This is a garage so there is nothing on the other side of the Typar.

Bad design + bad lumber + bad carpenters = bad luck for you. Now you must deal the absence of independent oversight of the work which didn't seem necessary when you were in the sales office. Maybe the building inspector will help you ... but maybe not.

Its an exterior wall so you're lucky the wall hasn't collapsed ... yet.

Excuse me, but even on the other side of the garage there should be something besides sheathing.

The home is still under construction so I'm sure there will eventually be something on the other side of the Typar.

Oh, sheathing over the housewrap. Or housewrap over a structurally inadequate wall.

Nationally known (American) homebuilder. What can I say?

Quick, tell those fools at DuPont!

Do you all recommend that I pay for a framing inspection prior to drywall installation?

You need it now not after electrical, plumbing and insulation. Why don't you know how the exterior wall will be built? Did they not give you a contract with specifications? Show us what they gave you.

Electrical and plumbing are in already. How would I know how the wall will be built? I know nothing about home construction.

You signed a contract for construction so you should know more than I do about what you bought. There should br drawings and written specifications.

Sheathing goes on BEFORE house wrap. Always.

As others have suggested this is a disaster in the making. It appears the builder proposes to simply add the exterior siding over the house wrap.

Since this is a builder's project, you will need to check your contract to see if you own the house during construction, and, thus, can call your own inspector at any time. If so, do it ASAP and certainly before exterior finishes and interior gyp board are installed and cover up the structural frame and connections.

It's very likely, since this is a builder's house, that they own the property and not you, thus allowing them to do whatever they want, denying you access or inspection rights, until they turn over the completed project to you after finish of construction.

Check your contract ASAP. This may be when you want to consider walking away.

Adam Thomas owes me a new keyboard.

That was a very good observation by Adam.

Your builder does have some skills. I would think it is easier to roll out the housewrap on a nice flat surface of OSB or plywood that it would be to roll it out from stud to stud.

That is the most ridiculous question I heard on here "Bowed Studs - Is this bad?"

It's like asking This Glass is Cracked-Is this bad?

Get a new builder or framer and replace bad studs and check the rest of the framing, because if this left the way it is, I can't imagine what else they did there and you better do this before electrician and plumber starts the rough work because after they run wires in this crooked studs you will be screwed.

How tall is that wall? I don't know too much about framing other than what I have learned on my own build...but we have doug fir instead of pine for studs >8' and blocking between all of then about halfway up. While I could certainly see imperfections, none looked remotely this bowed.

And yes, another vote for WTH? on the housewrap before sheathing.

This video posted by Jordan Smith recently is fitting. He found the same issues with a tract builder near him. The only areas of the house that look up to spec are the systems that have to be done by licensed contractor. Plumbing, electrical, and HVAC.

HU-925573064 he points out the same house wrap issue.

https://youtu.be/zRy1AZYrUE8

Personally, I suggest looking into an exit strategy. Given the little we know, I suspect the cost, time, and effort of getting a satisfactory result on this home is prohibitive. I personally suggest taking the money you would pay an inspector and give it to an attorney instead and see if you can get yourself out of this contract.

The Jordan Smith video brought up exactly one of my first thought. With the bowed studs and no sheathing, what is providing the lateral stability for this house. In a really strong wind this house has very little defenses. And although Phoenix doesn't get many tornadoes, if you had anything similar, a projectile could go right through that wall and the resulting pressure change could blow the house apart from the inside.

We are of course all speculating on the whole house based off of two pictures. But I think we and you are right to be concerned that if we see two major problems here, what else might be going on.

How do we know it is not 'structural housewrap'??

You’ve got to look into this, can you look at what they’ve done on the rest of the build?

Jordan Smith video addresses a different house wrap. The woven house wraps should be BANNED.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRy1AZYrUE8&feature=youtu.be

TYPAR is light years better. Also with nail holes moisture will get in

But no structural sheathing is a big NO for me.

They do not even want to put cheap ox thermo ply...

Run.

The required exterior wall bracing may be provided at the corners by structural panels or let-in diagonal bracing. That's usually adequate for one story houses not in a high wind or earthquake zone.

