Replacing first floor exterior wall


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Old 08-14-06, 06:08 AM
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Replacing first floor exterior wall

I am in the middle of gutting a home my wife & I bought a few months back & have found that the rim joist along the entire front of the home is rotten, termite eaten, & hacked. This house is a balloon frame & the first floor joists run parallel to the rim joist & do not bear on it, but the second floor joists run perpendicular to it & are nailed to the studs that rest on this rim joist.

So, as I see it, my first floor is not transfering any load, but my second floor & roof are. I plan on reframing all the window & door locations along this wall anyway, so I think it might be easiest to tear out & just reframe the entire wall. I believe all I need to support is the second floor joists, as these are tied to the studs & will in turn support the roof framing. I think I'm going to support, demo, & reframe only 8'-0" sections at a time. Does this proceedure sound good? Last thing I want is for my house to fall down.

What should my pipe jacks bear on while I am supporting the second floor & roof? Can they bear on the first floor joists or should I cut a hole in the floor & take them all the way to the ground?

Any other advise would be greatly appreciated.

Dan
 
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Old 08-14-06, 06:34 AM
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Normally, I would think you could support the second floor from the first floor joists, using something like 6x6's top and bottom to spread out the load.

However, since your wall studs are termite damaged, I wouldn't be too sure that your floor joists are 100%. The load from temporarily supporting the second floor will fall mostly to the ends of the floor joists - right where the other termite damage occurred.

I would have a pro take a look at it first. You (he) might have to build a temporary wall in the basement to help support the first floor - especially if there is damage to the ends of the joists. I'm guessing that you might want to change to platform-style framing, for this repair, for the first floor - assuming the damage does not extend above the second floor joists (and require you to tear out the second floor wall).

Make sure your "pro" understands balloon framing.
 
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Old 08-14-06, 07:35 AM
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There is very minimal damage on the second floor. Hardly any at all. So that doens;t need to be replaced. I was definitely going to go platform framing for the first floor wall. No basement under the first floor, just a crawl space. which is only 3 feet or so under the flooring, so I'll just run the pipe jacks to the ground. I'm only going to be doing 8 foot sections of wall at a time so this should help with the load on the jacks.

Where can I get those pipe jacks? Home Depot? Lowe's? I assume.
 

Last edited by DIYaddict; 08-14-06 at 10:00 AM. Reason: Removed quote as it's unnecessary
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Old 08-14-06, 08:41 AM
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You might be able to rent them. I would still go with something like a 6x6 top and bottom, to evenly take the load and prevent the jacks from shifting/sinking in the ground.

Since the second floor is all still good, I would guess you will be cutting the wall studs flush with the bottom of the second floor joists, and leaving everything from there up intact. I would pre-build my stud wall, complete with double top plate, bottom plate, and subfloor (assuming your subfloor currently stops at the wall studs). Then, as you remove a section of the studs, you will have the wall ready to slide in. You could make it 1/4" short, then shim above the top plate with 1/4" plywood, to make installing it easier. Since the original was balloon framing, there may be some differences in height to the bottom of individual joists. This 1/4" gap will also allow you to gauge if you need to shim more/less for a particular joist. You want to support them at the same level they were originally.

When you place the jacks, make them snug, but don't raise either floor, you just want to support the load, not move things around.
 
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Old 08-14-06, 09:17 AM
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Yep, that's what I was going to do. Good to know I was on the right track! Only difference was I was going to nail a top plate to the ends of the studs I cut off, then only one top plate on the new wall, flop up the wall & nail the two plates together. Is this acceptable or do I still need two actual top plates on the new wall?
 
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Old 08-14-06, 08:01 PM
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Nailing one plate under the joists/studs should work fine. The shimming would then be done between the two plates.
 
 

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