I’m looking to enlarging a window in my front room/ living room. It’s on a gable end exterior wall, on the first floor of a two storey house. The joists above and the joists on the second floor ceiling both run parallel to this wall.
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Currently the opening is approximately 48″ wide. I’m looking to widen that to 84″ and bring it down to floor level. Walls are 2 x 4. Height of the window would then be approximately 8′. Ceiling is 9′ tall.
-I’m looking to remove the plaster walls, remove the studs that are in the wall and in the way.
-Add king studs, 2 per side, if not 3 and then add 2 jack studs per side.
-Header would be 10″ to 12″ in height, doubled and looking to use LVLs for extra strength, which would sit directly under the sill plate
-And lastly cut out the exterior walls and add the window (the exterior will be done by a friend who is a bricklayer stone mason)
My questions are :
Does everything I’ve outlined here sound correct or am I missing anything of big importance?
Second, I’m wondering if I need to build a temporary wall to hold the weight of the house while the existing window faming is removed. It’s a gable end wall so not sure how much it’s carrying weight. I’ve read that normally on the gable end exterior wall isn’t a load bearing. Building a temporary wall parallel to it, doesn’t seem to make much sense and would just hold the weight of the joist that would sit directly above it that’s running parallel. What’s the best approach here and do I have to worry about that weight sitting on the exterior wall? If need be, can i place one or two metal jacks under the sill plate temporarily as I build the wall and remove once I’m about to place the header in with jack studs?
Appreciate any guidance on this. Thank you.
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Replies
Theoretically the wall is not bearing. However, it could carry some load if: 1. the floor joist resting on the wall is not continuous. 2. The roof is trussed and the end truss is a gable end truss. In either case the only loads on the wall would be the tributary load from above. 1 foot x the length of the wall (or 8" if your framing is 16" oc.). For safety sake you need some sort of temporary support, but not a whole lot.
Not sure about the floor joist rest on/in the wall if it's continous, hopefully it is, but I guess I'll determine such once i tear down the plaster to see. No trusses in the attic, it's completely rafter type attic. a bit of support like you mention for caution when reframing is never a bad suggestion!
The only weight on a gable end wall is the weight of the wall itself. I’d find something beefy like a 12” lvl and screw it to the wall above the opening with timberlock screws. This is adding a header to the inside of the wall so you can work below it without posts in the way. The tricky part is you only have 1’ of wall between the top of the window and the ceiling so really this header should be above this. Is there a 2nd floor or attic space above? Find the lvl span chart for sizing in lvl and check out the king and jack stud requirements. If there is a floor joists against the gable wall that is basically a header too, maybe beefing up its connection to the wall is enough to be a support it while you install the header.
Thanks for the suggestion, especially to help while working not having studs in the way to combat with. I'll get a better sense what is feasible once I've opened up the wall and can assess the above portion and the allowable space. As for LVLs, and my idea to use them for the header many I have spoken with are thinking it's overkill, so not sure if I will resort to LVLs,. If so I may do 1 LVL and 1 dimensional lumber sandwiched together.
"If so I may do 1 LVL and 1 dimensional lumber sandwiched together"
It is not a good idea to mix engineered lumber with dimensional lumber as you propose due to the differences in expansion and contraction of the different materials.
How far will the bottom of your new glass be above the floor?
I"m looking to pretty much go down to the floor. So the window would be floor to ceiling (just about ceiling, 1 foot off). In such case, I've been informed the glass will need to be tempered by code.
You are informed right.