Walked into a new custom build in Nashville and saw the framers had nailed every single joist hanger with 16d nails instead of the right hanger nails

Took me about 10 minutes to count 40 missing hanger nails on just the first floor joists, and when I asked the lead framer why, he said it's faster and that's how they always do it - has anyone else run into this kind of shortcut on a job site?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_brian6d ago

Yeah, "that's how they always do it" is basically the battle cry of every hack crew I've ever run into. You'd think after the first few inspections fail they'd learn, but nope. I told a framer once that his joist hangers looked like Swiss cheese and he just shrugged at me. Honestly, I've made dumb mistakes myself - once I forgot to put in half the hurricane ties on a roof because I was rushing to beat a storm. But 40 missing nails on one floor? That's not a mistake, that's just lazy. They're counting on nobody climbing up there to check, and that's the part that gets me.

ross.lily6d ago

Right? I caught a crew doing the same thing on a deck last summer and the guy just laughed at me.

ward.kim1d ago

Not gonna lie, I see it a little different, @the_brian. Yeah it's lazy and yeah it's wrong, but I've been on enough job sites where the GC is breathing down your neck to get it done yesterday. The framer might not even know better if he was trained by someone who's been doing it that way for twenty years. I've seen guys use regular nails in hangers on houses that stood just fine for decades, not that it makes it right. The real issue is nobody's checking until someone like you crawls up there, and by then the whole floor's already wrapped and dried in.