Hi All,
I am renovating a townhouse that has a stair to the basement. Every time you go do the stairs, you end up hitting your head on the header. I am looking at moving the stairwell. The current stairwell is perpendicular to the floor joists. To make me life easier, I thought that I would move them to a location perpendicular to the floor joists and make the opening longer. I am assuming that the new ones need to be 36″ wide, correct? Also, when I double up the joists, do I need to try to get the new ones into a beam pocket in the foundation wall like the old ones, or is just sistering them with glue, nails and bolts sufficient?
Thanks
Replies
Only two would need to be sistered, and there are hardware options also, depending on what you have now. Pockets for joists are rare nowdays.
And you can avoid sistering altogether with posts in the right places as another option.
36" wide is good, but if this is not living space, you are not required to abide by same code in many locations.
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"Pockets for joists are rare nowdays."And my engineer has most emphatically signed off on sistering without pocketing. The existing pocketed joist provides ample shear resistance. Just make sure your fastening schedule is code-approved, and you're good to go.AitchKay
Ooops - just noticed townhouse. You may need to have approval from a HO association as well as the local building apt
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Well, I should have said rowhouse. Built 100 years ago, so there is no HO. I do have a permit. I thought about the posts too, but wanted to avoid that if I could as I did not want to have to dig footers. But I will do what I have to do to make it code compliant.
You have another reply here - he meant to adress it to you
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