is 16oc on exterior walls upstairs and 24 oc on interior walls
 
If you have anything on center rather than randomly placed you are doing good. I talked to a builder several years ago that didn't have enough tape measures so he gave his guys string with knots tied in it.
 
Blaze said:
You mean like a modular built house? This was a stick-built, made by Pulte Homes.
Click to expand...

I think is talking about pre fab walls. They are built to plan on the table just like roof trusses and basicly stood up and atached to the floor. Still technically stick built but faster and cheaper.
 
ManglerYJ said:
Depends on the thickness of the stud. If you use 2x6 studs (common near bathrooms to get additional plumbing clearance), you can go to 24" on center and be fine. If the 18" OC is true (verified with a small nail through the sheetrock unless you know your stud finder is real accurate), then the framer was a moron. I've never heard of 18" OC. Could it be a sister-stud or a cripple?
Click to expand...

Yup. Pretty much everything in construction is on an 8" module... an 18" spacing isn't unheard of in older construction, especially if it was a kit of some sort and people didn't know what they were doing... houses in our neighborhood are all over the place with framing.

Blaze said:
No 2x6 studs, only 2x4 studs. One of my neighbors said that the builder threw up these houses pretty quick and a lot of them have been having issues with things. I know the 18"OC is true, my stud finder is pretty accurate. The entire wall is that way.
Click to expand...

Yup. Sounds like the builder was cutting corners. Anything they can hide in the walls and pinch pennies on... they probably did. That being said, 24" oc on a non-load bearing interior wall is probably ok... but on a load-bearing wall sounds pretty questionable... are you sure it is load bearing?
 
Just because it's an exterior wall doesn't mean it's load bearing. Just because it's an interior wall doesn't mean it's not. ;)
 
I was a project manager for Pulte back in the late 90s till 2000.

Your house was stick built, but used a panel wall system built off site at the Builders 1st plant in Hillsboro. Your house will also have trusses bearing on the outside walls only and interior walls will be non bearing.

Pulte plans were "value engineered" for 16 spacing on exterior walls and 24 interior. Headers were 2x10 exterior walls, 2x6 interior downstairs and 2x4 upstairs interior. All corners were to be California corners( saving material). As for the 18 spacing more then likely the length of the wall, door or something changed it from 24

Pulte homes were are are quality built, the selling features were great locations and a low cost per sqft. They offered a decent house for the price point an the time.

What neighborhood are you in?
 
Emerald Chase, off of Lead Mine. House was built in 1987. There is NOTHING quality built about this house. From what my neighbors said, they spent years out here fixing their fuckups on these houses. I guess this wall might not be load bearing, but with the valuted ceilings it really would make sense to me that it would be.
Here's a crappy Google Street View pic.
 
I was a truss designer for several years. The vault really doesn't matter. Most trusses for shotgun type houses are designed to bear on exterior walls only (and usually the interior garage walls). All exterior walls are supposed to be load bearing. If they have a gable end on them, they don't really have any weight on them, but you would find a thickened footing under it.

If you walls were built at a plant, they'd be 24 or 16 OC. Most tables aren't set up 19.2 or other centers.

But to answer your question, the house would be legal because it had to pass a framing inspection.
 
My neighbor's house passed an electrical inspection with the wires to the breaker panel run on the outside of the studs rather than through them. Pretty sure that's not legal. I don't know who inspected these houses, but they have greasy pockets.
 
Depends on exactly where you live... City of Raleigh inspectors tend to do a pretty decent job (at least since 2005-ish, when I became involved with residential work here), but Wake County and other local municipalities are hit and miss... and in 1987... who knows. Especially if there were a bunch in the development being built/inspected at the same time? <shrug>
 
<shrug>

As we used to say at the lumberyard, if people knew how their houses were built, they wouldn't live in them.
 
I used to work as an assistant PM for commercial jobs, I know how the inspectors are sometimes. :lol:

I was just stating that just because it was inspected doesn't mean it was legal. It could just mean that the inspector was in a good mood that day. :lol:
 
And... well... a lot of inspectors don't know what the building code actually says or requires.

Building inspectors in North Carolina assume no liability for their actions, so they don't have a good feedback mechanism for being "right".
 
shawn said:
And... well... a lot of inspectors don't know what the building code actually says or requires.

Building inspectors in North Carolina assume no liability for their actions, so they don't have a good feedback mechanism for being "right".
Click to expand...

can't argue with this.

a lot can vary from county to county. codes are updated frequently as well. electrical codes that were kosher in 87 are now long outdated. i'm not an expert in the area of codes, but residential framing shouldn't have changed a whole for the areas in question. i have never seen an inspector with 'greasy pockets.' i've seen ignorant ones, but never seen ones willing to break the law. again, this is just my experience. felt like stirring the pot a bit.
 
I bet the drywall guy loved that 18" center wall :cool:

My parents had a house built in Cary back '84, by SunSouth.
They discovered about 8 years later a huge part of their bedroom wall was cracked and leaning in, and the ceiling caving. Why? Aparently they had a wall that was supposed to be load-bearing - but the design was off and the load was over a closet, then ended, instead of the main wall. Cost them many thousands to fix.
Of course by then SunSouth had gone belly up... from tons of lawsuits...
Dad talked to a county inspector, he said "Yeah, back in those days there were so many houses going up that the inspector would only check 1 in 5 houses in a subdivision. Sorry."
He was so pissed...
 
Yall should see what contractors really try to get away with. You all see what is passed, imagine what didn't pass that they "thought" was acceptable... :lol:
 
I don't have an 87 Pulte home but I feel your pain. I have sorry ass early 80s constuction throughout my home, from a septic tank too close to the house, cracks in the foundation.........FIVE! ..... 2x6 joists or creeky foors, to very shity electrical, and shody brickwork high up on the chimney etc. We bought this house in a hurry and had a " Good friend " of my motherinlaw as a realtor........ go figure.:mad: We are fixin to refinance and fix alot of carp and possibly do an addition.
 
Back
Top