Header Height


tennball81
 Share

Recommended Posts

So some of you know from my last thread that I was contemplating on the height of my doors and windows with a 9' ceiling. Well I have decided to go with a 6'8 door and transom that will take me to 8'. I will also put my windows at 8'. Question is how are you guys framing for your header? I have 2x6 exterior walls, so are you using 2x10 or 2x10 with stud on the bottom. Just a 2x10 will put the bottom of the header at 96 7/8 and if I put a stud on the bottom that will drop me to 95 3/8. My doors say 95 5/8 rough with an actual height of 95 1/8. I have some 8' and 9' openings that I will have to span and I would think that a triple 2x10 (since I have 2x6 walls) will span 9'. 

 

What are you guys thoughts? Just leave the stud out and run the 2x10 and have the extra wiggle room? Do you think this is to much room though? 

 

Thanks

Shaun 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Widest opening is 9' supporting a floor above.

Is that supporting a 10' floor load or a 30' floor load and is there a roof bearing on the wall and is the roof a 10' roof load or a 30' truss roof load and do you have a snow load on the roof and are you thinking of using #2 lumber or #1 lumber?

Oh heck, throw a 4x10 in there, that should work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can't state with some assurance how many pounds per linear foot of design load the header is carrying, and whether there are any additional point loads, you are way over your head with the engineering, and any discussion on this forum is pointless. Hire an engineer. The only thing the free engineering software will do is give you a false sense of security and let you make mistakes even more quickly. Engineering is not something you want to learn on the fly.

 

EDIT: BTW, According to ASCE 7, there is a 10 PSF snow load that needs to be designed for. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share