door piers

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duraduk
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:12 pm

door piers

Post by duraduk » Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:20 pm

Are the block piers at the door edges necessary? I noticed in Marks book he said they weren't unless required for the warranty on the home. Just want to confirm.

David Oxhandler
Posts: 1459
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:37 am

door piers

Post by David Oxhandler » Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:07 pm

Some builders set up directions do call for piers under the door openings. We have always put piers under every exterior door, even if not required.

Any place you have an opening in a wall there is less structural support and a greater likelihood of racking than if the wall was continuous. Placing piers under each side of that opening gives you 2 benefits:

First you are offering greater support, locally for the roof load.

Second; You will have less problems keeping that exterior door operational.

Over time ALL framed structures will settle. As they settle the framing becomes out of level and out of square. The more the framing around your door gets out of square the more difficult it will get to open and close the door. With a pier installed, with wedge shims on top of the blocks, supporting each side of the door opening, you can easily re-square the doorway, with just a short level and hammer.

The level will tell you which side of the doorway is lower. You then use the hammer to tap the shims on top of the low-side pier, raising the low side and re-squaring the doorway.

It may take six months or sixteen years before your doorways get out of square, depending on the soil compaction under your home. When it happens you will be very happy you took the time and relatively small expense of adding doorway piers.

There is no down side, that I am aware of.
David Oxhandler
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trmimo
Posts: 202
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:54 am

Re: door piers

Post by trmimo » Fri Feb 25, 2011 7:22 am

They are necessary in most cases. If in doubt, do it. More support is a good thing. Many in the industry have resisted door piers, because there is a cost involved. But as a homeowner, there is no such thing as too many piers. As David said, they maintain door operation and also every perimeter pier helps to increase the stiffness of your floors.

duraduk
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2011 12:12 pm

Re: door piers

Post by duraduk » Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:59 am

Sounds good.....I will tighten up and leave 'em be. Thanks

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