Should Float Centers use Light or Heavy Gauge Studs? – DSP 269

Still no Ashkahn today. He’s taking a couple of post-conference days to himself.

Jake and Graham are on the scene though to answer construction questions, though. Even the straight forward ones, like today. Jake informs us which to choose when doing construction, light or heavy gauge studs when constructing a float center, while getting a little sidetracked when comparing wooden and metal studs.

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Alright, welcome everybody. This is Graham over here.

Jake: And this is Jake over here.

Graham: The man with the lesson.

Jake: Oh, something with the lesson.

Graham: And today’s-

Jake: We have a question.

Graham: Question. Yeah, I guess, first of all there’s no Ashkahn so if you’re expecting Ashkahn, you were wrong and you should feel bad about it. And so it’s just Jake and I rocking it out. Answering some construction stuff. And today’s question is “what are your thoughts on heavy versus light gauge studs?”

Jake: My thoughts on heavy versus light gauge studs.

Graham: So they’re talking about metal studs.

Jake: Of course.

Graham: Because you don’t have gauges of wood.

Jake: No, they’re talking about metal studs here and you have a whole range of gauges. What do we see? A lot of 20? 20 gauge is what we’ve come across as the most common.

Graham: Yeah, I think especially when you’re dealing with commercial construction, not residential, when we’re gonna be putting some heavy sheets of drywall on our walls most commonly. So I think a lot places 25 is the requirement, but 20 is really common.

Jake: Yeah, definitely. Probably more common for what we want with our very heavy walls like you’re saying. But to get back to the question, light gauge versus heavy gauge.

Graham: And so either of those would be light gauge.

Jake: Right.

Graham: 20/25, that’s light.

Jake: Absolutely. I guess the answer there is light gauge. Unless it’s load bearing. If you’re not holding up part of the property, if you’re not putting tanks on the second floor, if it’s not load bearing, then light gauge studs are definitely the answer.

Graham: And that’s pretty much the alternative to wood studs. You don’t really see heavy gauge steel studs used as just an alternative to standard wood studs in framing or anything like that. Light gauge is the alternative.

Jake: And we like metal studs for a couple reasons. If you do end up with a moisture problem in your wall or something like that, metal stud holds up better than a wooden stud. A wooden stud is gonna swell, it’s gonna flex. Mold and mildew can grow through it. Whereas a metal stud is not gonna suffer that sort of damage. What else do we like about them?

Graham: Well, in some places they’re required for commercial construction.

Jake: Yeah. In some places you just have no choice. So we love them.

Graham: They don’t flex with the seasons as much in general.

Jake: If you have a good thermal barrier. If you have a good thermal break in between an exterior environment and an interior environment. When we were down in Australia they were mentioning that they’d experience some problems with that from time to time if they didn’t have a good thermal break because it would be really, really hot outside.

Graham: Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s Australia too.

Jake: Yeah, right. Usually in spring and fall is when the houses were changing and stuff like that. That’s what we heard.

Graham: So does that mean that the metal actually expands and contracts more than the wood is going to change with the seasons?

Jake: It has worse thermal resistance. Yeah, that is kinda one of the down sides of metal studs. The thermal resistance is not as high as it is for wood.

Graham: But does it actually grow and shrink more with the thermal changes? I mean it definitely is affected more but-

Jake: I think it is, right? Because that’s where you’re getting those popping. That’s where you’re getting that sound. And they do flex. Especially if you go lighter gauge studs. If you’re looking at 25 gauge, those flex much more than 20 gauge which is flexing more than 18.

Graham: This is why we have Jake on the show for construction stuff. Yeah, I thought the metal flexed less than wood. That’s interesting.

Jake: I mean I don’t know the difference between the two. What I know is that metal is flexing. Metal is doing something. I don’t know which is flexing more.

Graham: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, totally. No, it makes sense. Especially in Australia.

Jake: Yeah.

Graham: Okay. So just ignore that whole flexing. But that’s no longer a point of benefit for the metal.

Jake: They don’t rot like wooden ones do. They can be considered greener because they’re using recycled content as opposed to wood.

Graham: Okay. But back to the original question. So light versus heavy gauge studs.

Jake: Light gauge studs, unless it’s load bearing.

Graham: Ding. A little extra bonus content with wood versus steel in there too. But yeah, anything else?

Jake: No, no, no, great. I love them.

Graham: Good question.

Jake: Yeah, great question.

Graham: Bravo. Bravo. Encore.

And if you have questions of your own, just head on over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. We’ll be there waiting. We’re always waiting. Talk to you tomorrow.

Jake: Goodbye.

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