Hi all,
I don't know how to explain this, but my 30 year old 2-story colonial has some failing ceiling framing in the garage. This has manifested itself in the following symptoms:
1. 3/4 of the garage are 8' ceiling and 1/4 is 9'. Where this seperation and resulting height increase occurs, the "step-up" vertical wall has seperated from the 9" ceiling by ~2.5" in one corner. So the drywall tore there all along where it had joined with the 9' ceiling.
2. A 2x8" running from the side of the house (garage doors) inwards to where the ceiling turns from 8' height to 9' height....that 2x8 has a massive split in it.
3. The garage door on the suffering side of the garage is opening unevenly, to the point where it occasionally halts itself 5" off the floor from the load. Oddly, it opens and closes fine once it's been opened. But let it sit for 8 hours and it jerks open as if it's going to collapse.
In the middle of the garage is a steel pole set in concrete and with an I-beam resting on it. For some reason, the 2x8 and surrounding timber does not seem to have been tied into this seemingly obvious point of strength. The 2x8 seems to have been improperly tied into the ceiling joists in the first place.
The roof joints appear in great shape and structurally strong. In fact, the ceiling joints are attached to the roof-joints via vertical 2x4 studs....and those studs are pulling out of their nailings. So it appears that the roof joists are fine and supporting the weight of the ceiling just fine, but the ceiling is not adequately supported and is pulling itself down.
...
My immediate next step is to get up there and reinforce the ceiling with 2x4's attached to the ceiling joists in a number of places. I'll overkill it, but that's not a problem.
Then I'm planning on ripping all the drywall off the ceiling and inspecting.
Based upon what I find, I'm going to use 2 2x4's nailed together on a floor jack to raise the corner of the ceiling back to it's original height. I'll then re-do the 2x8 properly and tie-in the framing, if possible, to the i-beam.
Floor jack will be rated to 2.5 tons. I can pick up a 10-ton hydraulic bottle jack too if that's better.
Any thoughts on this plan based upon what I've described? It's all rough-framing.
Joe
I don't know how to explain this, but my 30 year old 2-story colonial has some failing ceiling framing in the garage. This has manifested itself in the following symptoms:
1. 3/4 of the garage are 8' ceiling and 1/4 is 9'. Where this seperation and resulting height increase occurs, the "step-up" vertical wall has seperated from the 9" ceiling by ~2.5" in one corner. So the drywall tore there all along where it had joined with the 9' ceiling.
2. A 2x8" running from the side of the house (garage doors) inwards to where the ceiling turns from 8' height to 9' height....that 2x8 has a massive split in it.
3. The garage door on the suffering side of the garage is opening unevenly, to the point where it occasionally halts itself 5" off the floor from the load. Oddly, it opens and closes fine once it's been opened. But let it sit for 8 hours and it jerks open as if it's going to collapse.
In the middle of the garage is a steel pole set in concrete and with an I-beam resting on it. For some reason, the 2x8 and surrounding timber does not seem to have been tied into this seemingly obvious point of strength. The 2x8 seems to have been improperly tied into the ceiling joists in the first place.
The roof joints appear in great shape and structurally strong. In fact, the ceiling joints are attached to the roof-joints via vertical 2x4 studs....and those studs are pulling out of their nailings. So it appears that the roof joists are fine and supporting the weight of the ceiling just fine, but the ceiling is not adequately supported and is pulling itself down.
...
My immediate next step is to get up there and reinforce the ceiling with 2x4's attached to the ceiling joists in a number of places. I'll overkill it, but that's not a problem.
Then I'm planning on ripping all the drywall off the ceiling and inspecting.
Based upon what I find, I'm going to use 2 2x4's nailed together on a floor jack to raise the corner of the ceiling back to it's original height. I'll then re-do the 2x8 properly and tie-in the framing, if possible, to the i-beam.
Floor jack will be rated to 2.5 tons. I can pick up a 10-ton hydraulic bottle jack too if that's better.
Any thoughts on this plan based upon what I've described? It's all rough-framing.
Joe