I have worked on projects where the interior wall finish was real, manufactured onsite tounge and groove panels. All of our rough in boxes had to be left hanging so that the carpenters could center the box in the wood panel. The amount of wall build up they did was amazing. The finished project(s) were incredible. It's rare to run into a project where there are true craftsmen working. When I find that type of worker on the job I always make friends. I've seen some crazy cool craft work done in some homes. My favorite was a customer who had a 550lb. solid reclaimed wood front door built. The door was 4" thick but you could open it with one finger. The door guy spent 2 days getting the hinges perfect. The same house had a custom limestone floor in the entry hall. A local stone artist was hired to cut the limestone slabs into a Celtic knot for the entry focal point. The finished product is still my favorite flooring "art" that I have seen on a job site. The limestone was delivered in slab form, 6" thick. I'm not sure of every tool the guy used but I know there was a LOT of grinding with an angle grinder. Same house had real plaster walls. Metal mesh, 2" thick mortar mix and 1/2" thick plaster coat. I dont know the finish quality as it was that Venetian look.

????

And back to the point of this thread...


A single nail plate likely won't, unless it's at a tape joint where two boards meet. What you will notice and is likely the case here is a series of nail plates running horizontally across all studs on the wall especially if they land at the butt joint. Kind of why you don't want to drill horizontally across a wall at 4' high...guess what happens there? That's the area that 2 wallboards butt against each other. A skilled builder will use butt strips on the studs for 2 purposes: to shim out unevenness and to create a low spot where the wallboards butt each other, allowing mud/taping to result in a flat and smooth finished process. In the right kind of light washing down the wall, especially level 4/5 and gloss paint or venetian plaster you will see the irregularities that occur behind the finished product.

So, either move your cables if your drill holes land at the butt joints OR notch the stud as the GC is requesting.

This could be why i havent had an issue with this. I rarely go horizontal in a wall. I use the nice big ceiling to route my cables and drop them right down to the wall box they go to. So my nail plates are top and bottom where they cant possibly make a difference.

I can't understand why anybody would drill holes at that level. Whenever I had to drill horizontally, it would be much lower. I've always rested my Milwaukee on my right thigh (knee slightly bent) and let the ships auger bit pull itself through the hole. It also provides a support for any potential arm-breaking kickback should the bit hit a nail that it couldn't eat.

But I'm with stamp, run your wires across rafters and drop them down or run them in cable tray in the basement and poke them up. Besides not having to drill so many holes, it's less wear & tear on the cable and, most importantly, less wood chips to sweep up!

NEC code allows the use of nail plates which trumps anything a GC has to say. I promise you that you can probably point out a few dozed spots in that building where the studs bulge out or in more than any nail plate. People are stupid...

I too rarely go across. This particular spot was under a spot framed out for a window, so we had to go across a couple bays. I just notched it out a little and used the nail plate and had him sign off on it. I pointed out that none of the electrical has any nail plates with the same depth hole that I had and he didn't seem concerned.

As long as the drywall screw piercing the high voltage holds long enough for the home owners check to cash... right?