AdministrativePie865 t1_j9diop1 wrote on February 21, 2023 at 3:07 AM

Reply to comment by twowheeltech in How do I find these g-d studs?? by WaterChestnutII

Mine is from 1850, interior walls are 18" on center, studs the wide way. Exterior are 14" o.c., everything is rough cut chestnut real 2x4, and sheds nails unless you drive dead straight; I think it's half petrified. Balloon frame.

Stud finder is useless, it's all plaster and lath, I'm still replacing knob and tube, slightly complicated by needing to work around the defunct pipes from the gas lighting the knob and tube replaced. I tore out some 1.5" drains that had an actual inside diameter of less than 1/2" due to decades of buildup.

And yet it still feels more solid than any modern house I've been in, the insurance company says replacement cost is 480k (sale price was 109k). 18" thick stone foundation.

throwsaway654321 t1_j9e6ww2 wrote on February 21, 2023 at 7:08 AM

Of course it's more solid, it's built with real building materials. Modern "16 inches on center" bullshit was drafted based on using the cheapest 1 3/4x2 7/8 softass yellow pine available on clearance from Lowes. Modern homes are a fucking travesty, I've worked on so many $750k McMansions and $300k shitbox condos that are going to be falling apart in 7 years it's depressing. My ex-wife and I had a mail order Sears house built in the 50s that was more astonishingly well built than literally any new house I've worked on in the past decade.

shikuto t1_j9e87f2 wrote on February 21, 2023 at 7:24 AM

When I build my house/recording studio, I’m going with steel studs. It’ll end up outlasting any of the $10M+ homes I worked on a couple years ago. Tragic.

Dsiee t1_j9ekvjd wrote on February 21, 2023 at 10:19 AM

Have you worked with the lightweight steel studs? They make a 2x4 look solid af. Steel light framing is awesome when it is well engineered but if it is done wrong it can twist and crumple into a heap.

shikuto t1_j9envmp wrote on February 21, 2023 at 11:01 AM

I had half of a really long comment drafted up, but I decided to scrap it for something a bit more succinct.

My whole life - albeit only just shy of 28 years - has been around construction. My earliest memories involve working on buildings, either with my parents rehabbing homes, or with my father on job sites where he was a masonry foreman. Taught me how to fire someone when I was three, by having me do it myself. I then went to spend most of the last 10 years as a commercial electrician.

All that to say: yes, I have extensive experience working with steel framing members. I’m aware of many of their pitfalls, and I still think that for my application, they’re vastly superior. It would be all but impossible to find lumber straight and long enough to make studs for most of the rooms of the studio. And having to stitch multiple pieces together in order to get the height adds a ton of time and material costs.

Plus, I’m doing it all myself. Or, as much as I am willing to. Which pretty much means no concrete or Sheetrock finishing. I’ll do all the form work and trenching and rebar for the concrete, but I’m hiring professionals to pour and finish it. For one: concrete sucks. Secondly, that’s a job that I am certain they will do better than me. And the same goes for Sheetrock finishing - I’ll hang it the way it needs to be hung for a recording studio. From there, they’re taping, mudding, sanding, and painting. If the rockers don’t paint, I’ll contract that out as well.

Final pro: when I eventually go to make the structure mixed use, when I open the studio as a business, having steel framing will simplify the process. It isn’t flammable.

To assuage any concerns you may still have: one component of the process that I will not be handling (entirely) on my own is engineering and design. I’m drafting floor plans currently, and then I will hit the engineering tables and websites and forums until I have a solid plan for the structure. Then l’ll draw up a preliminary structural print and send it to some engineering buddies I’ve made over the years for criticism and recommendations. After a few revisions of this - for all of my drawings, not just the structural - I’ll be sending them over to different firms than my friends work at to get them reviewed and stamped.

Sorry for the still rather long response to what was in all likelihood a rhetorical question.

Tl;dr - Yeah, and I’ve taken the pros and cons into consideration, along with a healthy dose of planning for how I’m even going to plan it out.

Garfield-1-23-23 t1_j9emlc1 wrote on February 21, 2023 at 10:43 AM

I'm looking at a house right now (Philly suburbs) that was built in 1849. Everything is level and plumb, which I've never seen before in a house that old. Most fucked-up layout I've ever seen: you go up the stairs and right into the bathroom, and then you access the two bedrooms from the bathroom (the house originally didn't have a bathroom at all, of course). It's one thing to be banging on the bathroom door because you have to go, but another to be banging on the bathroom door because you have to go.