AskCodeMan

Codeman:

It seems that with the advent of nail guns some 40 years ago the concept of the necessity to actually drive nails into the lumber being fastened seems to have gone by the way. What codes or standards can you direct me to to illustrate this rather elementary requirement to checkbook builders and their cross-eyed subcontractors?

Hi Aaron,

I will address this both as you wrote it and as I think you may have meant it:

aaronm wrote:the necessity to actually drive nails into the lumber being fastened

"drive nails into the lumber being fastened"
and
'drive nails into the lumber being fastened to'

In either case, using the IRC Table 602.3(1), that is stated in the table as (underlining and bold are mine in the following examples): "Joist to sill or girder"; "Sole plate to joist or blocking, face nail"; "Stud to sole plate, toe nail"; then the table, the next column to the right states the "NUMBER AND TYPE OF FASTENER". The only way to a joist "to" a sill or girder is to place the nail such that the nail goes through both the piece being fastened and the piece being fastened to.

One cannot fasten a joist to a sill if the nails are driven below the joist and the joist is resting on the nails which are in the sill or girder, likewise the joist cannot be fastened to the sill or girder when the nails are through the joist and not into the sill or girder.

I did not find much when searching for basic nailing as that is - should be - a known skill before one ever tries to frame or build a house, but I did find this (place cursor over link, right click, select 'Open in New Window'): http://www.gtz.de/en/dokumente/en-woodw ... aining.pdf

Codeman:

I would be happy to assault the offenders with the literature you provided, save for the fact that no contractors still working today would understand the terminology. Back square, folding ruler, veneer caliper, et al. are terms familiar only to craftsmen, and no, I don't mean Sears employees . . .