Improper Header Size

greg24k

Lone, here is a few pictures from the job I went out to see that I spoke to you about. The header sagged about 2". It is a 2x10 header over 9'3" span supporting little over 9,000LB of dead and live load.

Second picture you see the bearing wall which rests on that header, as you can see it sank 2" on the second floor.

I think the was a smaller opening, and someone made it bigger, not realizing how much weight that header carrying. There is a lolly column in the basement right bellow that opening, where temporary column is and right where the sag is, which originally was carrying the point load and the opening was much smaller by approximate 3-4 feet, which would make allot of sense for the size of the header being there. My brother was there with me, and he and I came to a conclusion there was an addition done on the house, the HO said he checked and there is no record of that. I was gonna take more pictures, but my camera died.
The guy is having a serious problem, we opened up the sheetrock and I can see a vertical stress crack on the header, there is allot of weight seating on that header, and if he had someone make that opening bigger, which I think he did, because everything inside the house was done with out permits. I calculated the beam size for him and told him have an architect come out and double check everything and go for the building permit so we could swap the header. Another big lesson this HO will learn, don't hire hacks who have no idea what they doing. This guy is lucky he put hardwood on the second floor, which raised the load value and he noticed a big sag, because the whole house could have caved in on top of them.

Attached Thumbnails

   

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Leo G

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neolitic

The second floor wall in pic#2,
is that perpendicular to the header
below, or parallel?

Nice sag BTW.

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loneframer

Greg, that looks like it could pose several challenges for sure. Is the HO trying to take out any of the sag, or just support it from further drop? Could be a long process of lift and wait. Looks like a job for 1/2"x12" steel flitch plate min. to me.

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greg24k

The wall on the second floor is perpendicular, sitting right on top of the header.

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greg24k

He is just supporting the header from caving in. The only way to jack this up is place the jack right under the the wall above, and in order to do that, have to open the ceiling bellow and pack the girder in the basement, or the jack will sink right through the floor, there is to much weight. I did some calculations, and a 3 1/2" by 11 1/4 paralam will support the weight on that span.

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loneframer

How far off center is the point load?
Parallams are by far my favorite engineered lumber for situations like this.

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greg24k

About 2 feet right where the jack is. I love using parallams, if sized right they can hold amassing amount of weight. I been thinking lately to start using PT parallams on decks to eliminate footings.

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loneframer

I'm still having a hard time trusting engineered lumber exposed to the elements. We used permapost glulams on the house we're doing now and they are already starting to delaminate. They are also entombed in stone and mortar now. Neither case was my decision and there are a ton of them. Check it out.

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Tom M

Attic storage? ridge wieght? Is their solid blocking in between the floor joist where the load is transfered to the basement girder? Column should be moved too added.