Yep - sheathing is important to wood studs. I just was amazed about how the pairs of studs buckled into one another and thus, created a brace point of sorts.
JStephen-
I literally was laughing out loud reading your post.
Nothing like going to the local Home Depot and picking through 850 studs to 40 decent ones, eh?
M^2-
you know the heating, electrical, and plumbing contractors knocked that bridging out 3 days after it was initially installed.
Note the curvature, and how it's concentrated in one area of each stud's length.
Are the studs behind the duct, or under it?
I can't eliminate the possibility that the studs are precracked, jammed in place to hold the ductwork while it's being secured by other means.
I.e., one ductwork installer working alone, scrounges a few studs from another trade's stock, drives his truck over them to make them a little easier to compress axially by hand, and uses them as temporary support.
Was this meant to be a load bearing wall? Are the joists continuous to the far wall? If it's like my place some rotting of the joist ends at the exterior walls may have caused them to transfer load to this wall.
Floor joists overhead are spliced on this stud wall. Two floors and a roof area supported by the studs - currently no sheathing but 1 1/2" thick lightweight concrete on the two floors above.
Nice studs. Last week, I was driving past a house undergoing a garage rebuild, and the builder removed the garage door end, the sheathing, and about 8 feet of 2x4 studs on each side, then used a pair of 2x6s to hold the end of the roof up - I was expecting to drive past again and see it buckled, but they stripped and removed the roof shortly after. I'm still not sure how the guys removed the roof without buckling the 2x6s.
I had a project where the drawings showed 3/4" gypcrete, but they installed 1-1/2" of normalweight. Nevermind that the floor system was designed for plywood-and-carpet residential but also had a commercial kitchen on it.
Something is wrong with that picture. Why isn't the other studded wall behind the buckled members not showing similar behavior? May have to agree with msquared48 about Photshop.
chicopee....the studs in the background are furring on a masonry wall....essentially no compressive stress.
JAE's statements imply that he saw this. If so, not photoshopped. If not, could be; however, look at the other evidence....
This wall is perpendicular to the joist span. There is significant water damage above, thus increasing deflection of the joists. Joists appear to have been spliced or partially "sistered".....all consistent with increased load on a wall attached to the underside of the joists.
This is not photoshopped - it is a project we are working on.
Apartment bldg with a fire at one end - smoke damage everywhere - flat roof,etc. Gutted the entire building (all gypsum board sheathing) to prep for reconstruction.
![[bigsmile]](/data/assets/smilies/bigsmile.gif "[bigsmile] [bigsmile]")
