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1895 New Jersey USA. I almost asked "What is this crazy framing technique" because it looks crazy .... but I'm looking forward to someone with knowledge of older techniques to explain it, and hopefully explain that it's not crazy at all.

Studs are split across a long diagonal framing member. Anti-skew bracing comes to mind, but the diagonal isn't fixed very well at its ends. Other bracing is also diagonal, in alternating directions.

FWIW this is a second floor supporting wall. Above it is a third floor and hip roof.

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jay613
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  • That is what to do when you cannot cut wood to make 1x3s or 1x4s and just notch the studs, and want the walls flush. 4x8 sheets of OSB/plywood did away with needing stabilizing angles. – crip659 May 07 '22 at 13:20
  • "Diagonal bracing" is probably the term you're looking for. I'm curious about the horizontal blocking that's not exactly horizontal... – FreeMan May 07 '22 at 13:54
  • Not what one might call ‘best practices’, though it’s arguable that it has passed the test of time. I’d get a sympathetic engineer in to talk about reinforcing some load paths. – Aloysius Defenestrate May 07 '22 at 13:59
  • Betting the ones who built it, would have loved a powered saw. Just thinking of all the hand sawing makes my arm sore. My hand sawing usually does not look that good. – crip659 May 07 '22 at 16:58

2 Answers2

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Pre-plywood, one needed large diagonal braces to prevent the wall from folding. These days plywood does that job.

The "non-horizontal horizontal blocking" is easier to nail securely and does the same job that horizontal horizontal blocking does, mostly.

Ecnerwal
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  • Diagonal braces prevent the wall from racking. Blocking keeps it from 'folding'. - IMO it's more important as fire stop, as IME by the time I show up any blocking that was there is long gone... and the building's still standing. - I've un-racked houses, but never had to un-fold a wall. – Mazura May 07 '22 at 15:45
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I have now learned that this framing technique is called Let In Bracing.

Letting in refers to notching the studs to let the brace in, reducing reliance on nails.

Knowing what it's called, it's easy to look up how it's used in historical and modern framing.

Details of how it was used historically can be found in period carpentry textbooks. A page from Illustrated Housebuilding by Graham Blackburn, posted to a Facebook group, is how I found this.

jay613
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  • I thought it was notch in but many terms for old things get changed over the years you might find dowels or square nails if the home was in a remote area or old enough pre 1890 is where I have seen dowels.+ – Ed Beal Aug 02 '22 at 19:48