carpentryframingwindows
I'm redoing a kitchen but I've hired a contractor to do a portion of the work. One of the jobs he was hired to do was to move and reframe two windows. He finished that job today and I'm really concerned that it wasn't done correctly.
I called him on it and his argument was that in old construction with native lumber the headers are so strong that you don't need the typical double header, jack stud, king stud. He basically claims there's no load here.
What do you all think?
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No, no and again NO. Not the way you suggest it, anyway.
This is an exterior wall. It is therefore a load bearing wall. Those two 2x4s (called jack studs) support the header over the window.
The weight of the rest of the house above the window is protected by the header, which in turn transfers the force to the two jack studs (as in they jack up the house) carry that weight to the underlying structure. If you remove one of the jack studs, too much force may be transferred to the other one, causing it to bow or even possibly fail. Either scenario translates to having weight of the wall above the house coming to rest on the window itself - and that is a BAD THING (TM).
If you wish to restructure for a larger opening properly, you must open the wall up further and relocate the king and jack studs, and install a longer (and possibly wider) header as well. Otherwise you can cause many tens of thousands of dollars of damage to your house.
Do not fiddle lightly with structure.
I called an engineer and paid for his evaluation of the wall. It's not load bearing. Realized that I left out some basics about the house.
This house is built on a raised foundation with cripple walls attaching the floor joists to the foundation. The metal post is attached to the fireplace foundation (which is independent of the houses foundation). There is no foundation (just 3 feet of empty air) underneath the wall I want to remove. The header is just oddly sized.
The header does not connect to the beam.
From a sheer wall perspective he was not too concerned, given that the total amount of wall I want to remove is pretty minimal compared to the rest of the house.
Best Answer
The wall seems to have 'full dimension' studs and the markings of old lath and plaster. I don't see plywood sheathing on the exterior walls. All in all I'm guessing that your house was built prior to WWII and is either 'post and beam' or 'balloon frame' construction, both of which are radically different in terms of structure and loads from modern techniques.
Here are wikipedia links for those techniques:
Can you post some photos that show the original framing for the original windows? I'm guessing the original construction did not include headers above the windows. Also I do not see any indication that jack studs were used in the original construction.
If your house is post and beam, then I don't think there are any significant structural issues.
If your house is balloon framed, this is how I would 'fix' it, with the jacks (red) and cripples (black) going through the floor to bear on what ever the existing old studs bear upon. The header (green) consists of two 2x10s sandwiching two rippings of 1/2" plywood (or whatever).
Based on the current state, achieving this is rather quick and simple. It does not require starting from scratch: the window and existing new 2xs do not need to be removed.