Should I Reinforce These Studs?


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Old 04-27-17, 02:59 PM
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Should I Reinforce These Studs?

Hi guys,

I'm in the process of renovating my kitchen. Up to this point I've been able to do pretty much everything by myself including framing some non-structural walls, adding some new lighting, and hanging/mudding drywall. We decided we wanted to use gas in the kitchen. The house has gas already, but it was only plumbed to the furnace and the dryer. I had read from various online sources that plumbing gas by yourself can be pretty dangerous, so I decided to have a contractor come in to handle it.

I had to leave about halfway through the job for work -- however when I came back I found that he had cut several large notches in the studs of the wall to route the gas line:

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Those four studs make up the framing of the right side of a window. I read that smaller notches (less than 40% of the width) should be OK, but this is more like 70%. Should I be concerned about this? If so, what can I do?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Old 04-27-17, 03:21 PM
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Geez. I would probably remove the nail stop plates.... push it as far back into the notch as possible, then clean up their notch with the intention of slipping a 6" long 1x2 into the notch (tightly) so it sits right behind the nail stop plates. Place the 1x2 over the notch, draw a line along both edges with a sharp pencil then take a skilsaw set 3/4" deep and cut just below/above the lines (leave the line). You should then be able to hammer the 1x2 into place and replace the plates.

This will at least help restore the load path.
 
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Old 04-27-17, 03:23 PM
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Welcome to the forums. It appears he first drilled a hole, but figured the end fitting would not pass, so he hacked it. Ideally those studs should be reinforced, but theres no real way to do it. You could remove the no-nail plates and install steel strapping which would need to be 1 1/2" wide and longer to accept more screws. Just an idea.
 
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Old 04-27-17, 04:38 PM
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This seems like the simplest option. I will look into it. Thanks!

Is there any point in complaining to the company that did the work? I'm a pretty new homeowner, so I'm not really sure what my options are in that regard.
 
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Old 04-27-17, 04:46 PM
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They say there is no sense crying over spilled milk, so... no, I doubt complaining would do any good. The harm has already been done. I doubt you would get any compensation, even if you pointed out that they violated the codes for notching in a load bearing wall. If it makes you feel better you could report them to the BBB, but you probably don't want to open that can of worms.
 
 

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