No corner studs

[muldoon]

This is something that threw me a bit, and I am not 100% I know how to deal with it. The building is a gambrel, with six foot sidewalls.  It is framed 16" OC, and it has a double top plate on top of the studs.  It has gussets at every angle change on the roof, the roof is framed 24" OC.  On the gable ends the framing is essentially the same, with a double top plate at the 6' height. Above that it is framed 24" OC to the gambrel shape.

I have something I do not understand, and am hoping to get some input and advice on how to correct it.  I have no corner studs on this building.  At all 4 corners, the wall sheathing comes together and is wrapped on the outside with a thin piece of sheet metal that tacks it in place.  Inside, there is no 2x4 of any type in the corners.  The insulation is stapled into the corners, but there is nothing structural there. 

I noticed this when I was running the electrical, and I wish I had taken the time to understand and correct this issue then.  Now I am looking at wall covering and not only do I not have an anchor on the corners to attach to, I am seriously doubting the framing.  My intention was to "put in" a 2stud corner on them this weekend to address the anchor part, but as I don't understand how it was built without them I would like some input from the forum on how this may have come about in the first place or if I need to do anything. 

Structurally the building seems fine.  It has been moved twice, from a house to a church about 50 miles away (highway speeds) and then when I bought it about 150 miles (again highway speeds).  It was within 100 miles of hurricane Ike and while not the full force I know it did see 70mile winds.  It does not appear to be weak by this, and it stays dry and does not "creak". 

Here are some pictures, I never took actual pictures of this so I don't have any that actually display it.  After digging around these are the best I can do.  If needed I can put off trying to correct it this weekend and just get better pictures. 

This is a gable wall,



Two rather cluttered pictures that show the corners, however not enough detail as I wasn't trying to capture the lack of a corner stud. 


and



This is a picture of an outside corner, the sheet metal wrap appears to be anchored into the sheathing only with brads/short finishing nails.  The sheathing is 5/8" T1-11. 



What do you guys think?  Any ideas to remediate? 

[ScottA]

Pull the insulation out and add in a couple of studs?

[MountainDon]

My first thought is to pull the insulation back and not only install two studs, maybe 2x3's for the interior wall sheathing to fasten to, but also install one exterior stud as well. My reason for the one in the exterior corner is "just-in-case" I want to secure something on the outside of a corner. That may be overkill, as I imagine it would mean disturbing the nails that secure the outside metal corner.

I've never seen that done, or at least never noticed it when we were looking at prebuilt movable sheds.

[John Raabe]

I have not seen that before. Intuitively it seems wrong, but I doubt it puts the building in structural danger. The top plate is acting like a cantilevered short beam from both sides. That corner should be strapped at the plates and probably is somewhat by the siding.

This corner detail is similar to those fancy corner windows you've seen that come together with a silicon bead at the corner joint. Those are engineered, of course, but in this shed there is just a short span with the rest of the stud bays resisting racking with nailed off sheathing.

Still, I would want something in that corner for anchorage of rails or wall finish material.