Has anyone used figer jointed studs in new construction. From what I can gather, its a fairly common practice and builders claim it is more durable and straight than full studs. Is this a cheaper method of building or just a different philosophy? Thanks for any thoughts.

Nothing wrong with finger jointed studs as long as they are used for exactly that, studs. They've been used for years...at least since the 90's when I started building.

Yes its a new home and only being used for vertical application. I have either never seen it up close or just never noticed it before. Paying a little more attention since it will now be mine. Thanks for the input.

Completely normal.

https://texags.com/forums/61/topics/2856527

Who needs google when you have TexAgs? Should've started my search here. Thanks again.

If I'm not mistaken I think they're actually more expensive than traditional studs.

I was interested in the cost but I couldnt really find any info on it. It seems like it would be more difficult to manufacture, but I wasn't sure if they took scrap pieces from other projects to make them.

"They" don't take scraps to build them... They're built way before the scrap makers get their hands on them. But you're going to be getting a quality product, straight, and free of defects. So the advantage becomes, the folks that are doing the building know exactly what their properties are.

Don't know if engineered studs allow greater spacing or not. I believe this IS true for pre-fab engineered trusses. Those can be placed on 24" rather than 16" centers I believe.

Typically they will be slightly more expensive, but it can vary depending on if they are F/J SPF or F/J pine obviously. 90% of the time, a F/J pine stud is going to be just above the price range of a KDDF stud (which is on the upper end pricewise on your non-engineered studs).

i was curious about them as well last year when we built. My house did not have them and I walked at least 50 homes from numerous builders in BCS and the only 2 builders I noticed that used them was a guy I never heard of and StyleCraft. I have heard mixed reviews of StyleCraft homes so I assumed it was poorer quality.

One thing I did notice (at least 2 homes) is that the fj studs seemed a tad smaller than the top and bottom plates which were solid 2x4's. I purposely went back to one of them to see how the Sheetrock ended up and you could see a slight bend at top and bottom. Maybe there is different grading of the fj studs as well??

Different markets use different materials. F/J studs aren't very common in BCS, but they dominate the DFW market. Similarly, BCS is still highly a southern yellow pine framing market (although that is changing), while DFW is predominantly SPF. In the Waco/temple/Killeen area it's almost all hem fir, which is about the cheapest grade of lumber you can possibly use. Custom builders around here would prefer Doug fir in most cases, but they come at a premium price compared to hem fir or pine studs.

As for the size difference, it is definitely possible. Some Mills run the studs through a planer after the finger-jointing process which ends up knocking 1/16-1/8 of an inch off of the studs. Minimal, but noticeable. Structurally though they are still perfectly fine. It's all about less twisting. Production builders love them because they spend less time returning or swapping material, which minimizes downtime on a job. You also don't have to worry about a framing crew that's not necessarily worried about quality putting twisted or warped studs in a wall. For the drywall guys it makes life easier 99% of the time.