I’ll preface this by saying this is our first home build and my wife and I are very new to the process. After having some issues with our builder we finally started framing last week. After walking the jobsite yesterday, we noticed several things that had us concerned (missed nails in studs, window supports not resting against the cross brace and split studs). Before we go back to our builder and ask for clarification from a biased source, I was hoping to get some advice, is this normal in this stage of the build?
Best Answer
That's not good. However, before you complain, grab the stud and see if it will move. It could be that the carpenter quickly fired 3 nails then realized he missed and got it right with a 2nd set of nails in which case there's nothing to worry about. Since there's a 2nd top plate (as there should be) you can't look to see if there's a 2nd set of nails, you can only try to move the stud. You may have to bang on it a bit, though with no weight on it, it should move reasonably easily if it's not actually nailed.
You could bring it up politely with the foreman, "Hey, that doesn't look quite right... Can you confirm that this was renailed?" Then wait for him to prove to you that it won't move.
I'd be more concerned, however, that the top plate joint isn't directly above the stud, but I'll leave it to the actual working carpenters here before panicking about that. I wouldn't have done that, but I don't know if it meets code or not.