Garage Door Header Construction

Layout the bottom plate and one of the top plates at 16 on center.

Garage door header construction.

You get the picture. That means you will place wall studs every 16 inches. For instance if the width of the garage door is 8ft the rough opening should be 8ft 3 inches wide. Last pull a measurement from the top of the 2 x 6 piece of lumber that you just installed to the ceiling of the garage.

This is a typical spacing for most residential construction. The procedure for constructing a header for 6 inch exterior wall framing can be modified for any wall thickness. Header the header is ideally a minimum 12 wide micro laminated beam that spans the width of the garage door opening. The width of the rough opening should be 3 inches greater than the width of the garage door you are purchasing.

Attach lumber to the face of the garage wall to the edge of the garage door header. Building a structural header for a garage door opening can be handled on the jobsite and will offer the same structural support as more expensive solid wood beams. Local and national building codes have specific structural requirements pertaining to beam sizes to span specific wall openings relative to the wall loads so consult your local building department before beginning this. Big headers for big openings garage doors and other large openings require headers too beefy to be made from standard lumber.

Cut a 2 x 6 piece of lumber and nail to the face of wall exactly in the center of the garage header. If it s 9ft the opening must be 9ft 3 inches and so on. These fabricated wood products can span longer distances and carry greater loads. On previous projects i have been supplied a glu lam boise makes specifically for garage door headers that was 3 1 2 x 11 1 4 x 18 9.

This beam is suitable for garages with a second floor above. Header requirement 2 at minimum the header should be 12 wide with doubled 2 4 at opening and ceiling running the width of the door with a 2 4 in the center of the opening for the center bracket to attach to.