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Framing a wall: idiot edition
Vigo:
If I were to take my guess, I would say from the work that this is a quick flipped house you live in. As in the basement finishing was purposely added quickly to sell the house for a few more bucks.
I have seen this a few times. Any contractor worth their salt will not finish a basement if it doesn't pass a moisture test. I am guessing that the person doing the basement finishing was not an idiot, more just an A-hole that really didn't care. They probably were using scrap wood that was too short to begin with, and did a quick and dirty fill thinking that by the time anyone found out, it would not be his problem.
My advice is do a very thorough moisture test before putting drywall up again. Pick a number of possible problem areas and duct tape squares of clear sheet plastic, sealing all four sides with tape. Wait for a rainy patch of weather and check the squares up until a few days after that, they should all be perfectly dry. That way you will not be wasting drywall with you put wall up again.
shponglefan:
--- Quote from: crashwg on July 05, 2013, 12:15:32 am ---Non load-bearing wall, against the foundation? I don't see the problem. Why not save a bit of scratch and use some used materials. It might have looked a little nicer with a double bottom and/or top plate, but the construction seems perfectly useable given, again the non load-bearing wall against concrete...
--- End quote ---
Oh, I'm not saying it wasn't usable. Minus the mold issue and the odd horizontal spacing of the studs, the wall has held up fine. Rather it's the logic behind it. It seems to me it would be so much more effort to build a wall this way as opposed to just cutting correct length studs. Especially since they obviously nailed everything by hand.
ChadTower:
Non load bearing... sure... but nontreated bottom plate is a big no no. Big big one. That's a big contributor to the mold.
Now that I understand the inspection process (for non structural stuff) I get why the inspections can be important. This is a clear example. If that's a quick flip house, and the buyer had the sense to review permits on the newly finished basement, they could have either demanded remediation costs near closing or just walked away.
TopJimmyCooks:
Not saying its good work at all, but they probably had the wood from something else salvaged, planned to use it on that wall, found it was too short, needed to finish that day, and decided to make do.
The 45 degree cut 1/2 way through is a technique to straighten a warped stud. It's rare these days but you see it in older work. it's not a structural problem if used sparingly.
Around here, any wood in contact with masonry/concrete has to be pressure treated- so that whole wall would need to be, not just the sole plate.
I am a GC and flip houses from time to time. All my stuff is permitted, to code, etc. because I'm hanging my hat on quality. Lord knows there's many total peckerwoods out there messing around, though.
shponglefan:
This wasn't a quick flipped house (at least not with respect to the prior owners). Without going into all the details, I know the prior owners had this house for about 20-odd years, and I know the owners before them had this house for at least several years.
So I don't think the wall was built for show. It's up against a 24 foot foundation wall, although the framed wall only spans about 16 feet. I think it may have been put in for shelving (as there were old shelves on the wall), and possibly an attempt at insulation too. But given all the insulation gaps due to the odd stud spacing and general lack of sealing, I don't think it was insulating very well.
Current plan is to put polystyrene right up against the wall (spanning the full 24 feet), seal it as best as possible, then frame in front of that. My understanding is polystyrene makes a good vapour barrier if edges are properly sealed. And I will be using pressure treated lumber for the base plate.
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