What is the typical stud spacing for wood or metal studs? 5

[TDIengineer]

I just asked this question to one of the new employees.. and they didn't know the answer.

Am I crazy? or if you graduated from college with a civil engineering degree wouldn't you at least know this?

Just wondering if I am expecting too much here... wow.

 

[EngineeringEric]

Archie, i did not mean the wording of "your ideology" as an insult, i actually hold your opinion rather high, esp. on this forum. so please do not take offence to what i said as that was not my intention.

My classes did not cover Green or LEED. we were taught to be economical with our designs, as i am sure you perform this daily as well. The global warming philosophy was taught in geology and climate courses. I would 100% agree that humanities are heavy on the liberal teaching side of things but that does not mean they are incorrect always. Some issues probably go over pushed and others swept under the rug. My college was in the hear of the Liberal-California and i would say that the Engr Side was not intent on cranking or tree loving human theorist.

Again, i hope what i previously stated does not result in any hard feelings.

 

[msquared48]

@ EngineeringEric:

"I would judge the person who does not know that and wants to design structures." ???????

Maybe you would but I certainly wouldn't. Just because you want to have sex does not mean that you know everything about the subject, any more than you do engineering, whatever the discipline. To say otherwise is to wonder why you are going to school at all if you know it all. An interest in a subject dies not imply a knowledge of it, only a desire to learn. Heck, most college students do not know what they want to major in until their Junior year anyway.

Starting to stray here a little from the OP's topic though...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[EngineeringEric]

And someday i just put my foot in my mouth and clamp down!

I will elaborate so i do not come off a complete arrogant person. I know and understand that there is an infinite number of things i am unaware of and really learn too many things daily to count. I would be leery of somebody in the field not being aware of typical construction methodology, we all have things that we take for granted like which side of a nail to hit but most aspects are foreign to everybody at first. If i worked/met with someone who had no idea of stud spacing, (and i mean a range, i want an answer between 6" and 24"). I would still like to work with the person and mentor them as a colleague but i would look closely at first. I believe the fact that i would watch for a little while learning their background would be based on an early judgment and that is the origin of my quick comment.

I hope that explains my wording better and what i meant with my statements.

 

[Archie264]

Eric,

Thanks for the kind words and likewise, I didn't mean any ill will and also I hold your opinions on this forum in high esteem. Perhaps I painted with too broad a brush so let me explain where I was coming from. A few years ago I was involved with a project that caused me to have interactions with a summer intern from a highly prestigious engineering school. He proved to be a net drain on the project because instead of wanting to deal with any of the technical issues he was fixated on the green building aspect of it. It left a bad taste in my mouth. If he was indicative of what that (again highly prestigious) program produced it made me think that future hires would come from community colleges where the day students who are footing their own bill would presumably not spend tuition money studying such stuff. Generalizations can cause problems, of course...

As to the original topic, I suppose there will always be a balance to be had between teaching theory and teaching practice and if I had to choose I'd rather error on the side of teaching theory...but to a point. And I think the current situation has gone a bit too far in that direction at the expense of the practical side.

 

[EngineeringEric]

Thank you Archie. And i had students in my class who were the same kid as your negative experience, in my opinion the student was that way and the school just gave them the terminology they spewed. As for the original post i can state that my school offered theory of elasticity, a more than years worth of FEM courses, concrete composition (not design), and many theory courses but only one wood/timber course which was cancelled after i took it and one undergrad steel design course. So yeah, there seems to be a negative sway towards practice going on.

 

[TDIengineer]

Thank you all for the opinions. I am really trying hard to give the person a shot. As I think we all deserve one.

In re-reading some of my posts I sound a bit harsh. I think I need to lighten up.

Engineer on!

 

[a2mfk]

I learned that in timber design.

But ditto to all of the comments about not learning enough practical knowledge in university. Completely agree with Ron's summary of why in the US it is this way. A retired professor of Geotech that I work with says the same things- ABET handcuffs schools and dictates their curriculum.

It is not that there is not enough time in undergrad either, but too much time is spent in truly useless classes. And if you KNOW you want to do structural engineering, why not have a concentrated BS in Structural Engineering. Wasting time in transportation, water, and environmental classes kept me from taking more structural classes.

