Are there any structural engineers here? (1 Viewer)

[Cakepro]

Since this is reef-related, I'm posting it in Gen. Reefkeeping.

We are opening up a load-bearing wall in our house and are in need of a structural engineer or other similarly-educated smartie to provide us with the proper construction plans needed to do such a thing. This construction is for us to situate a 180 gallon tank in our living area where there is currently a bar.


~ Sherri

 

[Guest]

Sherrie,
I am a builder, not an engineer, but I can design your temporary shoring and header if you can mail a couple of pictures. My e-mail is rvernon67@yahoo.com. I am currently building a wood framed 4 story hotel and will talk to my framer tomorrow for a second opinion, if you are interested.

Ron

 

[Cakepro]

Cool! I'm going to the house (it's the one we're moving into) later today and will post measurements and pics this evening.

~ Sherri

 

[NANAReef]

I have done this a number of times myself Sherri. If his offer falls through.

Nathan Andrews

 

[Cakepro]

I would love as much input as possible!

Thank you for the peppermints, Nathan. Trey brought them over yesterday and they're doing very well.

~ Sherri

 

[Guest]

Any pics yet Sherrie?

 

[Guest]

I have pics of this one guys setup who did a great job. It reinforces the entire load bearing wall. Want them?

 

[Cakepro]

We're actually opening up two walls...one between the living area and the dining area, and one where the tank will be. Wall number one first: this is a load-bearing wall from which a 6 foot section will be removed. The opening will be equidistant from the doorway and from the bottom edge of the fireplace. We have taped off the area to be removed. The height of the opening will be the same height as the doorway. Interestingly, you can see in picture number two that centering the opening made the right wall the exact same width as the left wall. That was cool.

Question: exactly what type of structural support needs to be built (and from what materials) so the house doesn't come crashing down? Trey can elaborate on what's in the attic.

 

[Cakepro]

I don't know if this is relevant, but here's the back side of that wall, on the dining room side. The longer line of tape on the right side of the wall in pic #1 is the bottom edge of the fireplace.

Interestingly, in picture number two you can see that the 6' opening centered from the living room side produced the exact same size wall "wing" on the back side of the doorway on the dining room side. From the picture, it doesn't look exact but it is.

 

[NANAReef]

Sherri, By load bearing you mean it supports the roof in some way? For instance it has upright braces to hold up the ridge or other support for the roof, or holds up the ceiling joists (as in they rest on it). In most instances this is what is termed load bearing (at least on an interrior wall). If this is the case anything with an opening that large would reqiure no less then a double 2X12 beam with 1/2" plywood over the wall (or in the wall if that is not possible). It must span over the area you wish to cut out at least 3" and have a solid 2X4 support below (on the 3" overlap). I would prefer to see 4 1/2" lap and 3 2X4s on each side.. Then you have to cut down the upright braces to fit the new hight of the "wall" (beam over wall is still considered a wall).. If you have celiing Joists running on top of the wall you would need to cut the down to fit flush against the new beam and nail them to it directly.. This is if you wish to totally open up the wall..

If you wish to have an exposed beam (beam from top of celing to new opening (cased opening). Remove the wall covering (wood paneling / drywall) and make sure you have no plumbing/electrical in the way. Re-route these items if needed. I would sugest a temp wall on both sides of the wall before removing any wall studs. Once you make the temp walls. Remove the studs you need and again add that 2X12 beam, add the 2 "cripple" studs on each side of the beam (2X4s cut to length to hold up the beam against the top plate of your old wall (basically 11 1/2" shorter then you common studs aldready in wall)), and 2 full length studs on the ends of the beam. Once you do that the wall can then support the load it had before.. I hope the poor picture below helps you out..

 

[boudster]

Nathan did my wall and my upstairs hasn't caved in yet

 

[Cakepro]

Okay, on to the tank wall. I left my notebook at the other house so I can't post measurements, but the total length of the wall is about 27 feet, from kitchen window to far left doorway. This is a load-bearing wall, and the previous owners cut into it to build the bar, and did not build a header. The opening is visibily sagging at the top. The bar is going to be removed and in its place we will build an enclosed fish room. The corner of the fish room will be close to the lowest part of the sag, so it will be reinforced from that side. The tank (6' long, 180 gallons) will sit in front of the fish room, not in it (I don't want an in-wall tank). The left opening of the bar will be enlarged by about 3 feet, and the drop ceiling in the bar will be removed. Even though it looks like there is a header, there is no support of any kind built in that bar opening. Same questions as for the other wall: what type of header/support do we need?

 

[Cakepro]

This image shows the length of the wall. The previous image shows half of the doorway. The doorway is the end of the wall. The wall is ~ 27 feet long.

 

[Cakepro]

Inside of bar, which will be fishroom.

 

[Cakepro]

Bye-bye, bar. Hello, fish room. The inside width of the bar is 6'. Thankfully, the ceiling above that dropped ceiling is the normal ceiling that matches the rest of the house. However, there are two 2 x 4's (one on top of the other) that run along the ceiling that can't be removed. They are hidden behind the dropped ceiling. So we will be able to reduce the length of that "header" and the false ceiling up to about 4" in height (does that make sense??). That will be enclosed in the fish room, though.

This used to be a house with a detached garage, but the previous owners built a room the connects to the backyard and the garage. We don't want to remove that part of the brick wall (which will be the back wall of the fish room).

By the way, all paneling will be replaced with sheetrock after all construction is completed. Bye-bye, 1970's.

My project this week is removing all of the paneling. When I do that, I can post "naked house" pictures if that is more helpful.

 

[NANAReef]

Sherri I need the overall open length. Include the extra 3' that you are going to take out.. I need to know this to figure out the size of beam needed.

 

[Cakepro]

Okay, my project manager/slavedriver/husband is on his way home and we're going over there now. I'll post accurate measurements a little later.

THanks!!

 

[FireEater]

So you decided to be able to see the side of the tank from the living room now?

Mark

 

[Cakepro]

I finally got the measurements and made a rudimentary little drawing. Please let me know if there is anything that I did not include which will help you configure the technical stuff that Trey needs to know so that the house doesn't crash. Thank you!!

 

[Cakepro]

Hello?