Garage Tilting
- Thread starter biddlecom
- Start date
Help Support House Repair Talk:
I cant remember but maybe a few inches. now its bending the awning.
The perspective of right and left, is viewed from the outside looking at the door in pictures 3&4.
You can either install the cleat or the angle brace on the left side to hold the garage away from its intersection with the house porch awning, as a simple method of reducing the possibility of damage.
If you feel more reassured by installing an "X" brace at the back entrance, that go ahead. Part of the reason that the deflection is less apparent at that end, is the length of the wall opposing and the shear value developed by that length.
Which is absent at the door end pictured.
One of the most common and often employed methods of "racking" a building or framing is to use a diagonally place 2x, in this case, from bottom left too upper right. The upper is placed near the top of a stud and pulled down. You may need 2 or 3 and adjust them as necessary, to achieve the separation of the garage roof and the porch awning.
When you have achieved separation install a 2x cleat to the garage and install your angle braces, BEFORE removing your racking devices.
nealtw
Contractor retired
In general I can find information both ways in favor of nails and in favor of screws. Most of the buildings in the world were built with nails and code is all based around nails and nail spacing for the most part. Inspectors will sometimes not pass screws without a report saying they are adequate.
Basically comparing similar size nails and screws the nails are about 20% to 30% better in shear where on pullout the screws are close to twice as good. in many cases nails will bend better than screws so if a nail starts to fail it will be visible where a screw could go suddenly.
I would go with what code requires unless I wasnt getting code involved.
For me a tight joint that wont promote movement is better than one that with time has movement. Once there is any movement in a joint there is a gap and a gap provides leverage and increases forces. I like screws and the reason I like them is having torn down as many things as I have built I can say without a doubt screws dont want to let go without a fight. The only real way to take a screwed joint apart is with unscrewing the screws. Nails you can always Jimmy apart.
In my case Im always accused of using way too many screws. So if a joint I was building called for 4 nails I would most likely be putting in 6 screws.
My free standing deck with the hot tub on it I screwed all together. It is free to move with the frost and after a couple winters is still real tight when it moves back in the spring. With nails I think I would have had more problems.
There is testing that goes both ways and even more people advertising that they build with screws as if it were better I think its a personal choice for the most part. I know your buddy Mike Holmes is also big on screws.
We square up walls on the floor and sheet them, so they shoulod stand up nice and plumb, key word there is should sometimes with humps and bumps in the floor anything is possible. Long walls genelally find an average and will sit plumb but short walls that are like 4 or 5 feet long, you can easiily move top over 3/4 inch out of square to get plumb. All that pushing is hard on the nails and I have not tried screws, but if you ever have just try to bend a screw over it will break at the first hit so I wouldn't trust it.
nealtw
Contractor retired
So you have jammed your 2x4 lower on the appossing wall , what if you can't trust that wall to not move, as we don't know how firm the foundation post is..
That is why I said to join the two walls with a 2x4 before stressing anything.
But you are right about the method, but you don't just pull it down on the high end. You go to the center and push it down for all your worth and have a friend nail the high side in place. Now just pull the 2x4 up to straight and you have likely moved everything an inch or most of an inch.
I still would not trust the door way to take that stress so I would nail a 2x4 to the bottom plate and lay out across the garage on the floor and nail that cross brace to the other end to that one. So the temp fix is much the same as the perminant fix. The door would only have to be removed to install the plywood which will hold it in place.
Thats a good point.
When I rack a building, it is a leveraged, careful, slow, deliberate look and listen process and in this instance the object is only to achieve sufficient separation to clear the roof away from the porch awning, and if need be I'll attach a full length 2x on the face of the studs I'm racking against, if the conditions dictate.
Last edited:
nealtw
Contractor retired
For replacing the roof, I would want to use the roof for stablity for fixing the walls.
First you strighten it up to reasonable ans stabilize the front and back wall.
Cross brace the crap out it and with a temp wall lift one side a few inches,
Repair the foundation as required and replace the bottom beams and set it back down, straighten the bottom of the wall and bolt it down.
