Cutting out wall studs to make doorway.

Background info.The house is typical weatherboard with hardwood frame built in the 50's. 2.7 ceiling in the original house, 2.4 in the extension. No trusses in the roof, it is rafters. The picture is taken from inside extension that was done in the early 80's that I am now gutting and redoing.

I wish to put an opening in the wall starting from the right hand side of the picture which shows the wall from the old extension side (which used to be the back of the house with weatherboards on it).

I will not be touching the end studs or top wall plate. I would like to take out 4 studs, which is exactly the width of the timber cross brace fitted, so that would have to go as well as the bottom wall plate. The opening is to be 2030mm, and 2000 wide.

Would an F17 KDHW lintel 200mm wide placed over the opening and into the next two studs be sufficient, or 250mm?

The crossbrace I can place on the next section of wall to the left, Is this ok?

The bottom wallplate sits directly on top of the joist ends. Will I need to insert noggings between the overhang ends of bottom wall plate that will remain?

Peter,

All this info should be in the timber framing manual (AS 1684 series) from Standards Australia. I'm not a chippy but will help a bit:

1. the wall is probably weight bearing, since it sounds like it is the external wall of the original dwelling.

2. You need the manual so you can use the lintel tables. You need to provide the roofing type (metal or tile) and the roof load width (RLW) which is the width of roof supported bu the wall.

3. The bracing must be reinstated in a different wall area parallel to this wall. The manual again will guide you. The easiest will be to brace either side of the opening with bracing ply or brace another wall nearby.

4. Extra studs called jamb studs are probably needed as per the manual to take the extra load from the lintel.

5. Concentrated loads on bottom plates (eg from jamb studs) need blocking between the floor joists if the joists run perpendicular to that wall. (These are not called noggins - they are in walls only)


Its al pretty straight forward, if you read the manual it would make the job so much easier for you.

Cheers and good luck
Pulse

Tell us the roof load width and I can look it up for you.

Blocks between joist ends makes sense, they are perpendicular to wall in question. The original bottom wall plate would have joined the ends at the top, so the blocks will do that now.

Jamb studs were part of my plan.

It is a tile roof. The room on the other side of the wall is the kitchen/ dining room at a 4.3 x 4.3m size. The next room is lounge at 4.3 x 4.3 also, so the middle of the roof has it's main two bearers down from the centre (toms?) 1.3m apart on the inner walls. There are intermediate braces coming down from the middle of each top rafter down to beams in the ceiling (chords?). Just a small 90sqm house.

Many thanks.

Is that enough information to calculate the roof load width?

Peter, sorry I'm not qualified to work it out for you. It's actually not that straight forward to calculate, especially as it's not a trussed roof. The framing manual has a number of different diagrams and formulas to work it out for different situations but I suspect your's might be a bit out of the ordinary owing to the extension. It might be worth getting an engineer over to look at it for you.

OK. I was able to get in contact with the right info, and was told a 190 x 45 F17 lintel would be sufficient for the 2230 span. I asked if a 240 x 45 would be ok, and was told that if I wanted to go bigger, no probs, and can only be of benefit not hindrance as the walls are 2.7, so plenty of timber above the checking in for the lintel.

I fitted the lintel with coach screws, and I used a spade bit to recess the holes for the heads. Overkill, but I am always preferring to make sure.

I also removed the old window and replaced it with a smaller laundery one.