Neighbor asked for help installing a window, the hired carpenter bailed half way through the job for fear of causing a problem (situation described below). House is 1 & 1/2 story conventional stick framed. Upstairs has 4′ knee wall then sloping gable roof. New window to go in gable end. Gable end already has one window in center, stool about 3′ off floor, a new window was added to the left of it, same height.
PROBLEM: After the sheetrock was cut away it revealed a horizontal pair of 2 2x4s on cripple studs at the same height of the knee wall. If you extend a horizontal line from these two boards you’d run into the opening of the big center window, so the boards DO NOT tie together the walls, if such a thing is necessay. And to the left of the center window, where a new window was added, the gable end looked as one would expect it, 2×4 studs 16″ o.c. The sheetrock isn’t cut away to the corner of the room to see if these boards end at the kneewall junction or are just sitting there on cripples.
So what are these board for? Will the whole house unfold if they are cut? My plan was to cut them off, then build a header (with the 2xs in the proper orientation with a 1/2’ply sandwiched in between). Over to you all. Thanks
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Not being able to see a picture of what you are talking about here goes my best guess. The gable wall was probably originally built with no windows in it. They constructed a knee wall on the gable end then built the gable above that. I would then guess that the center window was the first one to be added. At that time they probably just cut through the gable end knee wall and add the post and header for the window. Later the second window was added and they probably just remove the rest of the old framing on that side and framed in for the new window. I would say that is probably what you can do on the other side. My biggest concern would be that the framing and header around the center window is adequate and framed properly to support the roof. This should be checked out regardless if you add the new window or not.
Dan
Edited 9/10/2002 6:13:30 AM ET by dan_lott
Thanks for your input re "mystery boards in wall. A picture would be worth 1000 words, but when I drew this out on the computer screen my wife & daughter complained it got in the way so I had to erase it!
To clarify my explanation, though I'm not sure if this will help you analyze the problem any better. #1 I'm sure the gable end originally included a window in the center. #2 What I'm calling the knee wall is the wall running at 90 degrees to the gable end, that is the side wall of the house, with gables on the front & back of the house. #3 The fact that the boards, on the gable end, are at the same height as the top of the knee wall may be a coincidence. I included that information in hope that someone would say "Of course there are boards there because they...."
Anyway, thanks for your help. I'm going to go ahead and cut through them & install a real header over the window. If you hear a loud crash, you'll know I screwed up!
It is a little hard tro make assumptions on this. Beyond whether it ties the outer walls together and supports the roof, you need to analyse whether the gable end wall will stand the wind load without flopping around like a sail in a gale.
Arent the collar ties holding the roof together?
Be well
Namaste'
andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
I am betting that the house was balloon framed on all four sides to the height of the knee walls and that is what these boards are. There should be no problem with supporting the roof. You don't even need to put in a header here. I agree with Piffin that your only concern is the wind load on the gable wall. It is probably not a problem but if you are worried about this you need to run a stud from the floor to the rafters somewhere in this wall.