How do you cut a door into this wall?

[RobertMacy]

There is an exterior 10 ft wall to the garage that is made of 2x6 studs at approx 16 inch centers. Upon examining the tile roof line, that 'external' wall may be not a supporting wall at all. I can double check in the attic, but most of this house construction uses 'floating' walls.

I want to cut a 36 inch wide 8 foot door into the garage from a storage room. The cut exactly removes two studs. By code there is supposed to be a fireblock at 8 foot height in this wall anyway, but those are inserted short 2x6 pieces.

I plan on clearing out everything in that 3 panel area, temporarily leaving the 2 studs. To put in the door requires two 8 foot long 2x6 sistered to each of the two outside studs. That leaves a very strong support at the top for a 'header'.

Does anybody have experience doing this?

Questions:

1. How large, what type, header? can I use something like four 2x6's across the top? Or should these be four 2x8's ?? Or, should be a more solid block? After the header is installed the two cut studs' weight will be on that header.
2. Is it super dangerous to sever those two studs WITHOUT providing some type of external support for the ceiling in some other way? Or, are these roofing systems over designed enough to allow a one day removal/replacement without all falling down?

[HerHusband]

Robert,

How is an "external" wall "floating"?

A typical gable roof would normally have bearing walls on the sides the rafters sit on, and non bearing walls on the two gable ends.

A hip roof bears weight on all four walls.

Impossible to say without knowing what that header is supporting. If it's a non-bearing wall, you technically wouldn't need a header at all (though I would still put one in). If you've got two stories with long joist spans, a library, fish tanks, and a tile roof above, you'll probably need a much larger header.

My house is a single story, and the headers only support the roof. I used two 2x10's with insulation in between throughout the house for all openings.

Why risk it? Just erect a temporary support wall just inside the room to support the roof while you work on the wall.

If you don't mind patching the siding and interior finish, you could "let in" the support headers. Basically, remove the siding and cut a notch in each stud the thickness of the header board. Knock out the waste then slip in and secure the header board. Repeat for the second header board on the interior side of the wall. Add the jack studs to support the header at each end, then you can safely cut out the middle studs under the header.

Good luck!

Anthony Watson

[trader_4]

+1

Sure sounds like it's a load bearing wall.

Actually I think you can say without knowing what the header is supporting. He's removing two existing studs to make the opening. As long as what he puts in there is sufficient to carry the max load that those two studs were capable of carrying, then he's at least equaled what is already there.

[Unquestionably Confused]

I'm kinda confused on the placement of this door. Is it going on an exterior wall or what? If there is a garage on one side of the wall and a storage room on the other, how is it an exterior wall?

Maybe a diagram would be in order. However... if the wall you want to cut the doorway into run PARALLEL to the ceiling joists, it is generally NON-load bearing. If perpendicular, it's probably carrying a load.

for a 36" run, 2x8 should be fine or go crazy, like I usually do, and bump it up to a 2x10 header.

As someone else said, why chance it? Tack a 2x where the ceiling joists meets the wall and wedge a couple more 2x's beneath it (floor to ceiling) to temporarily carry the load. Nail in your jack or trimmer studs, remove the interior studs, slip in the header and allow the two cripples (remainder of the two studs you've removed)to rest snugly atop the header and then remove the temporary support. Then cut out the siding inside the door.

[Guv Bob]

Similar situation with me - I put an exterior door between the garage and house. Best decision I made was hiring a carpenter for $250 plus the cost of the door & materials. 3 hours later and it was done to code, plus he showed me everything he did so I would know it was to code. No trips to Home Depot, no following bad advice from people guessing online....

[RobertMacy]

it is a single story and all the roof is hipped. In the patio areas, the exterior wall is floating with no appreciable weight on them. But haven't looked at this garage are to be sure.

When I remove the two studs, I will be cutting/clearing within the area clear to the top. That gives me access to the two pieces sticking down and indeed I can attach support directly to them as I cut them out. something like fake studs inside the house and fake studs outside the house [in the garage] and BOLT a short something between them all WAIT! simply triangle them from where they're cut down to the floor/earth whatever! I see a way this could be done without ever compromising the support ability! Great suggestion thank you.