Hi All,
This post could have just as well have been titled "can I remove this opening" because much of the joists in question are already extended, kinda. So basically I have two openings which make up my front door area. The exterior wall is a front gable made of cinder block w/ brick siding. The old front door used to reside in a block opening but was moved back into a framed (but not headered) 2x3 opening in the early 90's. There is another opening right behind that opening about 2 feet back into the house which is headered and on which several 2x8 floor joints reside. These are floor joists in name alone because there is no living space above them, just walled off odd-angled space. The joists connect on the non-opening end to the stairway box further behind, maybe 4-5 feet back.
What I'd like to do is build a proper 2x4 or 2x6 headered opening for the door and remove the existing headered opening to give the area a little more openness. To do that, I would need to extend most of the joists sitting on that header. Interestingly a few of them are already lapped and set into the block wall. Please don't ask me why they bothered to lap them, unless they cut them all sort and this was the fix in 1951
I've attached a top-down illustration which hopefully shows you what I'm dealing with. You can see which joists extend to the masonry wall and which just stop. There is also a double joist to deal with.
I figure at the very least the two that are not set in the block need to be extended to sit on top of the new header, maybe with beefier scabbing on the top one in the pic. Then I can drill and put some bolts through the ones that are already set in the block. The big question is what to do with the double, as I'm not sure you can extend a double joist with one lap, That one is also a PITA as I can't just move it over since it's set in block.
I realize I need to consult w/ an SE to really do it right, so for now I'd just like some opinions on whether it's worth trying to proceed. Thank you for any advice!
This post could have just as well have been titled "can I remove this opening" because much of the joists in question are already extended, kinda. So basically I have two openings which make up my front door area. The exterior wall is a front gable made of cinder block w/ brick siding. The old front door used to reside in a block opening but was moved back into a framed (but not headered) 2x3 opening in the early 90's. There is another opening right behind that opening about 2 feet back into the house which is headered and on which several 2x8 floor joints reside. These are floor joists in name alone because there is no living space above them, just walled off odd-angled space. The joists connect on the non-opening end to the stairway box further behind, maybe 4-5 feet back.
What I'd like to do is build a proper 2x4 or 2x6 headered opening for the door and remove the existing headered opening to give the area a little more openness. To do that, I would need to extend most of the joists sitting on that header. Interestingly a few of them are already lapped and set into the block wall. Please don't ask me why they bothered to lap them, unless they cut them all sort and this was the fix in 1951
I've attached a top-down illustration which hopefully shows you what I'm dealing with. You can see which joists extend to the masonry wall and which just stop. There is also a double joist to deal with.
I figure at the very least the two that are not set in the block need to be extended to sit on top of the new header, maybe with beefier scabbing on the top one in the pic. Then I can drill and put some bolts through the ones that are already set in the block. The big question is what to do with the double, as I'm not sure you can extend a double joist with one lap, That one is also a PITA as I can't just move it over since it's set in block.
I realize I need to consult w/ an SE to really do it right, so for now I'd just like some opinions on whether it's worth trying to proceed. Thank you for any advice!
