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I'm in the process of finishing my basement (east-central Minnesota, US). So far, I've put up a couple of wood stud walls... non-load bearing, simple partition walls.

One one of these walls, the studs aren't exactly vertically plumb, and one in particular is about an inch out of whack between top and bottom fastening.

Note that this is in what will eventually become an inside corner of a bedroom (around a foot inward, actually), and I don't expect that I or future owners will really struggle too much to find the stud, if at all required.

How critical is the actual 16" between studs? Should I sister this stud up with another one next to it, just to make sure a mounting surface can be found in the future, or is this not a big deal?

alt
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2 Answers2

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Not critical at all. There are best practices. Like making sure corners have stud surface on both sides, making all studs 16 on center, make all studs plumb. Does it matter? No. Do inspectors care? No. Now I wouldn't suggest making your studs further than 16 inches but back in the day they were generally 24 for basements. I have seen people do them at 12. The only concern that you should have is when you drill the drywall in, is the stud in question going to cause issues...

But if it were me I would just whack it back in place.

Note: That my answer here is given that it is a non-loadbearing basement wall. If the wall was a loadbearing wall or attached to a loadbearing wall it would differ a bit. In a basement the framing is just space to put insulation, wires, pipes, and an attachment point for drywall.

DMoore
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An inch out is not that big of a deal, though an inspector might not want to see it. If you can Add a stud, Can you not just fix it so it is straight? I will use construction screws with pre-drilled holed when I have a tricky placement that needs a bit of finessing.

Attaching a second stud to it would also make that one out of plumb, but would suffice the code of installation.

scooter133
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