Ever wonder what’s hiding in those walls? We is getting ready to open up our kitchen into the living room. We know that ripping out old interior wall will free up space and let in some much needed light. It’s like breathing new life into the kitchen!
And then you think to yourself…there has to be something keeping the ceiling from collapsing in that area. Sure enough, if you don’t think about it and just start pulling on studs, house won’t fall through. But it would sure sag, crack, and give out sooner then later! Enter the header, which is support behind the scenes for whatever wall you are removing; it determines whether your reno is a success or a failure (read: structural nightmare).
Choosing the Right Header for Your Wall
Use the chart above to see exactly how many pounds each lumber configuration can absorbs over a certain span, eliminating the guessing game as to which beam you’ll need for your opening. A structural header is nothing more than a bridge. It spans where your missing stud should of been. It then transfers the load those studs would have carried to the next set of trimmer studs on each side of opening.
What varies here is what I call the tributary width: essentially how much floor (or roof) area dumps load toward that particular header. For example, a header inside a non-load-bearing partition has a vastly different job description than one inside an exterior wall bearing weight of the roof above. And most folks greatly undervalue this difference, assuming all openings is alike in their loadbearing responsibilities. They’re not. The further you venture inside building, the heavier the responsibility becomes.
A double two-by-four is thick enough to span a small bathroom window, but it are laughable when asked to do duty at a wide garage door. Doubled lumber: The workhorse for conventional residential projects, a doubled plank consists of two boards, with some sort of spacer between them, that is nailed together into a beam that matches the wall thickness and provides necessary strength.
That’s really the trick, builders typically go big by default, not wanting to take any chances on their own ability to make the right choice. But they’re simply wasting headroom and money with a giant beam for a tiny opening that isn’t any safer, anyway. Most standard interior door are fine with a double two-by-six; larger openings, such as patio doors, will typically be stepped up to a double two-by-eight or bigger. The chart makes those cutoffs clear.
So go ahead and get yourself over the hump of matching the real-world span to the appropriate material instead of grabbing whatever’s largest in your lumber pile just because it exists. Beyond two-story loads (or spans of more than eight feet), traditional lumber begins to fail you. Enter the engineered header, such as LVL. It provides straighter, stronger performance then what you’ll get from naturaly lumber; so, you’re able to span out further, with less drastic increases in depth.
An LVL at three-and-a-half inches can be slipped right into your typical wall framing and achieve spans that would require tripling up on solid wood. It is a minor detail, but it is an important one if you’re aiming for energy-code compliance in terms of wall insulation, or simply hoping to keep your ceilings high.
Both the material you choose and how it’s installed are important. You’ll want that header dead perfect level or the doors and window won’t fit. Don’t skimp on bearing length and shim up the low trimmer stud as necessary. Half inch of support sounds like plenty but then you go look at all the saggy heavy beams that was sitting on a nail plate. They gave up minimum bearing for some reason. Don’t compromise the whole assembly.
Tie into the structure above with appropriate metal connectors, particularly in high wind area. If it’s over ten feet, or more than one story above, talk with a structural engineer (or at least check your local building code) before making cuts in a load bearing wall. Remember that building codes aren’t “suggestions”, they’re the minimum standard of what’s safe.
Trust me, fixing sagging floors and cracked drywall is way more expensive than purchasing the proper beam when you need it. Once you get an idea based off how a house carries loads from one side to another, you’ll no longer view walls as simple dividers but will begin viewing them as working parts of your structure.
And this changes everything. You go from potential disaster to manageable, expected project.
