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Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbeari

Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbearing walls. The new house my mom bought had endless quality defects (holes) that had to be repaired including cabinets missing shelves, door jam gaps, missing weatherstripping, broken dishwasher, and problems with the garage door. Let me add that most non-custom, commercially-built homes in Texas completely lack any attention to architectural design aesthetics and are just plain ugly. In America, it is rare for homes to be ever torn down unless they're extremely damaged by termites, very old and not up to modern codes and not considered a historical site, or a 1-wall demo "remodel" cannot be accomplished.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
> They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbearing walls. I have never seen this. It seems trivial for an inspector to catch, and 2x4s are cheap. It makes no sense for a tract builder, whose profits are a function of successfully pumping out a new house in 100 days, to take such a low reward high risk action and end up delaying the build time.
jmye 3y ago
> Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. This seems location and builder specific, and not at all generalizable based on a single anecdote. > In America, it is rare for homes to be ever torn down unless they're extremely damaged by termites, very old and not up to modern codes and not considered a historical site, or a 1-wall demo "remodel" cannot be accomplished. This, too, seems location-specific. In Denver, older houses are being torn down constantly to put up new builds. I’m not clear why you’d think it’s universally true.
turtlebits 3y ago
New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. If an engineer has done calculations and its safe to skip studs, I see nothing wrong with that. Less studs = more insulation. (I prefer to build 24 OC) QC issues are on the buyer, which is why it's standard to have an inspection done.
- bradknowles 3y ago
  Functionally, this is not true. Many buildings never get inspected at all. Or, if they do get inspected, it's by someone who wants to spend 1% of the time there compared to what they should be spending, so they just don't bother with doing most of their job. Or they're being paid by the builder to look the other way. Building codes are the sort of thing you worry about if you're not an actual home builder, and you think that the inspector is actually going to do their job. Most buildings never come within a mile of an actual engineer. Or architect. Now, if it's a high end home where they really want to make sure that they follow all the laws and regulations, they might actually hire an engineer and be able to figure out that they can safely do 24 OC studs in certain circumstances. But that's not even 1/10th of 1% of homes that are built.
- ProllyInfamous 3y ago
  >New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. First time, huh... [1] I was a residential contractor for enough years to have witnessed several instances of "inspector on-site for just a few minutes, didn't even cross the treshhold" [usually to my benefit]. In my local AHJ, inspectors have just 30 minutes for each permitted project... and majority of <$10k projects "off the books." [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time

lotsofpulp 3y ago

> They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbearing walls. I have never seen this. It seems trivial for an inspector to catch, and 2x4s are cheap. It makes no sense for a tract builder, whose profits are a function of successfully pumping out a new house in 100 days, to take such a low reward high risk action and end up delaying the build time.

jmye 3y ago

> Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. This seems location and builder specific, and not at all generalizable based on a single anecdote. > In America, it is rare for homes to be ever torn down unless they're extremely damaged by termites, very old and not up to modern codes and not considered a historical site, or a 1-wall demo "remodel" cannot be accomplished. This, too, seems location-specific. In Denver, older houses are being torn down constantly to put up new builds. I’m not clear why you’d think it’s universally true.

turtlebits 3y ago

New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. If an engineer has done calculations and its safe to skip studs, I see nothing wrong with that. Less studs = more insulation. (I prefer to build 24 OC) QC issues are on the buyer, which is why it's standard to have an inspection done.

bradknowles 3y ago
Functionally, this is not true. Many buildings never get inspected at all. Or, if they do get inspected, it's by someone who wants to spend 1% of the time there compared to what they should be spending, so they just don't bother with doing most of their job. Or they're being paid by the builder to look the other way. Building codes are the sort of thing you worry about if you're not an actual home builder, and you think that the inspector is actually going to do their job. Most buildings never come within a mile of an actual engineer. Or architect. Now, if it's a high end home where they really want to make sure that they follow all the laws and regulations, they might actually hire an engineer and be able to figure out that they can safely do 24 OC studs in certain circumstances. But that's not even 1/10th of 1% of homes that are built.
ProllyInfamous 3y ago
>New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. First time, huh... [1] I was a residential contractor for enough years to have witnessed several instances of "inspector on-site for just a few minutes, didn't even cross the treshhold" [usually to my benefit]. In my local AHJ, inspectors have just 30 minutes for each permitted project... and majority of <$10k projects "off the books." [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time