Studs 24" on center????

[brburns]

I'm lookng at having a house built now rather than buying my grandparent's old house. Anyway, I looked at an American Heritage home plan that I like. I'm a little concerend though that it calles for 2x6 studs on extirior walls 24" on center. It's an upgrade to to 2x4 studs 16" on center. Now the engineer part of me sais that the 2x6 will actually give you slightly more wood in the wall and better insulation, but that's a big space between studs. Anyway, does anyone have any opinions or experiance?

[Stretch]

When I built my shop I asked our code enforcement dept. about stud spacing. Here code is 16" on center for 2x4 and 24" on center for 2x6. So for this area you would be up to code. Your code may be different where you live so the best way to find out for sure is to ask your local code enforcement/building inspector. I've seen buildings framed with 2x4's on 24" centers. I wouldn't do that, but I would have no problem using 2x6's on 24" centers.

[TDHofstetter]

24" oc is perfectly fine - that's tons more vertical support than you actually need to hold the roof (or second floor) in the air. One drawback, one benefit to it...

The drawback is that the walls won't sound quite as solid when you thump on 'em with your fist. The sheetrock won't be as rigid because the supports are further away from each other.

The benefit... is that your wall will be BETTER INSULATED at 24" oc than they will be at 16" oc. MUCH better insulated, in fact... which translates to large savings down the road. There'll be only two heat-transmission members per 48" space instead of three. I'd much MUCH rather have 2x6 @ 24"oc than to have 2x4 @ 16"oc!

[brburns]

Thanks guys. I was starting to get an uneasy feeling about it. It would be a 2 story house. I was afraid that they may be cheapening it up too much. I want this house to last me the rest of my life at least, so it needs to last 1-70 years.

[Leo Voisine]

My house is 2x6 24OC all exterior walls.

Nice thing about that is the ability to get R19 into the exterior walls.

Sealed real tight - easy to heat.

The downside? Well, I don't think there is a down side.

[Mark]

You might ask what the $ diff would be to go with 5/8" drywall instead of 1/2". It'd feel and sound more solid, and be more fire-proof. Just a thought.

Mark

[brburns]

I plan to ask about the 5/8 drywall. As far as fireproof goes, well, I hope that never gets tested.

[art3427]

When you frame the outer walls be sure the studs are directly under a rafter. This prevents the possibility of the top plate settling over time and makes the entire structure more unified.

art

[rrich]

I know what has been said above.

But for me, I just wouldn't feel comfortable with studs on 24" centers. If I were building, it would be 2x6 on 16" centers. (Yes, even her in paradise.) The money saved over a few years in Heating and Air Conditioning costs with the thicker insulation in the walls would more than pay for the extra cost.

The latest code here requires a 36" square plate on both exterior walls at the outside corners. It is intended to prevent the structure from racking during an earthquake. They also require a lot of fat blocks between the studs in addition to the fire stops. (A fat block is a 2x12 turned sideways and set between the studs.)

[CajunRider]

I don't know about you guys. Code or not I don't care. I have 2x6 on 16" centers. In some places it's 12" centers on all load bearing walls. I have 5/8" all threaded rods with 3"x3" washer and nuts that ties the walls together to make the house a tied together box.

[TDHofstetter]

Yeah, well... YOU, my friend, live where a "calm day" means 80mph winds!

[brburns]

I'm sill debateing the 24"oc walls. Still just doesn't seem quite right in my head. I'm pricing what it would be to do 2x6 16"oc. That would be my preference.

[TDHofstetter]

The 24"oc would definitely be enough support... lots of multistory houses were built with 2x4 24"oc. Lots of barns with haylofts (many tons of hay in the loft) were built with 8x8 12'oc, too. Looks funny these days, though, before the skin goes on.

[maxwellsmart007]

Wouldn't you then need thicker sheathing on the outside to keep it rigid, Tim? Seems better to go with 16oc than to try and rigid it up with 1/2" ply...

With less nailing edges, wouldn't regular drywall tend to buckle and weave, as there's less behind it?

For peace of mind, I'd be going with 2x6 at 16oc, even if it's not technically better, and sprayfoaming to ensure complete thermal break...

