I was just researching some green building products. I’ve seen most green building products, but I’ve never heard of finger jointed studs.
Are these structural?
Where can I get them?
Anyone know how much they cost?
I was just researching some green building products. I’ve seen most green building products, but I’ve never heard of finger jointed studs.
Are these structural?
Where can I get them?
Anyone know how much they cost?
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Replies
You never heard of finger jointed studs? Where yo' been?
92½" to accomodate 8' ceilings, with top & bottom plates. Been around for years.
What they cost changes where you live. What did your lumber yard tell you?
Quality repairs for your home.
Aaron the Handyman
Vancouver, Canada
I'm 22 years old, so I guess I havent been too far in the industry yet. But I appreciate the reply. I'm really trying to push the green building and energy star product in my area, so I'm trying to explore as much as I can.
Thanks,
Rob
Finger-jointed studs are ONLY structural in a vertical application. Since standard construction-grade 2x4's are used in a multiplicity of applications, you have to be careful if you have them on site.
Edited 3/1/2005 11:39 pm ET by Huck
havent seen them at any lumberyard only on pre-fab style houses and are you really going to save anything using these?
Sharky-
The idea isn't to "save" money- it's to "save" trees. The original post was regarding "green" products, which FJ studs are.
Bob
The truss company I work for makes finger jointed lumber. Any cutoff piece we have that's over a foot long is pulled out of the scrap and banded on pallets. They're shipped to a central location where they're made into the finger jointed stuff.
The lumber comes out of the machine in a continuous piece. You can order it cut to any length you want.
Whether they're a "green" product or not is a subjective concept. I'll save that for another thread.
Actually, the joints we make are very strong. We've put them in a testing machine and pulled them apart. Don't recall the exact numbers, but it was in the thousands of pounds, I think.
But - Not every joint is going to be perfect. I think finger jointed lumber should be culled just like any other lumber.
From my own very subjective tests (jumping up and down on them) I think they're O.K. They are VERY strong if you try yo break them in the 3.5" direction. But they break fairly easily in the 1.5" direction.
Personally, I wish they were stronger in the 1.5" direction. I think the stuff would make GREAT plate material for walls. You could get 20' boards that are almost perfectly straight instead of picking through a whole bunch of 20 footers trying to find a decent one.
I think one of the upsides of finger jointed lumber is that it's straighter. If one of the short pieces is bowed, it's only that section.
One downsides are that they look funny. And anything that looks funny is tough to get people to accept.
Another is that they aren't perfectly smooth. One piece of 2X4 stock in the stud may be exactly 3.5" thick, and the next one 1/8" undersized. So the sides aren't always consistent. That gives them a bad appearance.
Our finger-jointed lumber is priced based on what it costs to produce it. So when lumber is cheap, we can't sell it. But when lumber prices shoot up, it sells like crazy.
B.H. ......"jumping up and down on them " .......Your my kinda guy........"I don't care who you are , that's funny" ........I might be a redneck but we will " git er done"..hehe
Well, it's not a very scientific way of testing things. I just wanted to find out how easily they break.
When my Azzedine jacket from 1987 died, I wrapped it up in a box, attached a note saying where it came from and took it to the Salvation Army. It was a big loss. [Veronica Webb]
B,H. .....Heck with scientific....I would be proud to work with you anytime. Once I walked around the corner of a house and two of the guys were "testing " osb and plywood by bouncing a foundation block off of each one ,I guess if it ever rained foundation blocks.....................or the current arguement if you drive a nail straight vs at an angle which holds more ,testing devices so far have been a sledge hammer and a hydro. jack. And so it goes with our ever increased awarenes of our R&D department. As to finger-jointed.......some say "they sure are pretty and some wonder if they will burn faster (now that's scarry) and some wonder if beer is really colder after 4:30.
I think there's a place for engineering, and a place for just screwing around to see what happens. Seems to me we need both.
I don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day. [Linda Evangelista]