Your thoughts on this framing job

[pmsmechanic]

I'd like to see how this story ends.

 

[MossRoad]

Even the "window" framing is all wrong. There should be king and jack studs and headers. I see none, at least not in a proper way. This honestly looks like somebody used up scrap lumber in a haphazard attempt to frame a wall, and ignored all standards and codes.

If you look at each vertical stack of windows, there are headers at the top of each stack. And there are king and jack studs on the sides of each vertical stack all the way up to those headers.

 

[MossRoad]

Headers marked...

 

[aczlan]

Headers marked...

View attachment 595747

But how many vertical members are there that go all the way from top to bottom? Or that go from the bottom section past the second or third window on the end wall?
As I see it, there is a upright next to the first set of windows on the end, then a short three to four foot upright past the second set of windows on the end, send a longer upright past the upper two or three sets of windows.
But they should have had longer boards going through there and stagger the joints so that at least one board went through each joint between levels.
That would seem to me to be more important then having a single uninterrupted board that goes all the way across the end of the building.
As it sits, there is one joint about eight or ten feet off the ground where the only thing holding it's together is the nails going down from the top and up from the bottom.
There is another joint about 3 feet above that at the top of the lowest set of square windows where again it does not appear that there is anything other than the nails going down from the top and up from the bottom that are holding the horizontal joint together from pushing out towards the end.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

That's one of the things about giant glassed walls with thin framing members.... where does all the weight transfer to?

That center ridge beam has to hold at least 1/2 the weight of the roof on the end posts, and the side walls have to hold 1/4 of the weight each. The window framing on the gabled end wall doesn't have to hold any of the roof weight. It's just filler.

Yes. It seems that the verticals are too broken up between levels. And they appear to just be held together with nails. I believe someone mentioned a giant hinge effect if the walls try to bow. I'd have used solid king studs up to the lower level of the roof, and jack or trimmer studs to hold the window framing and headers.

Also, in the 3rd picture


There's three studs forming a post for the center ridge. But the center ridge is only 2 boards wide. On a cathedral ceiling, as I mentioned above, I thought the center ridge beam was supposed to hold 1/2 the load of the roof. Two boards, to me, does not make a beam. 3 or more make a beam. I'd have used 3 boards for the center ridge beam.

 

[RoyKing]

Too many hinge points and with all ending at the same level, should have had some 16' running through. At least stagger the seams. It no lateral strength two guys with 16' 2x4 could have pushed that wall right down. POOR design. Even when finished that wall would have flexed with any amount of wind. Those pic condemn that contractor.

 

[MossRoad]

Looking at this picture, I'd be most concerned with this layer of vertical framing being broken up (circled in black). I don't understand why it was done like that.

I'd have liked to seen solid studs in the places I've indicated with blue, with trimmer studs supporting the window framing and headers.

Above that level on the gabled end wall, as mentioned, the window framing supplies little to no support to the roof, just the end rafters.



I'd have liked to seen a video of it in failure. Someone should send it to an engineering college for the students to model and put it in a wind tunnel.

 

[HillStreet]

The wall units are built in sections that intersect but they do not interlock. No shear resistance between the square sections, they are just stacked like boxes. Even a high wind would have passed right through if it were built correctly.

 

[Diggin It]

I'd have liked to seen solid studs in the places I've indicated with blue, with trimmer studs supporting the window framing and headers. .

I have absolutely NO training as a carpenter and haven't even read a book about it, but that's what I would have done. The center of the five you marked in the end wall should go floor to roof also. I'm guessing it's 14' or so which is easily available.

 

[JNA]

The vertical walls were built with a hinge in the middle, of course it failed. Continuous framing members are required from the floor to the roof. They built in a sill plate in the middle. Are building permits required where this was built?

Exactly although it could of had iron in it.