Residential Shear Wall

[AETX]

Hi everyone
I would like to know your thoughts about a bottom wood plate of a shearwall at a house being built. It looks like it has a significant amount of its side notched (maybe naturally?).

The treated wood underneath seems to be ok but when i look at the nails of the sheathings it does not seem to utilize the treated wood. Does this reduce the shear wall capacity? Does it need to be fixed? I attached a picture for your reference. Thank you

 

[lexpatrie]

Can you include the image inline? That's probably why you're getting ignored. There's a little camera next to the word "image" on the toolbar above the text box.

FAQ - how to ask a good question....

 

[Eng16080]

Yup, I actually just looked at this post but ignored it after not wanting to download the image. (I wish the site had a better way to deal with this).

 

[AETX]

Thank you. I added the images

 

[Tomfh]

It’s a poor quality piece of timber with what appears to be a waney edge.

Often this won’t matter however will in this instance compromise the bracing capacity of the wall. The bracing panel really needs to be fixed to solid timber to be effective.

 

[Heaviside1925]

I have concern with overall build quality. Why would the contractor use that piece and not discard it? Concerning fasteners, they look to be 6" spacing, but one fastener misses the stud completely and it appears (can't be sure because of the resolution) but the sheathing fasteners do not appear to be fully seated either. That strap attachment looks odd as well. Could be just this one spot but this much in one picture would concern me with the rest of the build.

 

[Eng16080]

In general, I wouldn't be overly concerned with this singular piece of lumber, assuming such lower quality pieces are not common throughout the framing.

It's not uncommon to find a piece like this in a large lumber delivery. Would I personally use this piece in this location if I were the builder? Probably not. It would probably go into a junk pile or be used for some other purpose (like blocking/strapping). Of course, that's easy for me to say. These crews are under a lot of pressure to go fast on these builds (not that that's really an excuse).

In terms of the engineering, I would just look at the basics here. Is there a full load path for the lateral force from the shear wall to the concrete foundation wall? Are there adequate holddowns at the ends of the wall? While I think it's better if the edge nailing of the panels is into the PT plate, if it were only into the plate on top, a valid load path may still be provided if there's adequate fastening between the two plates (and again if the wall has sufficient holddowns).

 

[AETX]

Thank you everyone. I may request them to contact the EOR for their review and see if they would fix it. Not sure what solution available at this point of construction or at phase 2 inspection might be too late to do anything. I added other photos to hopefully show a better resolution.

Would nesting another piece of wood between the jack studs help? The builder doesn't not seem to have an issue with it. I dont have visibility to what’s happening behind the sheathing if this a continuous notch or not.

Thank you.

 

[lexpatrie]

Anybody else notice that floating stud in the most recent picture? Two studs in our direction from that temporary brace?