[TDHofstetter]

You'd be surprised how rigid the drywall & outside sheathing will continue to be. The Vershire house was all 24"oc, 1/2" sheetrock, 1/2" ply. Very flat walls, and the vertical reverse-board-and-batten cedar was all nailed directly to the plywood sheathing.

[dicklaxt]

Tract Home Constructors in the Houston area and surrounding comunities build to a standard code.........

For a single level dwelling it's 2 x 4's on 24" centers,for a two level it is 2 x 4's on 16" centers and the upper level goes back to 2 x 4's on 24" centers.

I have had 3 built over the years to these standards 2 single level and 1 two level and have not had a problem with either.

Insulation R values can be over done ,blown in foam insulation on 2 x 4's is more than adequate for this area so I am told.

dick

[Beamer]

24" OC is still many times stronger than you need to support the load. It's in our nature as humans to overbuild things - the trouble is that this stuff was all worked out decades ago and sometimes we feel compelled to go over "enough" after having it for a long while. Enough is still enough - that hasn't changed.

I think to truly make anyone see that it's more than plenty, they'd have to know the % gain they would see by going to 16" - it's some, but relatively speaking it ain't that much more - especially when you consider how strong it HAS to be. There is a law of diminishing returns, for sure. And 24" OC isn't over-economizing by a long shot

I've crawled around on ceilings that were 2x4 every 48" - that's spooky stuff - but sturdy enough to hold me'n a ceiling up NO problem.

[Ruffnek]

Insulation values aside, it makes very little structural difference. Residental wall construction has very little lateral structural strength regardless of stud size or spacing. Their primary purpose is to support the ceiling joists and roof framing with the load it imposes.

There is such a large surface area to an exterior wall that it will only withstand a few pounds per square foot of differential pressure yet it will support many times that amount vertically. I got that bit of info from one of the building books I had when I was building my house. It's really shocking when you see how little the walls will withstand in lateral force.

I didn't use anchor bolts on the exterior walls, either. I simply shot nails through the plate into the concrete slab with a powder nailer. Since the bottom plate is nailed into the end-grain of the wall studs, they have less holding power than the nails shot into the concrete, anyway. If the house blows away but leaves the bottom plate secured to the bare slab with the j-anchors, what does that get you?

If one is really concerned about anchoring the walls to the slab, then J-bolt anchors along with nailing brackets on the studs would work. In fact, there's a metal nailing bracket for just about any joint you will find in home framing. It would be expensive and time consuming to use them all but it would be hell for stout and you would probably never have to toenail anything. If I was building a house on the gulf coast, I'd seriously consider using them, along with hurricane straps on the roof.

My house is 2x4 stud walls on 16" spacing. If I had it to do over, I would go with 2x6 exterior stud walls on 16" spacing. I'd like to have the extra insulation and the extra nailing surface that 16" centers provides.

The extra insulation wouldn't be to retain heat in the winter but to retain the cool and keep out the hot in the summer.

[bmorto]

If one uses 2x4s and staggers them making a wall that is the same thickness as a 2x6 wall none of the studs will connect the outside surface with the inside surface. Each stud will have insulation between it and one of the surfaces.
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bmorto

[Leo Voisine]

When I was getting my contractors license we talked about code requirements - a lot.

First of all, houses are designed by engineers that design based on mathematical requirements, based on lots of factors. They take into consideration all of the elements for a given area. As Rich pointed out about the steel reinforcements based on earthquake conditions, yet in New England the codes will be little different.

Trust me - those engineers are not stupid. They KNOW what they are doing.

Buildings that are build with a minimum of the code regulations are going to be sound structures. So 24" OC for 2x6 with 1/2 sheathing outside and 1/2 rock inside is going to be a sound structure.

If you "feel" uncomfortable with the notion - it is fully because you are not an architectural engineer and you do not understand the engineering behind structural engineering. If you did really understand structural engineering you would not say what you are saying.

Now with that said - there is certainly nothing at all wrong with going beyond the code requirements. It's only money. Just do not go less than code requirements.