After 33 years and a new tile roof 6 years ago, the beam across my garage door is sagging about 1 1/2 inches in the middle. The door sets behind the beam and is not binding.
Can it be repaired by jacking it up to level or slightly above, and laminating two thicknesses of 1/2 inch hardwood plywood on both sides with construction adhesive and wood screws?
If that is feasable, where would the seams fall between the 8 foot lengths of plywood and what type of screws and screw pattern would be best.
I appreciate your input and any other ideas
Replies
To fix this on our garage I removed the double 2x14 header and installed double microlams. Shimmed up in the middle a hair so that it's dead level after the load is on it.
Dan, how long is the span on the garage opening?
I am in a similar situation with a single door two car garage and the sag is about an inch, hasn't changed over the years. Thinking of just shimming the head jamb to make it look presentable. Think it would work?
Guys, you're killing me. It takes a heck of a lot more information than just the span to figure out if you're looking at similar situations. Equally as important as the span, is the load above the opening. One of you may have a garage door in a gable end carrying minimal weight, while the other may have a door in a basement garage that is carry two floors of living space as well as a roof load.
Both of you should make notes of as much information as you can muster describing the situation, along with a few pictures of your house and the opening in question and take them down to your local lumber yard. They ought to be able to size an appropriate replacement header/beam for your openings or steer you in the direction of someone who can.
Either that or check it once a year like that clown replied earlier. You gotta be kidding me.
DP, keep in mind that we're discussing what to do about an EXISTING header here. In general, the existing header has demonstrated "adequate" (but clearly marginal) ability to handle the load, and presumably the header was "legit" for the load when installed (if this is in a locale with real inspections).So the question is what can be done to increase the load-bearing capacity of the beam to correct an essentially cosmetic defect. And, more to the point, what options are available/reasonable without a total reconstruction project, major engineering costs, etc.Maybe the "engineer" at a lumber yard can size something for you, but what he comes up with may not be practical for the existing situation. If what he comes up with is "practical", it's about 99% certain to involve replacing the dimension lumber with the largest microlams that will fit the opening. Duh!!Granted, the tile roof does add another "interesting" dimension, but mostly this is only if the original roof was not tile (and this point has not been established, one way or the other). If the original roof was not tile, I'd recommend that the OP get an engineer to look at the overall setup and make sure that the rest of the framing is sufficient before investing a lot in the door opening.I agree that taking annual measurements is probably a waste of time. In my experience there will be no appreciable increase in sag after the first 3-4 years, and, besides, what good does it do you to know that the sag is getting worse -- it's bad enough already.
It appears to have been OK for 27 years, then sagged when the tile went on 6 years ago. That sounds like it wasn't designed for tile. Junkhound's Flitch conversion will probably work, but I'd run the actual numbers before trying it. Another question -- Is this in earthquake country? Anything marginal is the first to go when it gets shook.
-- J.S.
Structural members in failure are now cosmetic issues? I missed alot this weekend.
What ever you say. It's your house. What do I know?
Ha ha, Don't worry about that beam it's only sagging 1 or 2 inches it's mostly cosmetic anyway.
What happened to "Castanea"?
If that house didn't have a tile roof prior to the time it was replaced I would be concerned about the other parts of the house too. Maybe that's why Castanea hasn't posted anymore he's busy shoring up the place.
The thinking seems to be, "since it hasn't fallen down yet, it must not be in a state of failure" so this one here is structurally sound I guess.
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Help the ones that want to be helped, I guess.
Thank goodness for thermo-formed Azek trim boards.... don't know how else you case out a garage door opening with a 2" sag in it. Maybe you shim that too?
I'll know when I'm in Dan's neighborhood..... when I'm driving around and start to wonder why I get the feeling that all of the garages are "smiling" at me.
Whatever.... glad I ain't parking my rig in any of 'em.
You were missed this weekend. Hope you and yours are well.
1 1/2" over 16', the longest span the poster could be talking about, would be equivalent to 1/128 of the span. Most designs are done to 1/360 maximum deflection. Roofs can be done to 1/240 but that is bouncy. Interiors with long spans are often designed for 1/480. Those are all maximum live load plus dead load numbers. The original poster is talking about JUST a dead load deflection of L/128 or more. Definately more than cosmetic.
Yet, I see this much deflection in a large number of the garages around here. Have yet to see one fail.
