Two-Story Garage Header

[Chris]

I am building a 22x32 attached garage where the attic trusses clearspan 32 feet with a 8.4/12 pitch to allow for additional bedroom above garage. The garage door will be in the load bearing end. What options are there for headers that will support the entire weight of a second floor such as this? I planned on using a standard 9x7 garage door since the 22 foot width isn't really a two car garage... but if it were safe to go with a 16 foot garage door I wouldn't mind the room for backing in and out. And, how narrow a side wall can I go? I've seen several 16-24 inch side walls in single story garages.

The blockwork is being done by someone else in the next couple days so I've got to get it figured out for the top row of block NOW.

[Rich]

A 5 1/4" x 18" TrusJoist Parallam will span 16'3" with a 40 lb Live Load and a 15 lb Dead Load from the Roof and a 40lb LL and 12lb DL from the floor with a Snow Load. This will require 3 trimmers under each end of the beam. This also requires the wall to be 2x6. These are pretty generic loading amounts so I would probably talk to a supplier of Parallam beams and have them size it for your local area.

[Chris]

Thankyou for the quick response on the 16 footer. At the height of the beam stated I would get a pretty short door. Maybe a 9footer will make more sense. I'll also be including a 9ft door on the backside (also load bearing the second floor).

[Rich]

You could pretty easily get a 9'3" opening with a 5 1/4" x 9 1/2" Parallam. With the same loading conditions. I guess you have 8' walls?

[Chris]

Yes, I will be having 8ft walls...higher would be nice but I am also trying to match the second floor height of the house. I will be able to enter the "attic" space from the existing upstairs hallway (which is along the exterior wall butting up against the new garage addition0. I am estimating matching the floor ht by using the dimension of the bottom chord of the trusses (2x10) plus single layer of 3/4 Sturdi-floor.