DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

Putting in header in wall!

15K views 144 replies 11 participants last post by  notmrjohn 
#1 ·
Hi everyone
been reading throughout here and see that a lot of people have the same project, but everyone's case is unique so here is mine. Appreciate any insight/suggestions you all have.

so basically we want to put in a 4ft opening in a wall upstairs, 2nd floor. the wall seperates 2 bedrooms. the unique thing is that the 2nd floor is actually the attic itself, and so the roof is essentially tied into the wall, so to speak.

so our idea is to cut out 2 rafters, and install about a 40 inch opening with 2x10 headers. whats the best way to do this?

for your convenience i have a video to make it easier to see.

thanks!
 
#120 ·
Seems an awful lot to pay just to cut a hole in a wall doesn't it? But repairing a collapsed roof or wall would be lots more. And I don't think you can buy a coffin for 500. I assume that is fee for engineer? A "consulting carpenter", if you will allow, may charge less, but his recommendation may still be engineer or certified architect.

Heres an old joke, A repair man comes out to fix a washer. He takes a quick look, screws on a nut, hands over bill for $100. Customer is outraged, "$100 for one little nut?" "The nut was just 5 cents, $99.95 was for knowing where to put it."

Last night while tossing and turning in bed over this, trying to put it out of my mind by remembering 6 chicken enchiladas with green chiles I had for dinner, I thought of another area of concern. Well, same area just another concern. The wall may be part of a convoluted "rafter/collar tie" system to prevent walls, especially addition wall, from spreading. Addition ceiling joists are rafter ties fastened to top of wall. To prevent wall from being pulled over, it was fastened to short rafters, which are fastened to longer partners with original rafter collars. ( Wall could even be hanging from short rafters instead of supporting them.)

If, I say if, that is case, verified by on site inspection, you might be able to extend joists to collar ties. The other concerns still remain; is wall bearing load of short rafters; are extended studs of wall bearing load of addition roof; is there adequate support below to support wall supporting any of those loads, or just load of ceiling joists, especially if you cut a hole in it. As i sed earlier, this could be tooth pick bridge type situation, where no one thing is critical, but entire structure, as it stands, is sharing the load. Crack one tooth pick and entire bridge collapses.

"dig some foam out, but it cost SO much" Just dig out tickness to get to wery top where new rafters are fastende to whatever, width of hole enough to get good look at how they attach and to what. From top of rafter to bottom, if rafter to rafter, about a fool away from junction back along each rafter, if to a ridge board a look at opposite side of it where new rafter joins. New rafter may be fastend to side of old rafter, a look at both sides of that. Once that's all looked at you can re-fill hole(s) with large cans of maximally expanding foam built up in layers, 'cause that stuff can actually raise the roof if you try to do it with one big squirt.

Pic in post 87. Just to keep my non-academic theorizing going here behind these poison ivy covered walls. If the hall walls were removed would that and "pink room" be one long room? Does room in 87 also have the short "floating" rafters? Does addition extend along side of room 87?

Speaking of raising roof, somebody was, I have abandoned dynamite idea. Instead use kegs of black powder, deeper boom, lots of black smoke, use extra long sputtering fuse, have loud ticking clock, dramatic minor key music on stereo. Call for pizza delivery so someone is rushing to scene. Just before fuse reaches keg, make new post; "Be sure to return to this thread for the exciting Episode 121, "Rafters of Hell," of our thrilling serial The Doorway to Bankruptcy.




 
#126 ·
header time! the rafters were cut down precisely with circular saw to be flush with the opening in the wall. we used 2x10 with plywood in the middle to get the right width. then metal brackets were screwed to secure. opening is just under 4ft wide, 6ft tall. 2x4 jack studs at each end of opening
 
#127 · (Edited)
finished project! you can see also we nailed new 2x4s to the other studs that the rafters are connected to. (you can kind of see that the rafters are sistered to old 2x4s. so the new studs we put in are actually direct under each rafter cut flush for the rafter to sit on top of) total we took out 2 studs only. over a week later it looks fine!
 
#134 ·
i guess a better question for you guys is this:
"what in the picture is the problem that jumps out at you"? is it the rafters? the size of teh opening? the metal braces? the material used? maybe this would help narrow things down to the most essential things to deal with
 
#143 ·
Too long a drive and I don't fly...

removed your duplicate post because my hat wouldn't fit after I read it..lol.

Bummer when one has to try to fix another's bad work because they didn't consult our forum...

Gary
 
#145 ·
For some reason the pics won't load beyond a narrow strip at top on my puter, so I really got nothin to say.
From what GBR sez, you do need to do somethin about the hangers. In addition to the load on roof splitting rafters, it will also contribute to rafter spread, that is the tendency of rafters to push supporting exterior walls outwards. That was one reason several of us wee concerned about connection of new shed rafters to old rafters and connection at ridge.And why I brought up possibility of extending rafter ties in old roof and connecting to rafter or rafter/joists under shed roof..
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top