I am building a house in Southern California where there is a sliding glass door on the first floor, with a second story above. The Header spans 13ft and is a Parałam PSL 3 1/2”x 11 7/8. All Lumber on this project is Select Structural Douglas Fir. My framer was supposed to use 3 2x4s as the Jack Studs, but chose to use a single 4x6 as the jack stud on each side. This is a 2x4 wall, so the 4x6 is sideways. Is this an acceptable way of framing out a header? I have never seen it done this way, are there any drawbacks to this design?
Jack stud sizing for large header span
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TheArtofBuilding
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If you put the 1" filler against the king stud and then the 3 2x4's that would keep the span the same, no?
I don't see what is wrong with the 4X6s.
We only use PT doug fur here and we don't have that issue.
Does it have the
Does it have the perforated marks? I don’t know why we don’t get the good looking stuff.
It's interior framing, who cares about the marks? Drywall hides all that.
Yea that I knew. And yes, who cares when in a wall. That’s not why I was asking. I was just genuinely curious due to the deck framing I see from other states. On screens. I’d say more than 10% with the stuff here.
Doug fir and SYP have pretty much the same strength.
You’re right, read SYP is stronger, but I don’t know about that. Now talking un treated.
thanks for the insight.
Strong enough definitely anyways.
What is sugar pine?
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Largest of pine species. I can remember my Grandpa ordering Sugar Pine @ the yard when I was a kid. They say the sweet sap protects it from decay. I call bs
Mike
Lots of the pre primed trim boards are made of that stuff and the termites like it the most.
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Mike is correct that PT Doug fir is is weaker, and is not actually rated as structural, not to mention that the moisture content is much higher in pressure treated lumber than regular framing lumber. I have built Decks before with Appearance grade KDAT DF that did not have perforations, but that was only because the customer requested that, and it was 3 times the price of regular DF. You can also request regular pressure treated DF that is non incised, but the treatment doesn’t get nearly as deep into the wood. I would never use pressure treated wood inside a wall cavity for anything but the mud sill
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I want to thank everybody for all the great advice, I did end up replacing the 4 x 6 trimmers with 3 1/2” x 5 1/4” Parałam PSL columns, and it turned out nice. In most cases, I would have left it and just called it a day but considering the door is about 17 K I didn’t want to be the reason they had issues in the future. They paid for the materials and it didn’t even take an hour to replace, so it worked out in the end.
See that's why one way does not work for the whole country. PT is all we use to frame the whole house and even the inside trim is treated. As far as rated as structural, well I live in a seismic and storm zone and it is rated for structural here. I have never used wood that is not treated for framing. Everything in the pics below is treated.
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It is rated for structural you just have to take the incisions into consideration for sizing purposes and spans.
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You guys are lucky, the only lumber I have ever seen that was treated and used for framing that looked like that was KDAT, and it was 3 times the price of regular framing lumber. The one time I did use it, it was a Pain to source. Some of the big lumber yards didn’t even know what it was, and the one that was able to get it; it took 8 weeks to get. I only use KDHT for framing, but that is only heat treated, and then we do a treatment of Boracare once the house is dried in
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