The metal straps at the ceiling in the video provide no wall bracing. The required bracing for that house is probably so low that it's provided by the interior drywall. Its surprising what you can do with an engineer's stamp.

Looks like an exterior garage wall, the PVC pipe that is coming down is probably condensation drain or an over-flow pipe from a washer pan, etc.

Typar building wrap should be on top of the sheeting not under it over the studs. If siding is not installed yet, and sheeting been nailed to crooked studs, sister up with straight studs, put horizontal blocking and re-nail sheeting to new studs.

HU-925573064: I don't see it anywhere but can you confirm the housewrap is actually on an exterior wall of the house and not on an interior wall.

It appears everyone here assumes the housewrap is on an exterior wall. Even so it could easily be a very temporary (however unusual) measure for weather or other protection. We need to see more pictures of the exterior and other side of that wall.

Stranger things have been done by builders.

OP says it's on the garage with "nothing on the other side of the Typar."

As for putting housewrap on an interior wall. Well, anything's possible. If you ever check out Green or JLC forums, you'll continually see "fresh" ideas from posters who have never actually built anything but a dream house in their heads.

Here is an updated picture. I will take a shot of the outside. I know that it was a styrofoam-like material that covers the entire outside of the structure. Looks like they just added a straight stud next to the bowed one. Curious why so many of you are so biased against a large national builder. They build 10s of thousands of new homes each year. Do you think they got this big by delivering a crappy product?

If you had ever walked thru a subdivision being built you might not be asking this question.

Now they need to take that wrap off, nail sheeting and re-install the wrap. and you good to go.

That said if that wrap was installed that way because of the requirement for that region or some other reason or local practices than you leave it alone.

Good luck

"...Do you think they got this big by delivering a crappy product?..."

You started this post asking "...Is this bad?..."

You've received many good answers. You can decide for yourself about a crappy product or not.

Where's robin when needed................................

"Do you think they got this big by delivering a crappy product?"

That's precisely how it was done. They build houses that look like they should cost more than they do but the owner pays eventually.

It is customary to apply some form of structural panel sheathing (typically OSB) on the wood framing of a house but its not required by building codes in all situations. However, only a large developer would think of giving up so much for so little savings.

To understand the code approved options you should read all of the options below including the interior drywall provisions at the end. Or turn to page 185 in the 2015 IRC.

Anecdotes, because why not: I have a friend in AZ who bought from a big national builder. All the houses in the neighborhood started getting massive cracks in various places after 2-3 years. After legal action and lots of drama, she and her neighbors were all eventually bought out. I know someone else who worked for a different large builder in Arizona. Knowing what he knew, he would not buy one of their houses.

And we may not get many tornadoes.. but haboobs are fun.

If it's just foam and studs, especially with vinyl siding on the outside then your development would definitely be the one that gets blown apart in a tornado. And you should definitely be reading up on what RES posted to make sure that one of those provisions is being met for the lateral stability of your house.

Just because a company is big, does not make them automatically good, nor that they have good quality control in all of their markets, nor that they have your best interests at heart. The future homeowner always has to be as knowledgeable as they can of the processes that are taking place to make sure they won't be inheriting major flaws, some of which might not come to light until well after the builder's warranty period.

Money is what developers understand so ask what it would cost to add OSB sheathing.

In any case, take the money you saved by buying a tract house and put it in a CD to pay for future repairs. It will save you a lot of pain if you separate that money from your other assets now.

Do I think they got this big by delivering a crappy product? Uh, yeah. They're building crappy cheap houses and charging big bucks for them.

It is a race to the bottom. If one NB does it and saves money... others follow.

'Curious why so many of you are so biased against a large national
builder. They build 10s of thousands of new homes each year. Do you
think they got this big by delivering a crappy product?'

No offense, but you are what the track builders 'depend' on!! That's how they got that BIG!!!! 99.9% of people have NO idea what it takes to build a house! They KNOW how to build as CHEAP AS POSSIBLE to make the MOST profit and steal past inspections! That's what they DEPEND on!!!!

They hire the 'cheapest' subs they can find!!!! To INCREASE their profit!!!!

For the first time i agree with Robin when it comes to the OPs question.

That’s how an F1 turns into an F3 without a change in velocity.

