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Garage door frame slumping.

7K views 24 replies 10 participants last post by  Big Stud 
#1 ·
So I noticed shortly after buying my house that there was a bit of a sag along the top of my garage door frame. It's kind of tricky to spot, but it's definitely there, as evidenced by my gutter sagging and dumping rain water out as well. I had a contractor out to look at quoting me on a new garage door, and he wasn't even interested in the job, stating that it was a major structural problem that would have to be fixed. Here's some pictures-





A couple of theories are that I could get a basement jack and jack the center of that top plate up slowly over a couple of weeks. Shim it up and then pull the drywall down in the garage and brace it somehow.
Another concern was that would simply bandaid the problem and that I would need to tear out the garage door frame, take off the siding and completely start over reframing the front of the garage. Any ideas?
 
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#3 ·
The beam across the garage door was either undersized or has become compromised. That beam will need to be replaced. You can do this without a total gut and go, but will surely require a temporary shoring wall, an engineer and his calculations for a new beam size, and an insured contractor to do it...
 
#8 ·
Ok, this picture probably isn't going to make much sense. I had to get right up to it to get a picture of it. The transparency of the garage door had full sun shining thru and made it impossible to get a shot from further back. If you can't see anything I'll take a picture after dark-
 
#15 ·
I suspect 12 penny is correct, although I would not bet my last dollar on the plywood. You need to determine how many 2x10s there are, and if there is a filler piece such as plywood between the 2x10s. Also, measure the 2x10 to determine the exact height of the 2x10, typically they are 9-1/4 inches, but there is some variation.
 
#16 ·
So basically the two 2x10s are sandwiching a piece of half-inch plywood and that is supposed to act as a big "beam" which is apparently not enough.

So I'd need to somehow jack it up, remove this "beam" and replace with with something a lot beefier. My father in law is convinced he can do it, but I don't want the house falling in here. My guess is a better beam would be three 2x10s sandwiched together but I know nothing so...
 
#18 ·
Here are a few more pictures. One thing I did want to mention is you notice the sag all the way up to the gutter, but beyond that you don't see it it. I've looked at the roof line every which way and see not issues at the pitch of the roof. It appears to be just fine. It's simply above the door to the soffits and gutter.






Here's what appears to be some old water damage. The roof is newer and appears to be just fine.

 
#21 ·
Check to see just how bowed that header is by running a string line under it and measuring the difference. If you determine that there is a ply between it I would think you may need to get an engineer to determine what is needed. My guess is there is nothing between those 2 by 10's. If that is the case then you may be able to replace the 2by10's with ply between them glued and screwed crown up.
 
#23 ·
It would be helpful to know where you are located, in terms of roof loading. Near as I can tell, you have a 10 foot long double 2x10 header, possibly with a piece of 1/2 inch plywood sandwiched between the 2x10's. This appears to be supporting only the roof, as I did not see any indication that there is storage being supported by the rafters.

I took a quick crack at some computations. I assumed the garage was 20 feet deep, you can confirm this. Using 40 psf roof load (heavy load based on snow, but then you never told us where you live) plus 10 psf dead load (no storage, framing load only) makes for 50 psf total. Assuming your header picks up half the load of the roof, that makes for 500 pounds/foot distributed load on the header.

Even at that load, which may be high (depends where you are located), the beam is probably structurally adequate (it is close). However, the deflection at midpoint would be a little less than half an inch, which should not be too noticeable. And the deflection would only occur if you got a major snowload condition.

To make more progress, you need to verify ALL the dimensions discussed, and tell us where you live.
 
#25 ·
12 penny has is right indeed. that span should have a solid beam such as a microlam or equivalent. Any engineered beam will do. You can even do it yourself if you are fairly handy. It will require jacking up the trusses and making a temporary wall to hold them up then replace what is there with a beam and new cripple wall. Then lower the trusses and reattach them and redo the siding and drywall that had to be torn off. This is not going to be an easy job. It will take much hard work and sweat to do, and you will need help in lifting the beam into place. A contractor could have it done in a day or so. Will likely take you a few weekends to accomplish from demolition to finish. How much is your time worth and what would happen if you got hurt doing this job? Those are two major questions that you need to answer before attempting this. If you feel confident you can do this, any Home Depot or lumberyard can order you a beam for the span you give them. Just make sure you put the crown up on the beam. It will usually say "this side up" on the top of the beam,
 
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