Move the temp wall to the other side and do the same for the foundation and bottom beams and drop it down, straighten the bottom and bolt it down. Now with the cross bracing still there remove the roof, straighten the top of both walls replace the roof with engineered trusses
Just wanted to throw out an idea to the group here. What if the repair was done pole barn style. Jack the corner or side up and support with poles or an inner temp wall. The bottom plate is shot most likely so dig some holes 4’ deep and drop some PT 6x6 poles in the wall under the top plate. Something could then be done with a band board running around the bottom to catch the studs.
Neal as to screws. The black cheap screws are quite hard and brittle and will snap if you bend them over. The green guard dog screws are just tough but would be pretty hard to break they will bend. Now if you clinched them like you do a nail I think they would break but by the time anything gets bent that far you have more troubles than the fastener.
Using a poll jack at the same angle as the eventual braces will primarily have the affect of lifting the wall off the foundation, because of the angel presented.
Using 2x on the inside of the garage will better address correcting the angular displacement.
The following is another method I've used, however it has the potential of causing interior cracking in the dwelling.
I would first install the 2x cleats on both the dwelling and the garage, to spread the load over several stud bays.
Then use a small hydraulic jack and a short length of 4x4, horizontally.
What about a comealong?
The use of a come-along would need to anchored outside of the bottom of the right wall, and I would employ more than a single device.
The anchoring could be accomplished by attaching to a length of 4x4 even with the right wall sil, so that you are pulling against a wider area of wall, increasing the effectiveness.
However you proceed, keep in mind the eventual reuse of materials purchased, eliminating waste.
Okay, so this is my plan for before winter.
Put 10-36” rebar on the right side of the building to keep the wall from moving further out. Then I will attach a come along to the upper left wall and to the bottom right wall. I will pull it just enough to get the garage off the awning. At that point I will attach the bracing to the left wall foundation of my house and the left wall eve of the garage. Then I will release the come along and then do bracing on the back garage door.
I think that is simple enough for me to do myself and enough to hold it so it doesnt get worse over winter.
Put 10-36” rebar on the right side of the building to keep the wall from moving further out. Then I will attach a come along to the upper left wall and to the bottom right wall. I will pull it just enough to get the garage off the awning. At that point I will attach the bracing to the left wall foundation of my house and the left wall eve of the garage. Then I will release the come along and then do bracing on the back garage door.
I think that is simple enough for me to do myself and enough to hold it so it doesnt get worse over winter.
From the pictures of the roof it appears that the left wall of the garage is a gable end and would suggest that the braces installed there end at a cleat at the wall top plate which will result in a sharper and more effective resistance, than at the gable end eves.
Also, and as an after thought, when you gradually release the come-along/s, there will be some level of rebounding, so I would install the cleats and braces I had originally suggested, since the angle bracing will mitigate the potential for any affects to the dwelling.
Last edited:
slownsteady
Well-Known Member
Please post some pics of the fix. How far did you have to move things?
Okay the garage held up during the winter and now its time to figure out what to do next. I apologize for not sending picks, there was just not much to show.
So, the reason the garage is failing is because the front left sonotube has failed. That corner has gone out of place which has caused the garage to tilt and the roof to bow down. So I will be taking the truss/roof completely down and replacing it. I would like to jack the building up and fix the sonotubes that need it and maybe have a couple more if need be. First question is how do you jack the building up. Its about 14 feet wide and 32ish feet long. Second question is how would i realign the walls? Would i use come-alongs. Third question is should I realign with the roof on or take the roof off first and then realign? I would think it would be a lot easier with the roof off.
So, the reason the garage is failing is because the front left sonotube has failed. That corner has gone out of place which has caused the garage to tilt and the roof to bow down. So I will be taking the truss/roof completely down and replacing it. I would like to jack the building up and fix the sonotubes that need it and maybe have a couple more if need be. First question is how do you jack the building up. Its about 14 feet wide and 32ish feet long. Second question is how would i realign the walls? Would i use come-alongs. Third question is should I realign with the roof on or take the roof off first and then realign? I would think it would be a lot easier with the roof off.
