relocating, widening doorway and pass-thru window in supporting wall

2128 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by NWVintage, Feb 2, 2013

NWVintage

Discussion Starter · Feb 1, 2013

I have been toying with many different options of how to change the wall between my kitchen and living room for sometime now and I've almost got it, just few questions.

This is a 19' supporting wall that supports only the roof (no storage up there or anything). There is currently a 30" doorway in the wall. I would like move that doorway and widen it to approximately 78", as well as frame in a pass-thru window which is approximately 84" wide. This will leave me with a 36" wall on one side of the doorway and a ~120" wall on the other side with a ~84" pass-thru in it. This longer wall also terminates at a gable wall.

My concern is this: there is no beam or footings below the wall. I understand my header requirements (2x8's laminated with 1/2" ply) and how the wall ought to be framed, I am just concerned about concentrating the load - which is currently distributed across several joists - on to only a few.

Essentially, I am taking a 19' wall with a 30' doorway and relocating/widening that doorway to ~78", right? The pass-thru (if properly framed) should not effect the load distribution across those joists, correct? I could "tone down" the doorway to ~48" but there's a brick chimney that we'd like to expose, which requires that I frame the doorway to be ~78".

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joecaption

· #2 · Feb 1, 2013

Going to need an on site engineer to spec this one out and your also going to need a permit for a job like that.
Not a great plan to count on advice on any site for a job like this.

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brockmiera

· #3 · Feb 1, 2013

I agree with Joe. Your inspector will want an engineer's report and his/her sign off.

Another question, what is under the wall? Basement, Crawlspace, Slab?

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NWVintage

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 1, 2013

brockmiera said:
I agree with Joe. Your inspector will want an engineer's report and his/her sign off.

I'm aware of that. Mostly, I'm wondering if it's even feasible. I don't want to even bother with an engineer if it's going to require much more than modifications to the actual wall - our house is simply not valuable enough to make major modifications worthwhile...like the actual lumber for the wall can't really cost much more than $1000. We live in Seattle, which makes permits pretty outrageous, price-wise. I'm fearing additional footings to take a point load or an additional beam underneath.

brockmiera said:
Another question, what is under the wall? Basement, Crawlspace, Slab?

It's crawlspace, which is another possible headache - at some point, some previous owner decided that a "dugout basement" would be a good plan. There's a 4w x 10l x 5d hole under there, which is where the furnace and hot water heater are. The inspector didn't seem to have much problem with it when we bought the house but if there's going to be modifications above, I'd imagine that this will come into play.

What about just moving the same 30" doorway over a bit and doing a 6' pas-thru? We need more flow between the kitchen and living room but this house is not something that we particularly want to do a $10k kitchen remodel to...

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Daniel Holzman

· #5 · Feb 2, 2013

I am not certain I really understand your plan. It sounds like you want to widen a 30 inch door to 78 inches, in a 19 foot wide wall. There will also be a pass through. So you plan to install a header above the 78 inch wide door, which is the proper framing technique. The header will support the joists above the header.

The header itself is normally supported on either end by a combination of king studs and jack studs. Depending on local code, and the interpretation of your local code enforcement official, you will likely need either two studs on either side of the header, or three studs on either side of the header. The studs must be supported on either a footer (carry studs to basement), or a beam capable of supporting the load (more complex to analyze than the footer). You indicate that there are no footers or beam below the wall. This means you will need to install footers or a beam, as it would be most unlikely that an existing transverse floor joist could support the point load of the header supports.

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NWVintage

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 2, 2013

Daniel Holzman said:
I am not certain I really understand your plan. It sounds like you want to widen a 30 inch door to 78 inches, in a 19 foot wide wall. There will also be a pass through. So you plan to install a header above the 78 inch wide door, which is the proper framing technique. The header will support the joists above the header.

The header itself is normally supported on either end by a combination of king studs and jack studs. Depending on local code, and the interpretation of your local code enforcement official, you will likely need either two studs on either side of the header, or three studs on either side of the header. The studs must be supported on either a footer (carry studs to basement), or a beam capable of supporting the load (more complex to analyze than the footer). You indicate that there are no footers or beam below the wall. This means you will need to install footers or a beam, as it would be most unlikely that an existing transverse floor joist could support the point load of the header supports.

You have it pretty much dead on. That is pretty much what I thought.

So then, the jack/king stud combination has to rest directly on top of a joist or beam (there's no basement, so no carry studs)? I don't think that's happening with my current 30" doorway...? Guess I won't really know what's going on until I open the wall.

I suppose I should just do what we really want and use a beam of some sort that runs the whole length of the house (34'), allowing me to remove the wall altogether. Engineer time...$$$

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