"Most designs are done to 1/360 maximum deflection."
That's a common misunderstanding about roofs and deflection ratios.
Remember that there's LIVE load deflection and TOTAL (live + dead) load deflection.
Floors are typically done at L/360 live, and L/240 total. (Although a lot more people are using L/480 for live lately)
Roofs are trypically done for L/240 live, and L/180 total.
These are the minimums called for under BOCA. Other state/local codes may require different things. But those numbers are what's commonly used in the midwest.
Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice
I stand corrected, thanks.
"1 1/2" over 16', the longest span the poster could be talking about"Why do you say that?18ft is a common size door and you can get larger.
"1 1/2" over 16', the longest span the poster could be talking about"
Why do you say that?
18ft is a common size door and you can get larger.
I should have said 16' is the longest span I've seen or built. Most doors around here are 8', 9', or 10'. Never installed an 18 footer.
Mike
Agreed, adding the plate on the bottom of the beam would prevent stretching - but - to be realistic. doing the math, the difference between the flat 16 foot span and the 16 foot span with a 1 1/2 inch deflection is .012 inch, less than 1/32, assuming an 8 foot radius. That would require some pretty solid and precisely fitted lag bolts.
Yes, I have a 1958 Porsche Convertible D in that sagging garage which I would like to sell and give me room for serious woodworking.
You are right, according to Junkhound; those lag bolts must be precisely placed and they must be in holes with no slop. He mentioned that in his initial post.
Art (Junkhound) is an engineer, something I are not. I understand the reasons for structural behaviour; he can calculate it.
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Any structural member in a residence that has an inch and a half deflection is definitely NOT "adequate" as you say. It is in a state of progressive failure and needs to be remedied. This is far more thana cosmetic issue.One of the good qualities of wood is that it does not fail catastrophicly like steel, which bears the load until one day when the provervial straw is added to the load, it collapses suddenly.
Wood, on the other hand will slowly deflect beyond the design parameters, and show other signs of distress long before it finally collapses. This header is showing those signs, one of which is that it has exceeded acceptable deflection, a demonstration that it is incapable of resisting the loads being placed on it. Ignoiring the condition and calling it cosmetic is like driving on a nearly flat tire all month with the assumption that the scruchy sidewalls are only a cosmetic issue. It is like going aaround all month with a bloody noise that won't quit and thinking that it is only a cosmetic concern.It is a visible sign that something is wrong.
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Like I said, I could point to a dozen homes around here (all over 20 years old) that have about that much deflection above the garage door.
Putting shims in the middle between the header and the top plate will shim the plate up or the header down. It will not shim the middle of the header upso since every garage on the neighborhood was poorly built, and has headers in failure because some developer/builder lined his pockets by doing shoddy work, you think it is OK to do?Yes? No?I recommend doing it right instead of repeating a problem. Think about the logic of what you are saying
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
sanity has arrived
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Mine was a 16-foot opening with the truss ends of a standard asphalt roof resting on the beam. Original beam was doubled 2x14 (13 1/4" actual, IIRC), and was sagging about 1 1/2". I replaced with double microlam that was 1 3/4 x something like 12 5/8 -- the closest I could get. When tentatively let down it sagged about 3/8", so I shimmed that much in the middle to get it perfectly straight.I was redoing the siding at the time, so it was a lot simpler to do the work from the outside. Doing from the inside would require removing the door in most cases.Whether you can shim or not depends on the structure. In my case the bottom of the beam was pretty much touching the door frame, so there was no way to simply shim and still have the frame straight.
I'm trying to figure out how you can shim up the middle of a clear spanning beam...???
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> I'm trying to figure out how you can shim up the middle of a clear
> spanning beam...???You put the shims between the beam and the top plate.
THe plywood as mentioned is next to worthless.
Assume the span is now a 4x12 or up to a 6 x14?? If so get a 15 ft long piece of 1/8 thick steel, 5 or 6" wide, lag bolt it to the bottom face* of the existing beam while the cneter is jacke up to about 1/4" above level (you may need to leave the jack in place for a few days to get the sag out without cracking any drywall)
* You need a lot of 3/8 inch 3 inch long lags, double row at the end at about 1" spacing, single row at about 12 ' spacing near center span, shear loads get higher toward the ends, so you can graduate the bolt density up as you get near the ends. TIGHT bolt holes _NO slop allowed. Takes about a half hour to do the shear calculations by hand to get the optimum number and spacing of bolts, a linear progression of the spacings above is a good rule of thumb for a 16 ft beam.
