Notching a Header

[Matthew Jardine]

Good afternoon ladies and gents. 

I am writing a report for a new build I inspected this afternoon and ran into a header that I am assuming (yes I know what they say about assuming) was notched to fit in a sliding glass door.  I am drawing a complete blank on coming up with reasoning why they shouldn't have done this.  I don't recall a code cite for headers offhand and I'm having issues finding much information online. 

I can't recall seeing a header notched before. Plenty of joists, beams and the like. At the worst they've poorly notched out approximately 2" from the doubled 2x8's.

Other than being a hack job can you learned gentlemen steer me in the right direction?  

[Marc]

It looks like a wide header. Goes all the way from opening to top plates. Unless the opening is more than 4' wide, and there is no more than one story above it, I wouldn't make a fuss over it.

When I framed houses, we'd put the smallest header that was required, with the height of the opening a little higher, perhaps 3/4 inch, just to insure that we had plenty of room for whatever component as going to end up there. If it turned out to be too high, it's easy for the door guy to 'build it down' to whatever he wants.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Marc

[Matthew Jardine]

Appreciate the info Marc. It was wider than 4' as it was above the sliding glass doors but there's just a single story above

 

[Jim Katen]

A header is a beam, so 502.8.1 for all the limitations. 

If this is a pre-drywall inspection, why not just look at the plans? I doubt that they specify that particular detail. 

 

[Matthew Jardine]

Jim, 

Not a pre-drywall inspection just a regular inspection on a brand new home. And thank you for the reminder that a header suffers the same limitations as beams do. I was overthink things as I do on occasion. 

 

Appreciate the help you guys

[Jim Katen]

14 hours ago, Matthew Jardine said:

Not a pre-drywall inspection just a regular inspection on a brand new home.

Is this an unfinished basement then? In my area, a builder would never leave framing exposed like that - the home inspector could see way too much. 

[Matthew Jardine]

Jim, 

This is common in my area. Builders do the absolute minimum they can. It makes our job easier since we can see everything. Like the joist the plumber cut and the joists that didn't have enough bearing on the joist ends...