I’m going to guess they can get away with this because 2x2s aren’t intended for structural use. I’ve never built one into a floor, wall or ceiling.
Comment on 2x2 lumber at Home Depot is now 1.28x1.28. Nominal size is supposed to be 1.5
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 months ago
Um, wait. I would think that violates some sort of law (but I guess maybe we haven’t codified this?). I mean, building plans expect standards in materials, right? So how can a building meet codes if the materials are not within the expected specs?
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Used for furring strips everywhere. Line a block wall with them and sheet it.
Carighan@lemmy.world 7 months ago
To someone from central europe it’s always weird how houses get build from wood in the US. 😅 I imagine you can hear ~everything happening ~anywhere in the house?
NielsBohron@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Depends. The cheap houses, yeah, there’s as fair bit of noise, but you can’t hear everything. From downstairs, you can hear when someone walks across the room above you, but not when they’re walking in other upstairs rooms. And from rooms on the same level, you can hear if someone is talking loudly in the room next door, but not enough to make out what they say unless they’re yelling.
Well-built houses or buildings made for occupancy by multiple families usually have better sound insulation between the units, so it’s not always an issue.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
it’s extremely common for americans to dismiss apartments because they simply cannot fathom the idea of housing that actually blocks noise, it’s one of the primary arguments i see used against denser housing.
oatscoop@midwest.social 7 months ago
Not really, unless the house was built incredibly cheaply with thin studs and crappy drywall.
Wood is pretty decent at blocking sound – it the voids between the studs that’s an issue. Filling them with sound deadening insulation solves that problem.
It’s not as good at blocking sound as a masonry wall obviously, but it’s “good enough” at a fraction of the price.
Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I want to say that stick-built homes are really not so fragile as people seem to think. There’s tradeoffs, of course, and ways to build them that make them uncomfortable at best and blatantly unsafe at worst. That being said, they’re pretty sturdy, fairly easy to repair and modify, and relatively quick and cheap to build.
profdc9@lemmy.world 7 months ago
It’s a big improvement from making them from straw.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Would you call that a “structural use?”
DrBob@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Structural use means load bearing. So no.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 7 months ago
That was one example, you can also strap roofs to install sheet metal cladding. Is that not structural?
I figured if I gave you a real world example you could do a little research of your own.
STOMPYI@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Sounds like the situation here… good call
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 7 months ago
It’s probably 2x2PT or something. There are standards for board widths.
frezik@midwest.social 7 months ago
The 2x4s that have been sized this way do meet structural code. It was found that a full 2x4 is way over spec’d for what they were used for, so why bother wasting extra parts of the tree?
Pretty much everything built with dimensional lumber in the last century has been done with undersized 2x4s, and it’s fine. The name stuck for historical reasons. Companies that build houses and order this stuff by the pallet all know what the real size is, and so do building inspectors.
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Rough 2x4s were 2" x 4". Then we started finishing them for better consistency, taking about 0.5" from each dimension. Later we started using saws with narrower kerfs to have less loss due to saw blade width, better cutting and planing systems so the rough size could be smaller and still have the same finished size, then they lowered finished size some more.
derf82@lemmy.world 7 months ago
These are even smaller than that. A standard 2x4 is 1.5x3.5.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Pretty much everything built with dimensional lumber in the last century has been done with undersized 2x4s, and it’s fine.
It’s fine, folks. Nothing to see here.
Alto@kbin.social 7 months ago
It being ugly has absolutely fuckall to do with the structural integrity
frezik@midwest.social 7 months ago
What part of this has to do with dimensional lumber?
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 months ago
Thanks for the explainer.
bluewing@lemm.ee 7 months ago
You simply change the expected specs…
RidgeDweller@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Agreed, seems like some kind of weights and measures violation.