Do I Need an Engineer if my Windows Don’t Stack
I’m designing my first two-story house, and I’m encountering questions one doesn’t need to consider with a one story!
Several windows on my second story don’t stack above the windows on the first story. I’ve attached a picture of one example. The direct downward path from the top story window runs into the header of the window on the first story. I do not want to move the windows in line with each other.
The house is 2×6 stick frame, 24″ oc with a truss roof. This is a load bearing wall. The second story is supported by I-joists terminating at rim board.
Am I overthinking this? Do the tables in the IRC still apply? Or should the second story window’s header extend beyond the window so there is solid wall beneath? Or do I just need to hire an engineer?
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Shouldn't matter
but its funny looking.......
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Not trying to be mean, but the eye doesn't like irregularity unless it is on purpose.IE uber modern style. Having a window slightly out of line seems accidental. Sometimes you change the exterior appearance to make it match what you want to do on the inside
Keith,
Your comment made me think of this project. Once the design was finalized, the builder and customer decided to make some changes as they went along. They liked the look of the cedar siding installed on the main floor so much they continued it up onto the second. But more dispiriting were the changes to the window sizes and locations.
I don't buy the idea that houses have any throw-away elevations. The back and sides matter too. Design is a dance between competing demands. It isn't complete until they are reconciled, rather than having one supersede the other.
My back is not a throw-away elevation. The off-center window doesn't bother me because I know it makes for the perfect amount of wall space in the bedroom. So I'm fine with it. If it bothers you, don't design your house that way! And if living in a neighborhood where you might see a house like that causes you to shiver, make sure you have an HOA with an ACC that is the purpose of the people running its life. There are plenty of places for everyone to live that we can all choose what works best for us.
Zoe,
My comment was more musing on the general topic than an attack on your design, but yes the drawing you posted is a throw away elevation. Pointing that out has very little to do with telling people how to live, and a lot to do with believing there is a several thousand year old discipline called architecture which if you devote time to studying it will improve not only the design of your house, but the collective communities we live in. I would have made the same type of comment if you had posted a picture of some bread you had baked that obviously didn't rise or was burned. It isn't an attack on personal liberty.
Getting back to your original question: For small openings like the ones you show, where there are no point-loads on the lintels, you are generally safe assuming that the vertical loads are distributed by the floor system. For larger ones you need to carry those loads continuously down to the foundation, including blocking under the posts at the floors. Your hipped roof may have a girder-truss falling over one of the the upper floor windows, putting it in the second category.
Ha! Yes, it IS funny looking. But it's the back of the house. I can't move the downstairs window because there's a corner fireplace there, and I can't move the upstairs because it's a bedroom and I want the window far enough over to allow a nice wall expanse for the bed. I made a deal with myself that I'd make the front of the house have a nice symmetrical elevation, and the rest of the house I'd put the windows where they'd be most useful from the inside. After all, I spend a lot more time looking at the inside of my house than I do the backside.
Thanks for your reply, I appreciate the help!
Switch the bedroom window to a door, add a juliet balcony and it will look more purposeful.
Q: "Am I overthinking this?" A: On one hand, yes, because the way you phrase your post suggests that you're familiar enough with design to know to ask structural questions, but not enough to know that this particular one is an extremely minor issue in the overall design process. It's NOT overthinking to worry about load paths. It is tremendously exciting to design a house, but get a builder or an architect or an engineer involved--hiring at least one of these professionals early will save you money AND more grief than you can possibly imagine right now.
I had none of those professionals involved with the design of any of the houses I've built, and I've always been so thrilled with what I ended up with that I wanted to do it again and again. But thanks!
Everyone should read Marianne Cusato's book "Get Your House Right" before being allowed to design or build a house. period. They should have a stack of this title at the building department and make you read it and pass a quiz before submitting your plans.
https://www.amazon.com/Get-Your-House-Right-Architectural/dp/1402791038
Ugh, I'd hate to live in a town where one person decides what is architecturally acceptable, and everyone has to take a quiz to prove they understand what that one person thinks before they're allowed to design their house.
Ugh, I'd hate to live in a town full of ugly buildings completely out of proportion, scale, and balance.
But seriously, the book is a guide to understanding why some things look nice, and other things look off. I'm sure you've looked at a house and thought it was really beautiful while another just wasn't. Why is that? Personal taste is part of it, but there is a relationship of sizes and patterns that is just more pleasing to the eye. This book helps you understand in very simple terms why that is with a hope that you can then apply it to your own design.
Zoe,
didn' t mean to derail your post with my commentary.
The way modern houses are designed, the windows don't really matter. The 2nd floor deck spreads the load out, then there is a header on the window downstairs that transfers the load.
Structurally it is a nothing unless, I think you get really huge windows
I would suggest getting not so much an architect as a designer.
My last house I would have built a warehouse. The zoning changed and I got a designer to look at it and he came up with a gorgeous design that hid the height of the building with rooflines, and while I played with the floorplan, he was a godsend
What I am saying is that you can have it all
What seismic zone, wind zone and snow load is the building site? How deep is the floor system?
I think if you move the right[in the view] upstairs window so that it was the same distance from the right wall as the left upstairs window is from the left wall, it would make visual sense. With the downstairs center window, well, centered, it looks like an added window downstairs rather than just a bunch of random placements
If appears to be a bathroom window since it is shorter, so rearranging a bath is less impactful.