Edited 8/14/2005 11:22 pm ET by junkhound
My apologies for taking so long to get back, went to Laguna Seca for a historical car race but thats way off the subject.
Your idea of the plate on the bottom sort of suprised me. Not being a builder I would think the steel plate would be lag bolted to the vertical surface.
Accepting your idea, where can I get info on the lag bolt spacing?
Answering some of the questions earlier. The tile roof (heavy) replaced a wood shake (light) roof after an engineering report and a tough permit process. Yes, I am in Southern California which is EQ country. The beam is 17 feet overall. There is just the roof above the opening.
I would rather not get into the beam replacement process which would require shoring up the roof and removing the door.
Further comments?
Thanks
[Junkhound's] idea of the plate on the bottom sort of suprised me. Not being a builder I would think the steel plate would be lag bolted to the vertical surface.
The function of the steel plate in this configuration is to prevent the bottom of the beam from stretching. It's a combination of fibre stretch on the outside of the arc and compression on the inside that allows a piece of wood to bend.
Based on what I've read in this thread, you may or may not be able to solve your problem with a Flitch plate. You're not going to get a definitive answer here, unfortunately, because we can't see and measure the garage, and not all of us are engineers. While I would venture to say there are numerous posters here who could fix that problem on site without breaking a sweat, the reality of your situation is that eventually, you are going to need to have an engineer (not an architect) examine the situation and design a remedy. This is especially true since you are in earthquake country. You may very well wind up having to replace the entire front wall of the garage with a unitized shear panel. But I can't tell from here....
Your interest in historic cars indicates to me you are probably parking some fairly valuable hardware in that garage. So you really oughta bite the bullet and get on with it, seems to me....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
It would seem to me that there is a simpler non-engineering approach:
Can't he just flip the beam upsidedown, so that the sag becomes the crown? This would not change the structures architecture, nor it's engineering (other than give a sudden 1.5" boost to the front roof height). A Flitch Plate could be installed on the underside after the beam has settled back into a more desirable shape.
The big beam (4x14 in my garage) sagging seemes to be caused by load and time... but doesn't wood deforme over time when exposed to heat, humidity, and load? I thought that is how you shape wood into curves on purpose! In this case, it happenes slowly over time.
Both of the big beams in my garage (6x16 ridge and 4x14 garage door header) had some sag - the garage door had about an inch. My roof coverings (since 1960) were asphalt gravel (original), asphalt shingle (80's), and asphalt shingle again (90's).
BTW, I'll bet your garage door will come off more easily than you think.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
How do you hold the roof up during the flipping process? What about the exterior stucco or whatever is there over the beam? This sounds to me like a lot more work than Art's in-situ Flitchification idea.
-- J.S.
"flitchification" That's awesome.
Paul,
You're a good guy around these forums. But please don't give out any more advice like flipping a failing beam over. Skip over the fact that for an equal amount of work and a few dollars more you could have the appropriate beam installed and think about what you're suggesting. While I can see your reasoning, it's just really irresponsible advice. If the roof has settled 1 1/2", you'd have to jack it up 3" to fit that banana of a header back in..... only to watch it fail again, this time with catostrophic potential.
Hey Brian--
I had two thoughts for this guy's situation, but I got buttkiss experience in dealing with earthquake codes. So what's your take on:
(a) replace the failing beam with a site-built railroad truss; or
(b) replace the whole front wall with a unitized shear panel wall?
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Dino,
1. What's a railroad truss? Seriously.
2. Shear wall construction may or may not be needed. From my understanding, it depends on a few key things. First would be the total length of the wall and the percentage of wall space that the opening occupies. Second would be how much "full" wall is left at the corner(s). What I'm referring to are those garages you see that are 20' wide with a 16' door opening leaving a couple studs and a rip of plywood to hold the thing together on each end.
I actually don't have to deal with earthquake codes at all in MA. We're still under our own state building code.
But I'm honored you asked! Sorry I couldn't offer more.
