On 2004-11-04, B wrote:

I am not an engineer, but I can tell you from framing a number of
houses that every load must be carried to the ground with sufficient
stud width (a stud must be doubled or tripled or quadrupled or
quintupled based on the load it carries at that point, with NO
reliance on other studs in other parts of the wall.

OK, that makes sense. Now, does putting a solid header in the wall
spread out a point load, and how much?

The building code says that that a loadbearing wall above a floor
diaphragm and perpendicular to the joists can be offset up to one
joist depth from a loadbearing wall beneath the floor diaphragm. So
that would suggest that the load spreads out at 45 degrees through the
solid member.

On the other hand, it seems like the two nearest studs on either side
would pick up all the load.

I don't think you should design this project yourself.

Well, I'm trying to do as much of the design as I can, and then I'll
run it by a civil engineer if I end up with anything usual, like a
point load. Plus I like to understand how everything works.

Thanks,
Wayne