I think these classes were the ones I have really used in my practice, which I could have probably done in 3-4 years max instead of 5+.
Trig and basic geometry
Physics
Some basic chemistry
Construction materials
Statics
Dynamics
Soil Mechanics, Geotech
Strength of Materials
Structural Analysis
Steel, Concrete and Timber Design
Should have had a masonry design course- not offered, which is ridiculous if you are going to work in Florida.

 

[Ron]

Eric....obviously you were not aware that there is an anatomical predisposition for those who aspire to engineering....the mouth must be large enough to insert both feet. I wash my feet carefully...knowing where they'll be shortly!

 

[a2mfk]

One or two required undergrad classes for aspiring structural engineers taught by a practicing non PHD engineer would be great, geared specifically for structural engineers:
-basic construction terminology and techniques
-structural drawings 101 (never saw a set of REAL drawings in undergrad)
-construction admin (shop drawings, specs, RFIs, memos, field issues)
-working with and for architects, understanding their needs, desires, whims, and especially their drawings
-coordination with other disciplines- MEP, civil, geotech
-basics of contracts, business and liability

Ron, call up Univ. of Florida and get going on this!

 

[AELLC]

I was required to take some technical (but not engineering) electives - such as Meteorology, which was totally useless.

There was no wood design whatsoever.

The courses were OK for background theory and developing the brain by forcing us to understand differential equations, but never any practical real-world topics, and of course no real-world seismic design. Just a lot of higher math regarding dynamics and Eigenvalues, which I will never understand.

Fortunately, no politics.

Some of the silly humanities electives such as art appreciation were a comic relief, and I enjoyed them.

 

[SteelPE]

I saved all of my humanities until my senior year. My second semester senior year I one engineering class and four humanities electives. I ended up taking classes like the Art of Rock an Roll because I had to fill an elective. Had the humanities requirements not been required by ABET, I would have been able to fit an additional 2-3 engineering classes.

 

[AELLC]

Getting back to the original question, any North American person that doesn't guess at least 16" or 24" would be suspect - even though never having wood design in University. Wood framing under construction is apparent everywhere, and I would expect every one to know that plywood/OSB and gypsum board comes in lengths of 8'.

Of course, a newbie engineer from other parts of the world would be thinking metric, and some countries don't use wood framing.

 

[dhengr]

I don’t understand this whole OP and all the different responses. Alls I know.... is you place the stud near where the mare is and the rest takes care of itself. I saw this start to happen, one time, with the mare one side of a barbed wire fence and the stud on the other and you would be surprised at how animated the horse owners became. And, none of these people had taken any Structural Engineering courses either. But, I do believe they used a 2x4 to divert the stud’s attention. If only they had taken a couple more computer courses they could have done this whole thing with FEA.

 

[Archie264]

 

[msquared48]

My goodness and it's only Tuesday!

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[concretemasonry]

If you are talking about stud spacing, you are limiting yourself geographically and even more restricting yourself to a specific small method or construction.

For wood and similar compatible materials the major basic module is 4' for some strange reason. After that it is cut into 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc. increments getting down to 1/24 if you are myopic. - the rest of the world uses a different "ruler" that happens to be definitive and convertible as the scale changes.

For the U.S. standards, 24", 16", 12" and 8" are common. For the rest of the world, a meter is divided into easy conversions by dividing by 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 and so on.

There are always areas like civil/surveying/layouts where everything is metric to begin with, but switches to foot/inch when setting grade stakes. Down one means down 1/8 inch or down .01 foot. Same for "give or take one" when plumbing/laying out since once you get to the point of splitting hairs, there is little real difference.

A stud is just a generic term for a local building material and the is always some forgiveness or tolerances. A steel stud in the U.S. is not the same as a metric steel stud if you really look at standards.

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.

 

[Ron]

A2...will do!

 

[Ron]

A2...will do!

 

[msquared48]

Bipolar?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[AELLC]

In other countries that use Metric, is it possible to exactly fit a full sheet of "metric" plywood in a pickup truck? That I think is more important than anything else.