repairing water damaged header

[bdensel]

Hello,

new to forum, looking for some advice on how to repair a section of a water damaged header on an 8' wide door frame. as you can see in the picture, it is 3 2x6s and the damage is to a section of the bottom 2x6. the damage does not extend the entire width of the board, so I was hoping to be able to remove that section and replace. this header spans from the foundation to a lally column and is nailed into an identical header for the other garage door.

the garage is under the house, and as you can see in the picture, there is something on top of the header which I assume is a beam for the part of the house over the door? does this make sense or is this other "beam" just the outside floor joint for the room over the garage door?

thanks for the help!

 

[darkk]

Can't repair a header, replace only. It's purpose is to support the structure over an open area (doorway). If you cut the header, it weakens the support.

 

[OccupantRJ]

From what I can see there, the piece of wood referenced may be part of a header stack, but it ain't holding up a lot being in there sideways. Looks like it was in there to obtain a stacked dimension, so therefore is likely under compression at the ends, so the middle isn't doing a whole lot. Poke it with a screwdriver and you can tell the extent of damage. I might be inclined to scrape it down well and apply a liberal coating of wood preservative. You need to cure what caused it to begin with, which I guess is why you have it exposed.

 

[cvorkian]

Can you back up and tale a picture of the entire opening?

Based on your description, it appears that the "beam" is built down for dimensioning the door opening... What was immediately over the top of the rotted section? Trim? Siding?

Regardless, Replace the entire section. With today's engineered lumbers, think of removing the entire "beam" (header) with one solid piece of lumber engineered for the opening...an LVL or paralam.

The amount of work to replace the entire thing vs scabbing in just the bottom is minimal... in many ways, I think it is easier!

Build a temporary wall, jack it up, and remove the entire header... slide in the new one....

 

[Greatbear]

The rotted wood is not load bearing in its configuration, but the ends could be part of a support for the stack above, depending on how it was assembled. If only the center has been damaged, there's no reason why the bad section can't be cut out all the way to the ends and a new one put in. The remaining end stubs would still support the stack above, as long as the wood were in good condition. I'd need to see pictures of the adjoining walls to make a proper solution.

I've seen this sort of build-out for a door opening and in a lot of cases, the stack of lumber was added after the walls and upper floor was built, and as such the "header" ends up not only non-loadbearing, but held in place only by the nails. In the case of a friend's house, the "header" had loosened up over time and was being twisted by the torsion springs of the garage door, along with drooping and wrinkling the vinyl siding. The fix was taking off the trim and running long lag bolts through the spacer framing and into the header (actually the floor rim joists) above.

 

[tcianci]

As has been posted, you really need to get a longer shot of that assembly but from what you're showing, I would be inclined to just leave it alone...it's not structutal because it's being used on the flat. The piece above the 3 pieces on the flat appears to be the structural member. Unless its just crumbling in your hand, just re sheath it, install a good layer of felt over the sheathing that runs up under the siding and re-trim using a flashing at the top of your trim.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

As has been posted, you really need to get a longer shot of that assembly but from what you're showing, I would be inclined to just leave it alone...it's not structutal because it's being used on the flat. The piece above the 3 pieces on the flat appears to be the structural member. Unless its just crumbling in your hand, just re sheath it, install a good layer of felt over the sheathing that runs up under the siding and re-trim using a flashing at the top of your trim.

Bingo Let it be. They sell some wood preservative at most home stores. But you could just soak it real good a few times with antifreeze. (It kills the fungus eating the wood.) Then cover as above.

 

[JSBriggs]

The 'beam' is the actual header, and is fine. The 2x6 is being used to fur the opening down to finished size. You could graft in patch without an issue.

-Jeff

 

[PassnThru]

Is the second picture a view from the bottom up? I can't place it in the first picture. I'm a little worried that it shows the top of the header.

Edit - I think I've got it now. Thinking it was a bottom shot I could only count 2 2bys laying flat. I see now that the middle 2by is recessed so it doesn't show up in the bottom shot.