1. What's a railroad truss? Seriously.
View Image
Shear wall construction ... First would be the total length of the wall and the percentage of wall space that the opening occupies. Second would be how much "full" wall is left at the corner(s)....
I meant to ask about unitizing the entire front wall, gable wall and both corner walls all framed as a single attic-truss type unit and sheathed both sides in ½" ply glued-N-scrued yadda yadda....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Sounds like your 'railroad truss' could work Dino and it's an interesting thought. In all honesty though, that's well beyond my scope of knowlege... engineering something like that, I mean. I'm just a framer dude! ;)
I still think the whole thing could be solved with a few pictures and some sketches and notes taken down to a good lumberyard who could size and order the beam in a matter of days or even hours. Simple, efficient, and fits easily in my little ole' squash.
You wouldn't believe how stiff those things are. The reason they're called railroad trusses is that's the form that was used to hold up railroad trestles. A pair of trusses like that built of 6x8 timbers with a vertical section of 6-8 feet would span gorges of amazing width, and they'd run cast-iron steam locomotives over 'em.
No glue, either. Just spikes. Awesome....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Like Dieselpig, I think flipping the beam is a bad idea. This isn't a problem with crown, but rather an undersized header. So flipping it over would only cause it to sag the other way. If he went to the trouble to remove the old beam, it would make more sense to just put on in that's the correct size.
If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed [Benjamin Franklin]
ooohhh, a post tension beam....never seen it Dino....did many a flitch plate way back when, but never a strap on the bottom.....you?
Okay, ya got me. What did I mention in my post that you are calling a 'Post tension beam'?
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
A strap on the underside of the beam, as opposed to your basic flitch plate beam.......
Okay, your answer indicated there'd been some confusion here, so I went back and tried to figure it out.
1. Junkhound posted the following:
THe plywood as mentioned is next to worthless.
Assume the span is now a 4x12 or up to a 6 x14?? If so get a 15 ft long piece of 1/8 thick steel, 5 or 6" wide, lag bolt it to the bottom face* of the existing beam while the cneter is jacke up to about 1/4" above level (you may need to leave the jack in place for a few days to get the sag out without cracking any drywall)
* You need a lot of 3/8 inch 3 inch long lags, double row at the end at about 1" spacing, single row at about 12 ' spacing near center span, shear loads get higher toward the ends, so you can graduate the bolt density up as you get near the ends. TIGHT bolt holes _NO slop allowed. Takes about a half hour to do the shear calculations by hand to get the optimum number and spacing of bolts, a linear progression of the spacings above is a good rule of thumb for a 16 ft beam.
Then John Sprung posted this, referring to Junkhound's idea as a "Flitch conversion"
It appears to have been OK for 27 years, then sagged when the tile went on 6 years ago. That sounds like it wasn't designed for tile. Junkhound's Flitch conversion will probably work, but I'd run the actual numbers before trying it. Another question -- Is this in earthquake country? Anything marginal is the first to go when it gets shook.
After that, it seems some of the posters (including me) assumed what Art had proposed was indeed called a Flitch beam, Flitch-plate, or some variation thereon.
I must now castigate myself for assuming...I oughta know better. So when you called this into question I did a little research and found that this is what a Flitch beam looks like:
http://www.dennisdavey.com/DWF_drawings/Flitch_Beam.dwf
(Man, I tried seventy-eleven times to copy and paste that drawing here, but it's in a protected format and nuthin' worked....)
Basically, as seen in that drawing I can't paste in, a Flitch beam is a wood & steel sandwich, with the steel as the filling.
And you called what Art proposed a 'Post Tension Beam'.
So....
Live N Learn....
The language of the trades is sometimes more complicated than the techniques, I swear....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Post your specific dimensions and what beam is over the span now, and yes, it is on the bottom of the beam in tension, the bolts are in shear, the shear increases toward the ENDs of the beam.
The one I did for my son was on a 16 ft 6x14 and it doubled the calculated strength for adding storage to the space above the garage, calcualted for trusses loaded to max with the storage counting snow load, probably similar to your adding tile .
It takes about an hour to do the calculations (see a strength of materials text in the library , look in the index for "built up beams"). Will be over at son's house Sunday and will take a pix of the steel plate and bolts, if your beam and loads are similar, you can simply scale the photo for bolt spacing - lots of lags.