I would love to know the name of this' big national builder'. I am guessing they have a history of this type of construction.

"I am guessing they have a history of this type of construction."

Unfortunately "big national builder" and "this type of construction" go hand in hand..........................................

I own a fireplace company in a very large city, here in the US. We make some small mistakes here and there, but I've never gotten sued or anything major. Just finished a big 144 row home tract project. HOA (owners) filed class action against tract builder over numerous/never-ending waterproofing failures/designs.

Now I'm not defending the tract builder, but it's impossible to hire/retain people in the best economy in 50 years, and a lot of those decisions are made on the spot by experts. Inexperienced foremen/leads will results in bad mistakes = this lawsuit

My point is that not every tract builder is bad/garbage, but they're the first ones to put themselves in this position (failed waterproofing, or sub-par framing with bad studs, etc) due to biting off more than they can chew

If you watch and hound them, they should make it right

It should not just be business as usual or buyer beware. Buildings are major investments and should therefore last a long time without premature failures. Anyone who pretends to be able to deliver such a building and does not have the knowledge or skill to do so should expect to be charged, prosecuted and punished. When did charlatans and cheaters become respected and tolerated?

'It should not just be business as usual or buyer beware. Buildings are
major investments and should therefore last a long time without
premature failures. Anyone who pretends to be able to deliver such a
building and does not have the knowledge or skill to do so should expect
to be charged, prosecuted and punished. When did charlatans and
cheaters become respected and tolerated?'

DITTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'My point is that not every tract builder is bad/garbage, but they're the
first ones to put themselves in this position (failed waterproofing, or
sub-par framing with bad studs, etc) due to biting off more than they can chew'

That's been 'proven'!!!!!!!! ALL they are trying to do is make 'as MUCH PROFIT AS POSSIBLE"!!!!!!!!!! That's the way it is these days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, dear.

'Curious why so many of you are so biased against a large national
builder. They build 10s of thousands of new homes each year. Do you
think they got this big by delivering a crappy product?'

Many a national brand has become a national brand by providing a barely acceptable product at a rock bottom price. The difference here is that it's a lot harder to deal with the repercussions of poor quality in a home build than it is when I buy my kid cheap pants at WalMart because she's going to promptly put holes in the knees anyway.

With sufficient oversight, you may still be OK. The problem is that if you don't know what's acceptable and what's not, it's very difficult to provide that oversight.

I also don't go along with "well, it's hard to find good help" as an argument. Judgment THAT poor means that this business has scaled up beyond its ability to make good on its promises. This requires some kind of correction - whether better hiring and training, scaling back on production levels, or providing additional supervision - more than it deserves a shrug and a "move along, nothing to see here."

Also, ad me to the list of people rather surprisedly agreeing with Robin. Although the excess of exclamation points still gives me a twitch.

You get what you pay for, with a lot of attention to contract language, details and dedication to careful monitoring. For people just getting their first home, "production" homes are a good way to start. Some are better than others, but being a good "shopper" is part of the learning process. Visiting build sites and looking at how a builder goes about building and what "subs" they are using is always useful. Also, ask for their "contractor"/sub-contractor list. Then check them out. It's the "subs" that do the work. In one semi-custom house we bought, they did a great job, except for their HVAC sub-contractor. We ultimately had to rework most of that work. The builder was very good about their "warranty" but it was bandaids and eventually it had to be reworked and most of the equipment replaced. So, it happens at all price ranges. And in all areas.

Perhaps it's worthwhile point out a significant difference in working with a builder (nationally known or otherwise) for a tract house, and working with a builder on a custom designed house on land owned by the owner.

When working with a tract builder, in most cases the contract is to purchase a house completed by and turned over to a purchaser. That means, in most cases, the builder owns the property and the house under construction until and unless the house is fully completed and "sold" or turned over to the purchaser. In such cases, the purchaser may have few to no rights, depending on the contract, during construction, including visiting the site during construction.

On the other hand, when a consumer purchases property and contracts with a builder to contruct a custom designed home for the property, it's very different. The consumer has rights to visit the site, have their own inspector, purchase and/or install items, etc., depending on the conditions of the contract.

Two very different scenarios which many folks don't understand.