Replacing a header in a brick wall?
aaron_agosto
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Hi, I am currently renovating a house in Pittsburgh. Its a 3 story birck row house that has been vacant for ten years. We pulled the plaster off of the walls and found some pretty gnarly termite damage in a header above one of the windows. I was wondering if anyone could offer up some advice on how to go about replacing it without the wall above coming crashing down? I was thinking of grinding out the mortar between the header and brick and sliding some angle iron under the brick on both sides and bolting it together.
Replies
aaron
Are saying there's a wood header within that brick wall?
How wide of an opening do you have? Thickness of wall?
yes, there is a wood header on the interior of the brick wall. it looks like a doubled up 2X10. The wall is 2 courses of brick thick. The opening is around 40 inches wide. The exterior brick has an arched opening.
ok then
You don't need to hold up the brick, the arch is self supporting (if the joints are good)
You need to hold up the floor above and whatever bears on it (probably for peace of mind if the joists are pocketed into the brick (but with just 2 coarses deep-doubtful). Use a header of proper size and temporarily prop it up to the ceiling-placing the king and jacks on a block that spreads across a couple joists at the base. No need to fasten anything through the ceiling into framing. No need to fasten it down to the floor either. Make it tight-don't kick it out and fasten the king/jacks and header together.
Or make a temp. wall across and to either side of the header you are replacing with top and bottom plate. Place this into the room just enough to be able to work on your wall/header.
How many floors above this one?
Thanks. There are 2 floors above. The arch is only one course, deep. The inside isnt arched, does this matter? Also, this wall runs paralell to the floor joists, so I shouldn't have to worry about the floors above it then.
aaron
What's behind the the single course of arched brick? Straight laid? there should be a lintel across the bottom of the brick in the opening-is that the case?
I'm pretty sure its just straight laid brick on top of the header
aaron, hold everything.......
"there is a wood header on the interior of the brick wall"
When I saw this statement above, I took it you meant the header was in an interior wood framed wall. I'm sorry I didn't understand.
So, there's no wood framed wall inside? You've got brick and brick only?
I saw double 2x10 and assumed an interior framed wall.
Never in my life worked on a row house in Pittsburgh.
I'm going to see if I can find a link to something that might help you. Back in a couple innings (spring baseball)
Yep, solid brick the whole way through. Thanks for the help
Well, no luck in quick find-Tribe up 2-1 v. Arizona.
But, speak to me of the location of this (and make sure) double 2x10 header?
And how are the two deep brick walls (wythes) tied together?
You could install a lintel at the top of the opening (above the wood header) with the steel sitting past the ends of the wood header, so they bear on solid brick below.
Cut in the lintel from the inside in the horizontal mortar joints, slide it in and remove the wood header-if that wood header is only holding up the interior brick (at 3" thick, and toward the interior would suggest that). You have any pictures you can post here of both the inside and out?
The header is above a window. I can take some pictures tomorrow.
Take a look at this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fef4NwKS8Q
found it while hunting around for a lintel install page for you. Never saw anything like it-thanks!
aaron
I'm going to beg off this discussion. I'm a dumb carpenter that can't see Philly from here. My advice, contact a good mason that's familiar with your local row house practices. It'll save you money in the long run.
Masonry is funny stuff, when you want to tear it out, it stays put like it'll never come lose. Cut it out and you might weaken the old joints enough to start some cracks that you won't like later.
It is possible to support brick using needles or wall "brackets" - acro.
Here's some more information for you.
http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57991
Well thanks for trying. Ill try and get some photos tomorrow.
I think at the very least you need some pictures or drawings to explain the situation.
here are some photos of my mess
Len, now that you mention it, I definitely remember seeing a product like that at my local supplier. I might have to give that a shot. We already had to deal with losing the top four courses of brick due to the leaky box gutter, I really dont want to deal with that again. It made me realize I'm not much of a mason!
Thanks!
I guess a concern with that would be the termites though. Whats the best way to know those fuckers are gone?
