Questions tagged [structural]
Questions about the structure of a building (i.e. moving, adding or repairing walls).
643
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Is there a case where nails are better than screws, from an engineering/structural standpoint?
Is there a case where nails are better than screws, from a structural standpoint?
For instance: Say you used screws instead of nails on a backyard deck, when the design specifically called for nails. ...
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4
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Are there ways to determine if a wall is load bearing?
Other than looking up blue prints, which many homeowners may not have, are there ways to determine if a wall is load bearing?
Methods I can think of might include:
Going up in the attic to check if ...
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votes
10
answers
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Are gaps above and below framing members a concern?
I recently hired a framing crew to frame a new house. After it was done, I commissioned an independent review. The reviewer described some of the work as "shoddy," and pointed out a lot of gaps, ...
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votes
10
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How do I stop a creek from eroding my steep embankment?
Behind my house there is a very steep bank/slope that leads down to a decent-sized, slow moving creek about 10 - 12 ft wide. Unfortunately it meanders right behind my property at the base of this ...
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3
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Is this a load bearing column?
I’m trying to determine if a column in my house is load bearing. It’s at the corner of 2 pony walls and if it isn’t we might take out the column and the pony wall. There’s an extension of the 2nd ...
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5
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Is it unsafe to remove one stud from a load bearing wall?
I need to cut a hole for a recessed medicine cabinet. This wall is at the end of the house. I only need to cut one stud to make a frame for the cabinet. Will this damage the integrity of the bearing ...
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27
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1
answer
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Seemingly overbuilt basement wall - load bearing?
I'm doing some prep/exploratory work before I begin finishing my basement. Home was built in 1980 and has a cement block foundation. There is a seemingly random wall framed in the otherwise unfinished ...
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3
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Diagonal brace left in the basement by builder. Can I remove it? Replace it?
I have a diagonal brace running across an interior wall in the basement, and it even goes partially into the floor concrete. Is this meant to be permanent, or was it supposed to be removed during ...
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1
answer
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Is my rapidly failing foundation dangerous?
I'll be succinct. I'm afraid we're having a full structural failure. Over the past week, crack after crack has been appearing in our plaster and walls. I'm honestly concerned for our safety.
Our ...
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3
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Is notching a flange on an I-Joist ever acceptable?
My home builder said that the following notch in a flange on an I-Joist was acceptable, but I've read that you're never supposed to do so. Is that true?
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5
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Is it safe to screw into a single support beam holding up an entire house?
I have a (roughly 40 year old) house with a crawlspace, and then an upstairs above it - I believe this considered a 1.5 storey house. The upstairs is being held up by a long wooden support beam, and ...
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Can I cut the small tab off of these rafters to make drywalling easier
I am finishing my garage and I have come to the point I need to start drywalling. I ran into a roadblock and would like to get opinions on how to proceed. The roof is a pyramid shaped hip roof and ...
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5
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How do I improve Pergola Stability?
The deck is nearly finished but I have a small structural problem with the pergola. A left or right force near the top of the pergola (such a a tall person leaning on the post) leads to a bit of ...
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Should I be concerned about the structural integrity of this 100-year-old garage?
I had an aunt who lived in a house that was built in 1923 and its detached garage was also built in 1923. I am in the process of fixing up both this house and the garage before the house is put for ...
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1
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Can I raise a sagging shed roof by winching the walls back into place?
TL;DR
Can I fix the sag by slowly jacking up the ridge, simultaneously tightening some steel cables attached to the top of each wall?
Measuring between the top of the wall and the top of the ridge, ...
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1
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How do I know if it is safe to remove a wall?
When looking at a wall, how can I tell if I can safely remove it?
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Is joist sag at connection with header a problem?
I am having the ceiling in the finished part of my basement redone, and have it fully open now. I can see the connection of the joists to the headers have given somewhat, as the house is 85 years old ...
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5
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Are these integrated diagonal wall braces structurally important?
I was helping a friend expand the width of a closet door, and when we pulled the drywall off the interior wall frame, we noticed some 45-degree wall braces in the interior wall.
I am pretty sure ...
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3
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How can I choose the best lag screw / lag bolt?
I will be fastening Unistrut vertically along studs to facilitate garage storage, and want some guidance on choosing the "best" lag bolts to use.
I want them large enough to handle hundreds of pounds ...
9
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1
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How can I safely remove and replace a wall?
The Wall:
This is about 25' long, and it separates my kitchen from my living room/Dining room.
Underneath it, we have a double 2x8 floor joist, which is supported midway on an 8 inch steel I-beam. (...
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5
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Can I put a 6" hole in this ceiling joist?
I'm working on my kitchen to add a range hood that goes outside the house. I'm putting the 6" exhaust pipe in my ceiling, between my 1st and 2nd floor, going in the direction of the ceiling ...
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8
votes
4
answers
2k
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Repairing a partially cut roof strut
It looks like some previous owner of my house (built in the 40s) cut almost the whole way through a roof strut (I think it's called a strut) when installing an attic ladder in the garage. I am ...
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8
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1
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Long crack in I joist flange
Found a nasty crack in one of our I joists and need advice. Should I get a structural engineer over here asap or try to repair it? It’s over a foot long. Our shop was built in 2020, so I’m surprised ...
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2
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Structurally required? I-beam support under stair opening header
The stair opening into my basement is framed like this:
A partition wall (non-load bearing) sits on top of the header.
A square duct runs parallel to the header, and on the other side of this duct ...
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8
votes
1
answer
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Is my attic floor over my garage strong enough to use it for storage and maybe as a small work area?
I would like to use the attic space above my 2-car garage for storage of items around the house and garage, and if possible, utilize some of the space as a small work area. The previous owners left ...
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8
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1
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Can I safely make a door frame taller?
