Hello, I am having a house built in South Carolina by a large home builder and have seen some issues with a couple of things and have been told several reasons by the builder but haven't gotten a straight answer. I would like some help here.
First - there are studs that have a saw cut halfway through them on a downward 45 degree angle, there were nails put in upward just below the cut and a 2 foot board nailed along side of the stud. I have been told that those were the board that were being replace. I was also told that they do that to remove any bending or twisting in the studs, this seemed more logical but for the fact that I see several studs that had obvious bends or twists that this was not done to. Also on one wall where the studs looked to be in pretty good shape, they did it to every stud in the wall. Can anyone give me a reason for doing this and is it a standard building practice.
Second - When they built the 10x10 deck on the back of the house they nailed a 2" x 2" on to the bottom edge of the ledger board and the deck joists sit on that board and were toenailed to the ledger. I thought everyone used joist hangers when building decks. My wife was told that this method made the deck stronger then when hangers were used. I said then why did they use hangers when the put our floor joist in the house? I am not familiar with SC building codes but question this practice and would like the correct answer.