You did not add a profile on where you live, if anywhere in Seattle area, I can give you all the 3/8" lags you need, pretty pricey (to me at least) at the big box when the local surplus store has them for $1.50 a pound.
Wow sounds like a lot of sag, but what is the span? Your better off jacking things up and putting in a temporary support and replace the header with a correct sized microlam or such.
Dont do anything, just monitor the sagging every year. The ends where they rest (bear) should not show any pulling or warping. My guess that its done all its sagging its gonna do, unless there are major split in the beam.
The main problem with letting it be is that it looks like carp to have the top of the opening bowing down in the middle. Been there, didn't care for the T-shirt.
That's a good joke, but don't give up the day job.on second thought, if you do framing, please give it up and save people the trouble of fixing your sags behind you.
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Last time I instructed a good friend not to bother with the beam, five other Contractors gave all sorts of prices. None let my friend know the garage slab was bowed up. Seen a lot more scary stuff in Tijuana, 4 X 10 beam bowed 3" because of heavy mud tile. About 15 years ago the APA had drawings to eliminated large garage beam headers with plywood box beams. Seen a lot of sagging stuff, some of the "carpenter" just didn't crown their beam or joist. A survey of Engineers and Contractor will show that 90+% will say replace it. Did you ever see an Army tank being lifted with a hoist attached to a wood beam. Tank did not budge, the beam bent 6" we got scared and stopped. Piffin, Your the man. I'm not, so take my advice with a grain of salt. People will only accept what they want to hear.
ibid.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
With this amount of sag, I would be replacing the header as someone already posted. You mention a new tile roof 6 yrs ago. Was the original roof tile? In other words was the roof engineered for that amount of weight?
Mark
Cast your quest upon the waters and see how they boil.
The plywood idea is a waste of time.
my first Q for you is did this header have bad deflection before the tile roof was done? Tile is very heavy and requires better structuire under it, all the way to foundation in some cases. If you changed the roof load from ten pounds a sf to fourty, you have other issues than just this beam. The roof will sag, then leak, then rot and mold will follow.
For just the beam, I would do one of two things.
The flitch palte mentioned is probably the best and easyest
or replace the whole thing wioth a pair of LVLs sized to the load
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
I am not an engineer, but if it were my house I would buy a 18' 3/8 thick angle iron with a 3.5 side and a 6-8 inch side I would remove the interior drywall around the beam and adjacent walls and shore up the garage ceiling with a temporary wall after I jacked the beam as much as it would go realizing that the exterior sheathing is going to resist this jacking. I would plane off the sag part of the beam if I was worried about asthetics. I would stagger drill the tall side every 8" and lag bolt this to the beam ,I would cut enough of my support studs to slide in the steel and be supported.
Note you may have to attach the temporary wall to wall above the beam to support the roof depending on how your joists are running. You will have to take the garage door off and I would call a pro in to take down and reinstall. You will have to shim out around the angle iron and lags to hide it when you reskin the interior. I am sure they're are some steps that I have not included and this is certainly a project that requires a well thought out plan along with as many precautionary backups as I could devise but I have done similar projects to open up exterior brick walls while leaving the brick above.
ANDYSZ2
I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
Keep the Porsche it is way more fun than getting covered in sawdust and it will appreciate more than a bunch of tools.
I am going next week to Road America to crew on my buddies Porsche at the club race.
Being self employed this is the only way I can have a paid vacation as he buys all food and beer etc.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
Road America was an absolote HOOT to drive! I got to do a track tour during the June Sprints a few years back with a few members of Midwest CRX Owners Group. Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
OK, I'm replying to multiple posts here but I'll try to keep this straight:
dieselpig: Thank you! That's about the nicest thing anyone has said to me here! You misread what I posted though - I was ASKING if my idea could work in this case, not suggesting that this was the right course of action to take. Exact words: "Can't he just flip the beam upsidedown, so that the sag becomes the crown?" I'm putting out a theoretical fix for discussion.
BossHog: You say the problem is with an undersized header (dieselpig also calls it a "failing header"). However, the poster specifically stated that this roof has gone through both an engineering review AND an on the spot inspection. Now if that beam is indeed undersized, I would think that would have been picked up by one or the other organization who's job it is to catch these things. Sure, they may have missed it... but the way the poster described his permit process made it seem thorough.
