I'm replacing underlayment in a bath in preparation for tile. When I pulled up the 5/8" plywood I noticed that the exterior stud walls were nailed with two 16p nails in each stud bay. The weird thing was one nail was driven straight and the other was driven at such an angle that it only caught half the thickness of the sole plate. About 1" of the nail is exposed and then it penetrates the subfloor. It's the same on both bearing and non bearing walls. The nails will interfere with the new underlayment I want to put down.

I've never seen this before and I'm about to cut the nails and drive new ones straight through the sole plate. Anyone know why a wall would be nailed this way?

 

Nailed at an angle when the wall was assembled laying flat on the sub floor to prevent the wall from sliding over the edge when raised to the vertical position. A good safety practice. Some carpenters nail pieces of 2x on the outside and have them protrude above the sub floor to catch the bottom of the wall if it slides when being raised. Hope this makes sense.

 

Thanks Wirepuller your answer does make sense. I've done quite a bit of framing and never saw walls put up that way. We always just nailed a couple of pieces of scrap along the rim.

 

The blocks upright along the outside wall are usually used when you will be sheathing the walls after the bare frame is up. The nails, spaced every 3-4', keep the bottom plate to the caulk line snapped the plate thickness from the edge. Then square the whole wall, using diagonals, tack the top plate (so it won't shift off square), apply the sheathing with tacks, router the window hole, etc. Lift (or jack) the wall, brace, etc. I usually toe-nail tack upstair walls (with sheathing) on the line, but a few inches clear of the abutting standing other wall. Sheath, lift, stand. Hold it upright while laborer pulls the tacks, use 3' crow bar to lever it (or slide if under 15') over to butt the existing corner so the sheathing is already lapped. Just lean over the top with the nail gun and taped to a 6' level, (shhhhhhh) to nail off the corner lapped sheathing (without later using a ladder from below). When they started air sealing/caulking the bottom plates/subfloor after the house was framed, we then had to remove the toe-nails we used to just hit with a hatchet to bend flush. They were lax on yours as they knew underlayment would be installed later to cover them.

Gary

 

What does this have to do with the OP's question?

 

The first section shows why the toe-nails are there. Explaining the procedure for upstairs walls so DIY'ers can understand another way to frame and sheath a wall without leaving off the corner panel for later (by using toe-nails). The last section shows DIY'ers why if they find toe-nails that have been bent back into the plate.
I should say: toe-nails are for when you sheath/side a wall on the deck before standing. Blocks are for framing and standing a wall without sheathing/siding.
Sorry you had difficulty understanding that.... I hope this helps!

Gary