UPDATE:
April 22 What I ended up doing was removing the trim non-destructively. Above the door frame, it was clearly not load bearing, so I continued and was not so non-destructive. The end-result ...
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5
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Repairing a notched floor joist
Situation
I was running some new gas pipe and I notched one floor joist and drilled a hole in another. I have now learned that this is not appropriate. This was in the forbidden zone of the middle 1/...
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2
answers
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Closet Wall, is it Load Bearing?
Trying to figure out if the front wall of this pantry cabinet is load bearing. We'd like to remove the front of the pantry and install cabinets here instead of the closet, but unsure if we can pull ...
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2
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What are these beams for in my loft?
I have very good building experience but in a house we bought recently I have been wondering what the heck to do with my loft. Initially its converted to a mini workshop / storage
The max height is 1....
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Is my closet load bearing?
I want to remove the closets that are in the hallway off of my garage so I can install new cabinets for a mud-room. I want to make sure the closets are not load bearing before I remove. Here are some ...
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7
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3
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What size ceiling joists and rafters should I use for a 14' span?
I'm going to build a single story addition to my home with a width of 14ft. I plan on using ceiling joists every 16" but I'm not sure which size to get. The roof will be asphalt shingles and the attic ...
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6
votes
1
answer
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How should I deal with this protrusion in future drywall ceiling?
I am strapping a room up for a drywall ceiling for an upcoming room in my basement. The joists are level for the most part, but on the main joist there is an protrusion. Here is a picture:
The ...
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3
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How much space do you need between windows for a king, jack and hardwired light?
We are remodeling our kitchen and putting new windows in. It will be a bank of 3 windows. We plan on doing a king & jack in between each window (to not have to do one very long header). I would ...
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1
answer
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Should I replace a carport post as it was originally built or with an upgraded column?
I’ve got a 60s era carport with a rotted post. It’s a low slope cantilevered roof about 20 feet long. It has two posts on each corner at the front, and the back is supported by the house.
The rotted ...
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6
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2
answers
2k
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Holes drilled in parallam beam: is this a structural problem?
The electrician drilled 3/4” holes on PSL parallam beams. Both beams are is 4”x12”. The first beam measures 13’ft long and the holes are about 3’ft away from the end. The second beam measures 23’ft ...
6
votes
3
answers
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Can I partially suspend an angled climbing wall from my garage trusses?
I'm planning on building a home climbing wall in my garage. I'm wondering about the structural integrity of attaching it to the trusses. They are 2x4s, 24" apart, and span about 30 feet.
This image ...
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6
votes
1
answer
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Designed a floating corner table, unsure of its potential strength. Any ideas?
I pretty much want to attach some angle iron to the studs and some threaded rods to the angle iron. I'll rout out the profile of the angle iron into the butcher block so it sits flush and so that when ...
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What should I do about these broken beams and broken floor joists?
My house was built in 65 and we bought it a few years ago. I've been slowly fixing things as I can, like the giant rats nest of electrical wiring strewn about the attic :). Now I want to get to these ...
5
votes
4
answers
6k
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Extending Framing Studs From 8' to 9'
Well, I feel about as dumb as I possibly can right now, but I measured the ceiling height from the wrong point and purchased studs thinking the basement had an 8 foot ceiling, only to realize ...
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4
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Are these roof members structural support?
I’m fairly new to DIY home improvement. Are these arrowed parts structural support? I’m looking to vault the ceiling below but I’m not sure if I need to involve an engineer.
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2
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Contractor claims new pantry location is structural - is he right? [closed]
My contractor added the pantry in the middle of the living room instead of its original place to open the space but I didn't like it, then he says it is good for support. The pantry was supposed to be ...
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5
votes
3
answers
2k
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How do I repair and block up a completely cut top plate?
I removed some in-wall ducting coming from the attic that fed registers on both sides of the wall. I intend on patching up the drywall of course, but before I do I want to block up the hole in the top ...
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5
votes
1
answer
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Floor supported by nails, is it structurally sound?
Each time I look under this floor it bugs me; how can so few nails support an entire floor?
Is this standard construction practice?
It is an 80s house in Canada.
New pictures to satisfy your ...
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2
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What are chances of split/weakened joists from ceiling hanging hardware?
I was supposed to hang some stuff to make space in the garage. So I started indiscriminately screwing a bunch of crap into the joists. Now I realized that I was stupid in my haste. How do I evaluate ...
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5
votes
4
answers
20k
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14ft Ceiling beam sagging 5/8" - what to do?
First some background:
Our home is a 2 story detached. On the main floor it is entirely open concept, with a ~14' drywalled horizontal support beam separating the kitchen from the living room area. ...
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5
votes
1
answer
3k
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Should I worry about sagging joists?
I have a two story house and some of the joists between the floors are sagging about an inch or two. When I walk around upstairs I can feel the level difference and downstairs you can slightly see the ...
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5
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2
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When sistering a joist or rafter, must the ends of the sister be supported?
When sistering a floor joist, must the sister be full length to the original joist and must the ends of the sister be supported on a sill or beam for the sister to be truly effective? Assume the ...
user116817
5
votes
1
answer
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Securing a twisted beam
I discovered this twisted underpurlin. Due to the twisting, the beam is sitting on the edge of the strut. I don't want the purlin to deform further, thereby falling down from the strut.
Question: Does ...
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1
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2x4’s embeded in the foundation wall
A home is going up right next door, and I noticed that the foundation walls have 2x4’s embedded in them. Won’t that cause the concrete to crack when the wood gets wet?
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5
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2
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How to go about building an aquarium into a wall?
I plan to install a 180 gallon aquarium in my basement. The dimensions are 72" x 24" x 25" About 2000 pounds after sand and decorations when filled
How should I go about doing this without having ...
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