You have the wall open and the header exposed replace it. Epoxy repairs are for cosmetics only, not for structural. Deal with the problem fix it don't just put a band-aid on it . If this one is bad how are the others?
Yeah, that was the original plan... If you could offer some advice on how to do it without the rest of my house landing on top me, that would be real helpful...
Go to the floor above run 2x4 or 6s perpendicular to the joists laid and attached to the floor 16 oc right to the brick then above those tapcon or lag and shield a 2x6 to the masonary so you transfer the weight to the floor. As far as Abatron is concerned ask them for an engineers stamp and see what they say I know what they will say.
I really don't believe this is a band-aid we are talking about, and Gunn, I take issue with your comment that epoxe is suitable only for cosmetics. I encourage you to check this out.
http://www.abatron.com/buildingandrestorationproducts/woodrestorationmaintenance/woodepox.html
Aaron. I'm not sure what to say about your concern regarding termites. Maybe others can weigh in on that.
Len
Len
I've tried to look closely at the pictures and while there's rot, I question whether or not termites are the problem. 2nd floor in a masonry structure in P-burg and I'm no entomologist, but .............
The corner of the bldg and the mention of bad non working box gutters has me wondering if the decomposition of the wood isn't caused by long time wetting and drying. If the added pvc was a change, more moisture right next to the header also suggests that.
There seems to be a header course tieing the two wythes together just above the arch-I think he might be able to pull the whole thing out w/o any settling of the brick above-but somebody with qualified eyes should really take a look at it in person. There may not be joists bearing above, but there's a shit load of brick in the third floor wall.
Yeah, termites seems weird, that far up. Termites need to be able to reach the earth to survive, and they do not like to be out in the open. They build "tunnels" of mud to cross, eg, a masonry foundation to get from the soil to framing above. To reach that high up without first at least chewing apart the window frame below seems unlikely.
Besides, the epoxy treatment would pretty much put an end to any termite activity.
This is on the first floor of the house. The house was boarded up. There used to be a full sheet of osb the went from the floor to the top of the window. When we pulled it off there were live termites on the surface of the wood. Most of the damage is from water. When we bought the house there was a hole in the roof right over this location, that was actually visible all the way from the basement. The pvc is new, but its not fully connected yet, so no water from that. The termites seemed to disappear after exposing them, but my girlfriend is convinced that the wood needs to be removed because they can still be lurking...
Once their path to earth has been (permanently) interrupted the termites won't come back.
However, obviously the structure needs to be somehow protected overall from termites, either with treatment of the soil or with careful insertion of termite barriers.
Stupid attempt at spamming this thread..............
Among the last few years, construction techniques are grow up very fast & a lot of techniques come in exitance. For any problem their are different techniques are available to solve it. I am new here & learn alot of knowledge from this thread & respective replies also.
This is what I do in this situation. Take out a long scratch awl and pound it into the header to see if it's all rotted or termite eaten. If it is it's not supporting anything so just tear it out and replace.
If there appears to be some load bearing weight on it then brace as needed. Even in multi-story buildings many headers can be safely taken out with little bracing needed to keep the upper floors intact. I run a tight string line of spider wire (high strength fishing line) along the ceiling near the wall and above the header spaced 1/4" or so off the surface...at both sides of the header I'll write down the exact distance between the line and ceiling and check while the header is removed to see if anything above is settling. If it does settle just use a few studs directly on the joists above and wedge them up - it is very easy to push them up too far without knowing if you don't have a string line.
When working with old houses using the string line in this way will help in a number of other situations to see how what you're doing is effecting the structure. You will find a number of places where adjusting the settled structure is relatively easy to fix uneven framing of all kinds. More than once all that was required to move an enitre section of floor that settled almost an inch more on one side than the other was simply using a few studs to lift a beam and slide in a solid wood shim. Of course as you know the more finished space above any framing the harder it is to move sections without having cracks and whatnot, but you get the idea - use the string method to adjust things where possible and to the extent it's cost effective.
Good building!