Help with converting two garage doors into one

[glassman]

A few things.

a standard two car garage door is 16 x 7. Going wider is doable, just remember that all the materials for the engineering on these garage doors are based around 16', going wider means more weight, more stress on the hardware and materials. Tread lightly, use trusted and old companies for the manufacture.

Using an engineered beam or steel is the only way too go across the head. It's super easy, and reasonable, for an structural engineer to do, which then makes the permitting and installing (spec) a piece of cake.

Hope this helps, mike

[redfire69]

I would open the wall to check to see if that section is load bearing. It may not be, as most garages are built with the beam extending all the way across both openings. That way if a car jumps into gear or some kind of accident happens where someone drives into that small section, the entire house wouldn't come down.

[raustinss]

It will still be load bearing for that wall itself , walls and roof above , snow loads, wind loads etc etc

[shelteredV]

That stem wall above is bearing right through that center column. I would talk to my PE about two ways of picking up the loads-

First would be doing an I beam straight across the opening and picking up the loads on 2 heavy wall columns on the right and left corners.

The other way would be to possibly do a steel flush "T" beam arrangement running back through the garage after picking up the front load. This way you could share the load across the area without loosing headroom.

Of coarse this is total speculation without being there and doing an exploratory on it. I do high end residential work in a very niche market and get challenged by this type of scenario alot. There is a couple of options for you, but get a good structural guy there to do the calcs for you, cause there is definitely some weight there. And I don't know your local codes, but I would say it would surely need permitting!

[clill]

Another word of caution is if you do it without a permit and something bad happens, your insurance co will hang their hat on the "No permit".

[jcal87]

It is definitely load bearing. I cut into the sheet rock and its load bearing and separated by two headers. Got a few quotes to take out the pillar. A couple wanted to use lam board and another a steel I beam. I am sure both would work, however the I beam seams more sturdy.

I am actually going to hold off on this project as the car is having to have the engine rebuilt and that whole process is probably going to cost me quite a bit.

[shelteredV]

If someone tells you they would bear that load with LVL instead of steel, please don't hire them.