Under Stair Support
Hi Everyone, We purchased a house a few months ago where the previous owner finished the back portion of the garage and added a staircase up to the 2nd floor (the main living floor - it's a 3 story townhome) in what used to be a closet. All of that work was done in the late 90's or early 2000's and was unpermitted. The stair case is narrow and definitely not to code, though admittedly it's extremely useful. We are gutting the garage and removing the partition walls that they installed (but keeping the stairs) so we can use the garage as an actual garage. I assumed none of the walls are load bearing because they were installed after the house was built and previous photos show a clear run down the length of the garage, but the wall under where the stairs to the second floor finish it looks like the stair stringers are resting on the old 2x4 demising wall. It's odd because there are 2x10 floor joists next to the stringers but it doesn't look like the stringers are connected to the joists in any way. Wanted to pulse the group to see what my options are here. I left the wall for now but would like to remove it to free up space. Could I securely attach to the joist (either directly or via blocking if they don't directly touch)? Or remove the existing 2x4 wall and replace it with a joist with two columns? Ultimately this only holds up the staircase, so it is not a huge load. https://imgur.com/a/qnecC4W Thanks for the advice! submitted by /u/Rumsys [link] [comments]
Hi Everyone,
We purchased a house a few months ago where the previous owner finished the back portion of the garage and added a staircase up to the 2nd floor (the main living floor - it's a 3 story townhome) in what used to be a closet. All of that work was done in the late 90's or early 2000's and was unpermitted. The stair case is narrow and definitely not to code, though admittedly it's extremely useful.
We are gutting the garage and removing the partition walls that they installed (but keeping the stairs) so we can use the garage as an actual garage. I assumed none of the walls are load bearing because they were installed after the house was built and previous photos show a clear run down the length of the garage, but the wall under where the stairs to the second floor finish it looks like the stair stringers are resting on the old 2x4 demising wall. It's odd because there are 2x10 floor joists next to the stringers but it doesn't look like the stringers are connected to the joists in any way.
Wanted to pulse the group to see what my options are here. I left the wall for now but would like to remove it to free up space. Could I securely attach to the joist (either directly or via blocking if they don't directly touch)? Or remove the existing 2x4 wall and replace it with a joist with two columns? Ultimately this only holds up the staircase, so it is not a huge load.
Thanks for the advice!
[link] [comments]