JohnSprung: When I rebuilt the framing in my garage, I lifted the 6x16 ridge beam with a whole house jack from a rental yard. I'd imagine two jacks per roof side near the beam, with lumber at the top to spread the lift among at least 4 rafters. The jacks at the eaves would only lift a little, say maybe 3/8" to give clearance, while the center jacks would lift more like 3". Most of the travel would be at the rafter over the beam, gradually less travel among the other rafters as they pivot up together. No matter what his solution, he's going to have to jack it up somehow, and I really don't think he's going to be able to keep the beam as is so his stucco will have to be repaired no matter what.
Now, I may very well be wrong with this idea - I thank you if you can specifically educate me as to how I am wrong in my thinking - but let me detail my idea a little further:
My thought to flip the beam is based on the assumption that header beam is sized correctly, but heat, humidity, and weight may be causing it to deform in an unexpected way. (If the beam is actually failing, I'd really like to know the criteria for failure... I've got two of these monster beams in my house too!)
Now to correct this situation, my thought is to jack up the rafters and separate the beam from the wall and surface covering. Since it is deflecting under load, I'd be that some of that would go away once the load is removed - it won't such a big banana anymore! Now after the beam is flipped over, a steel tension plate can be applied to the underside of the arch as described above, but WITH enough slop to let the beam settle .012" which will bring it back to perfectly level again.
Here is a solution that uses materials that have passed professional review 5 times now (Architecture, Engineering, Permit, then Engineering and Permit again) PLUS the addition of an easy to apply strap at the bottom. I'd also imagine that this method could be cheaper, but I haven't priced out what a new beam costs plus the disposal of the old one.
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
One of the problems with sizing a beam for a span this long is that the figuring is based on some sort of "average" value for the strength of the materials. Fairly often you'll get a piece of wood that's pretty punk and can't live up to advertised loads. This isn't usually a problem if the other piece is OK, but if you get two underperformers together then you can have a bad beam.Ignoring the issue of the tile roof, if a beam took, say, ten years to sag by an inch and a half, when you flip it it will likely return to "straight" in a year or eighteen months, and will be sagging badly within five years. The original stress has likely broken down some of the fibers holding stuff together, making the beam weaker.So I don't think that flipping alone is a long-term solution.But I don't think you'd have any trouble actually fitting the flipped beam into place. If the outside is stucco there may be some danger of cracking the finish above the door when you overjack, but otherwise a garage structure can easily stand to be flexed that much, and jacking would be no problem. When I replaced our beam I used, I think, five cheap jackpost lolly columns (the sectional ones from Menards, about $10 apiece). Placed these inside, on about every other truss, with a double 2x6 spreader the width of the door to jack against. The hard part was getting the darn brownboard off the outside so I could get at the beam (I had the siding off so did the job from the outside). If you do it from the inside there is still a problem that the siding is likely fastened through any sheathing and to the beam, so the siding will likely have to be removed anyway.An even harder part, mostly unrelated, was lifting the misinstalled end truss -- it had been fastened to the side of the house about 3/4" low on the front side.If I were going to go to the trouble to remove the beam, though, I'd stick in microlams, vs flipping or using some sort of a steel strap. Silly to go to all that work, only to settle for a half-assed solution.Actually, there is another possible solution, one that doesn't involve pulling the existing beam out: Purchase a single microlam of the same length and maybe an inch or two wider. Usually in a setup like this, above the door the beam comes pretty much flush to the framing (or can be made flush by applying a piece of 1/2" plywood), and there's nothing really obstructing things for a few inches in any direction (after removing any inside wall covering). Fasten the new microlam to the center of the existing beam somehow (maybe remove a bit of the outside siding and run a BFB through) then similarly fix one side (fastening it a little on the high side, and proceed to jack on the other side. This is a simple variation on the classical sistering technique for jacking up sagging joists.
Hey thanks DanH. You took the time to explain why my idea may not be the best one. Much appreciated!Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
hey Paul ..
are screws or nails best for this job?
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
That would depend on a number of factors, like:
- Quality of screws or nails- Time required to finish project- Skill of individual with a particular fastener- Code requirements or interpretation in his area
But most importantly, we would all agree:
- Does the person making the decision already have his sphincter wrapped tightly around his neck, so that the dark space enables contemplative thinking about the topic. I think we both would agree that eachother has his head in this position when talking about this topic :)Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!