I am in the middle of replacing a number of joists in a balloon framed house. The current rough cut 2×6 joists were notched over an undersized beam on one side and over the double top plate of a half wall in the walk out basement on the other side. The beam has since been replaced with 2 plies of 9 1/2″ LVL. The new 2×10 joists can be easily attached to the new beam with hangers. The other end is giving me a little trouble. See the attached drawing.
I need to provide bearing for the new 2×10 joists. My thought was to attach a ledger strip to the half wall studs for the joists to sit on. I am worried about attaching the ledger directly to the studs with no support below. I read that simpson SD screws are approved to attach ledgers to the narrow face of 2x lumber. Would this be OK?
What is the right way to provide bearing for the new 2×10 joists?
Thanks
Replies
Try this.
Don't notch. Notching invites failure in horizontal shear. Be sure there are adequate fire blocks if you connect any horizontal and vertical enclosed spaces. And by the way, that doesn't look much like balloon framing to me.
I should have drawn in the planned ledger. See the new drawing.
I would not notch the new 2x10's for bearing. This would effectively turn them into 2x4's. They would be supported by the ledger below their full height as shown.
I would like to attach with hangers like you show but it would be tough. I would need to build another temporary wall under the existing joists so I could cut the ends off to install the 2x4 ledger across the upper stud face. Even then I would have to hang another ledger board to the face of the whole mess to give the hangers a face to nail on.
With standard LUS28 hangers, the bottom face nail holes fall about 1/4" above the bottom of the lower top plate.
Looks fine.
What you show should be fine. If you want to notch the 2x10s to connect the floor to the wall, be sure they bear only on the ledger and not the notch.
bac
Mike provides a nice drawing. If your hangers accept it-you can hit the holes in the hangers at the double plate and the block out. Or, blockout and lag your ledger to the blockout as well as the studs. This assumes there's no exceptional load above that would negate that connection.