Most studies involving finger jointed studs were conducted in environment of 11% humidity.
What happens in South Texas environment? Many days over 100 degrees and low humidity.
Wood shrink and Detorate pulling loose from adhesive?
I’m not from south Texas but that it would have to be a rare day and special situation before interior RH’s got that low!! It’s getting real dry in a home when the RH gets below 20-25%, Before it gets lower than that, someone’s going to be buying a humidifier.
Checked historic monthly average RH’s for Odessa-Midland and the lowest outdoor is 38-40% in March-April.
Try looking lower…
San Antonio and below. This area breaks all the rules. Seriously House shopping I found a lot of finger jointed studs were being used in the houses. I grew up in the building industry. I question the use of these studs on load bearing walls. Closets OK.
I found lots of houses 5 years old are not holding up well. In one house I looked at the Stairwell was giving in. Behind the sheet rock you could see finger jointed studs that had cracked.
Not the lack of humidity… In Corpus Christi, lowest monthly average RH was 62% from 38 years of data.
Up where I live, it can get quite dry in the winter. Infiltrating or HRV supplied air outdoor at -4F & 90% RH when heated to 68F is about 5-7% RH…now that’s getting dry…but the lowest RH I’ve ever measured in a house was around 23- 25% since house activities, plants, pets, basments continually add moisture to the air.