I’ve posted about this roof before and am still getting ideas for it. My two car garage has one wide door on it and trim to trim measures 190″ or just under 19′.
The header sags in the middle 9/16″. The exterior head trim, eve, gutter sag the same amount. There is a noticeable sag in the middle. well at least to me.
I was thinking about putting a lolly column in the middle to raise the header and putting two doors in. But they would be pretty narrow. I don’t know what the minimum acceptable width is for garage doors. This is in town so chances are any future owner will has a smaller car. The trend here is to buy green and I think will continue to go that way.
How about one door that is wide enough for most cars and one that is smaller? Would that look totally weird? I know that some people have worked out where the wife has her car inside and the guy has his outside.
I’m putting my shop in it and it would be nice to have one door open with the car parked in front of it so it would be hard to see in. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with the door open right now.
I can fix the sag in the roof line without raising the header. Maybe that’s the way to go.
The soffits in this area are wet or damp right now. Paint is popping off and we had a leak inside the front wall. I got up there yesterday and chopped, salted, removed all the ice dams. Leaking stopped.
So all the soffits are sagging. The eves are wavy. The gutters are sagging with caulking all over them.
The hips look visually weak from the street.
I’m just looking for ideas.
Replies
ok,i'm blind and need glasses,but the header across the door looks pretty good to me,i see some sag on the fascia,thats probably a little different problem?
i think you will be sorry if you make the door smaller.
heres what i would give a shot at,i would go in and put in a 12"x4" lvl on the back side of the header thats there. i'd make it long enough that it goes from wall to wall,go in at the ends and build a small wall to help catch the weight.then lag screw it about every 2 foot to the old header. then would saw off the bow on the bottom of orig header,i'd use a chainsaw it would take about 2 minutes.
if you think you could jack up the center,you might not even have to cut the bottom. larry
ok just read,you have 9/16 sag. iwouldnt even worry about trimming it,i would just shim each end when i retrimmed.
if a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?
Edited 1/6/2008 4:14 pm by alwaysoverbudget
So basicly, rip off the eve, soffit, peel back the roof, and shim space, string line everything back to straight and level.
It's just time for a face lift on the old lady.
i doh't understand. 190"=19' ???? i don't understand how you would put the lvl header up and still use your garage door. i would remove the existing header and have the lumber yard size new header out of lvl. this is common in upstate ny where i live . the existing header was not sized right to begin with.
I was in a hurry and the tape measure was upside down. 16'
They undersized everything in this house.
Edited 1/6/2008 5:34 pm ET by popawheelie
16' is a normal door. when you said 19' i wondered how you read your tape.
""My two car garage has one wide door on it and trim to trim measures 190" or just under 19'""
So your "Feet" measure just under 10" as well sometimes, hate it when that happens.
Leave the garage and header alone. The sag is there because the framers did not crown the beam, it was installed upside down. I bet the sag was there years ago and not much has changed recently. There is not much weight on it, even with snow. Also the sag may have been built in during construction when the roofers loaded the material right above the header.
Remeasure it seasonly and you will find that it has settled all its going to do. Call any carpenter who needs work and he will mirror you feelings and say you need to change it.
I agree. It moved a long time ago and has stopped moving. once doug fir dries it is a very strong wood. Even though my post sounded like I was concerned about the header I'm not. I'm just looking for excuses to change the look of the place. I could leave the whole thing the same way it is and it would be fine. That's part of the problem.
I just don't like the look of one big garage door, the hip, the soffits, the gutters. They are old , sagging, un-inspired, and just ugly imo.
So I'm looking for excuses to re-work the front of this house. I can do better.
The most offensive thing on that garage, to me, is the windows. If they didn't have that curve, the whole thing would look a lot cleaner. Can you replace those panels?
I think they jusr poop in. I'll check tomorrow.
You know, if you do the two door thing, and make the side with the small door a real nice small woodworking shop, and then when you go to sell the house, make sure you include all of the nearly new tools you bought just a year or two earlier, it would probably add a lot to the resale value of the house."Objects in mirror appear closer than they are."
Klakamp Construction, Findlay, Ohio - just south of the Glass City
Remove the old header and repalace with an engineered paralam. No more problem. Understand, however, it is far easier for me to say it than it will be for you to do it.
Dave
I'm not sure what i'm going to do. I know what I would like to do. Put a new gable roof on with a wider opening and two doors. It's just alot of work without much payback. It's hard to justify since I already have a roof that works. Kind of.
Edited 1/9/2008 11:13 am ET by popawheelie