Top Plate Bore

[NWJon]

Bottom line... the original comment "What do you think of the workmanship?" ...
IMHO the plumbers workmanship looks to be between "very good to excellent". Since the wall appears to to be non-bearing, typical code requirements have been met and nothing more would need to be said or reported. As a builder, in the state of california (sue happy land), I tend to attempt to cover my liability exposure when ever possible. If adding a $2.00 strap does this for me... great.. I am happy to spend the 2 bucks.

Again... bottom line.. workmanship looks great and I believe the code requirements are met.

Cheers, Jon

[Robert J. OConnor]

The longer tie straps are required at large bearing wall top plate cuts under the IRC no matter where you are in the country. Every area of the country has some risk of a hurricane or earthquake, however remote it may seem. Some places more risky than others, where additional/special provisions apply.

History is full of examples of how mother nature and lady luck will hammer you when least expected, and how short our memories can be. So modern building codes have some minimum requirements to help handle unlikely events. The last really bad hurricane here on the northeast coast, where entire towns in some areas were turned into piles of rubble, was in 1938. So many scratch their heads at all the straps, tie plates, nailing, and other things required by the modern codes.

Hopefully as time goes on we learn from past mistakes, and write things down (e.g. modern codes) to help avoid making the same mistakes again.

JMO and 2-nickels ...

[rsonneson]

I am from Illinois and see this all the time. Have never seen a local code inspection call out this type of framing. Metal straps in this area is only there as nail protection from drywaller.