Heard a guy at the lumber yard say he never checks for crowning on studs

I was picking up some 2x4s in Springfield last Tuesday and this older carpenter was telling his helper that checking for crown was a waste of time on wall framing. He said, 'Just nail it, the drywall will pull it straight.' I've always been taught to crown every stud up, marking them with a 'C'. My boss would have fired me on the spot for skipping that step. It got me thinking about how shortcuts get passed down, and how a wavy wall might not show up for years until the house settles. I spent the whole drive back to the job site wondering if that's why some of the remodel work we do has such uneven walls. Has anyone else run into framing where they clearly didn't crown the lumber, and what did you see?

3 comments

3 Comments

wood.paige2mo ago

Ugh, that's wild. I had to fix a closet where the door wouldn't latch because the whole wall had bowed out. You could see the drywall seam was all wavy from the studs moving.

ninaw881mo ago

Had a buddy buy a fixer upper a few years back and the whole master bedroom wall was like that. He spent a whole weekend shimming cabinets just so they'd sit flush against it.

emery_hall2mo ago

My uncle built his own garage back in '98 and skipped crowning the studs to save a weekend. Fast forward to last summer, when he tried to hang some heavy shelving. Every screw he put in was like hitting a wave, the drywall was so uneven from the studs twisting over time. We ended up having to sister in new studs just to get the shelves level. Makes you wonder how many houses are just waiting to have that same problem, you know?