The project I'm working on now was just made much more interesting by
the sins of some hack who decided to widen the old window's 69" rough
opening width for a new 72" triple casement by cutting the jack and
king studs off flush with the bottom of the header. The short stub
remnant of the king stud was left in place and a stud was nailed onto
the side of that.

In other words, the header is supported by one stud nailed to a piece
of blocking (ex-king stud) that's nailed to the end of the header. Not
surprisingly, this did not work very well and the sagging has caused
the casements to bind. The one end has dropped about 1/2". Luckily he
did this surgery on two window openings so I get to practice on one and
perfect my technique!

My question: has anyone else encountered a similar header-stretching
exercise, and if so, how did you handle it?

R

I've never seen one like that, thankfully.
In the 130 mph wind gust, D seismic area of Charleston, inspectors
would require the framing to be made to meet standard practice.
TB

wrote:

I've never seen one like that, thankfully.
In the 130 mph wind gust, D seismic area of Charleston, inspectors
would require the framing to be made to meet standard practice.
TB

Do they come inspect homeowner retrofits too?

RicodJour wrote:

The project I'm working on now was just made much more interesting by
the sins of some hack who decided to widen the old window's 69" rough
opening width for a new 72" triple casement by cutting the jack and
king studs off flush with the bottom of the header. The short stub
remnant of the king stud was left in place and a stud was nailed onto
the side of that.

In other words, the header is supported by one stud nailed to a piece
of blocking (ex-king stud) that's nailed to the end of the header. Not
surprisingly, this did not work very well and the sagging has caused
the casements to bind. The one end has dropped about 1/2". Luckily he
did this surgery on two window openings so I get to practice on one and
perfect my technique!

My question: has anyone else encountered a similar header-stretching
exercise, and if so, how did you handle it?

R

Can't say as I have...guess how you attack it depends on how far back
you want to go...

Probably simplest would be to splice onto the existing header w/ metal
gusset to stiffen it up sufficiently. Assuming you've got tubafore
walls there should be a half inch spacer you can hack out to replace w/
a section of (predrilled) 1/2" plate....

Some variation of that trick would be where I'm guessing I'd start from
the description, not having seen the actual situation...

Sometimes they check on home owners and some times they don't.
I got an inspector stopping work on my basement, a conditioned space,
because it didn't have enough insulation in the ceiliing - the floor of
my living room. The guy across the street had me design an addition
which was approved by board of architects and building department, then
built something different.. Complaints to the City produced shrugs and
"we can't be bothered with little stuff."
TB

wrote:

Sometimes they check on home owners and some times they don't.
I got an inspector stopping work on my basement, a conditioned space,
because it didn't have enough insulation in the ceiliing - the floor of
my living room. The guy across the street had me design an addition
which was approved by board of architects and building department, then
built something different.. Complaints to the City produced shrugs and
"we can't be bothered with little stuff."
TB

That's the point...a guy changes a double door to a slider off the back
of his house on his own--how they going to even know? 90% of the time
he won't pull a permit so unless there's a nosy neighbor, he does
whatever and covers it up...

Saying they wouldn't allow it in your area has no bearing on the
question--they "wouldn't have allowed it" in the OP's area either if
they had known about it...

In article , Duane Bozarth says...

wrote:

I've never seen one like that, thankfully.
In the 130 mph wind gust, D seismic area of Charleston, inspectors
would require the framing to be made to meet standard practice.
TB

Do they come inspect homeowner retrofits too?

Right.

Are permits needed for replacing windows (even putting in real windows, not
replacement windows...)??!? If that's true in my town, I and a lot of other
folks are screwed, because we haven't been getting permits...

Banty

Banty wrote:

In article , Duane Bozarth says...

wrote:

I've never seen one like that, thankfully.
In the 130 mph wind gust, D seismic area of Charleston, inspectors
would require the framing to be made to meet standard practice.
TB

Do they come inspect homeowner retrofits too?

Right.

Are permits needed for replacing windows (even putting in real windows, not
replacement windows...)??!? If that's true in my town, I and a lot of other
folks are screwed, because we haven't been getting permits...

Strictly speaking, they (the jurisdicition) may think so if it changes
the structure in any way. Practically speaking, almost everybody will
ignore doing so for very minor work they do themselves and there's no
practical way for them to enforce it. Of course, if you go to a
contractor for some remodeling they will most likely pull a permit
simply to keep themselves safe unless they are used to operating "under
the table", so to speak...

RicodJour wrote:
The project I'm working on now was just made much more interesting by
the sins of some hack who decided to widen the old window's 69" rough
opening width for a new 72" triple casement by cutting the jack and
king studs off flush with the bottom of the header. The short stub
remnant of the king stud was left in place and a stud was nailed onto
the side of that.

In other words, the header is supported by one stud nailed to a piece
of blocking (ex-king stud) that's nailed to the end of the header. Not
surprisingly, this did not work very well and the sagging has caused
the casements to bind. The one end has dropped about 1/2". Luckily he
did this surgery on two window openings so I get to practice on one and
perfect my technique!

My question: has anyone else encountered a similar header-stretching
exercise, and if so, how did you handle it?

R

Can you get away with a 72" RO?

If so, then I'm not sure why the hack cut out the king studs in
addition to the jack studs. If just the jack studs were removed you
could put in metal hangers to attach the header to the king studs, and
everything would have been fine and you would have a 72" RO. If this
would work, you could reinstall the bottom half of the cut off king
studs, then use metal hangers. Would probably require sistering a stud
to the side of the newly reformed king studs, which would require
tearing out drywall above the header in the vicinity of the upper half
of the king studs. But that's less drywall patching than if you take
out the whole header.

Ken

Ken wrote:
RicodJour wrote:
The project I'm working on now was just made much more interesting by
the sins of some hack who decided to widen the old window's 69" rough
opening width for a new 72" triple casement by cutting the jack and
king studs off flush with the bottom of the header. The short stub
remnant of the king stud was left in place and a stud was nailed onto
the side of that.

In other words, the header is supported by one stud nailed to a piece
of blocking (ex-king stud) that's nailed to the end of the header. Not
surprisingly, this did not work very well and the sagging has caused
the casements to bind. The one end has dropped about 1/2". Luckily he
did this surgery on two window openings so I get to practice on one and
perfect my technique!

My question: has anyone else encountered a similar header-stretching
exercise, and if so, how did you handle it?

R

Can you get away with a 72" RO?

If so, then I'm not sure why the hack cut out the king studs in
addition to the jack studs. If just the jack studs were removed you
could put in metal hangers to attach the header to the king studs, and
everything would have been fine and you would have a 72" RO. If this
would work, you could reinstall the bottom half of the cut off king
studs, then use metal hangers. Would probably require sistering a stud
to the side of the newly reformed king studs, which would require
tearing out drywall above the header in the vicinity of the upper half
of the king studs. But that's less drywall patching than if you take
out the whole header.

It is a thought to shift the opening over a stud, cutting the unhacked
side jack stud, and use header hangers on both sides. I was
concentrating on supporting the one side, but your way would be easier
in a lot of ways. I'd have to do a little patching of the sheathing
and drywall on the one side, but anyway you look at it I'll have to do
patching.

The killer is that the upstairs bedroom was just painted a of couple
months ago with Ralph Lauren designer faux-type paint. There's no way
I can patch and match that. I guess either way we'll have to paint the
entire wall.

Thanks for the idea, Ken.

R