Stair problems from garage floor to attic????

[mojo6t5]

Hi,

Lets see if I can explain this so as to not confuse anyone.

I have a garage with a 2nd floor setup with attic trusses to have a storage area above the garage.

Garage is 36' across the front and 28' deep. The client wants a set of stairs to go from the garage floor to the second floor and wants the stairs to be on the left wall starting from the front of the garage and going up towards the rear of the garage.

When I create the stairs and than click on automatic stairwell to complete the stairs, Chief X2 does a great job at creating the opening in the floor but really screws up my exterior wall framing.

What happens is the double top cap at the top of the 28' exterior wall is broken where the stair well is created and the wall studs at that area will extend from the garage floor to the top chords of the gable wall.

My questions are:
Why does Chief break up the exterior wall having the stairs against the wall and using the stairwell tool to make the opening?

Am I missing a setting somewhere to tell Chief not to rebuild the exterior wall?

Is there a way to do it so the stairs and the stairwell tool can be used without rebuilding my exterior wall to as mentioned previously?

Thanks for your help,
Mark

[dshall]

Hi,

Lets see if I can explain this so as to not confuse anyone.

I have a garage with a 2nd floor setup with attic trusses to have a storage area above the garage.

Garage is 36' across the front and 28' deep. The client wants a set of stairs to go from the garage floor to the second floor and wants the stairs to be on the left wall starting from the front of the garage and going up towards the rear of the garage.

When I create the stairs and than click on automatic stairwell to complete the stairs, Chief X2 does a great job at creating the opening in the floor but really screws up my exterior wall framing.

What happens is the double top cap at the top of the 28' exterior wall is broken where the stair well is created and the wall studs at that area will extend from the garage floor to the top chords of the gable wall.

My questions are:
Why does Chief break up the exterior wall having the stairs against the wall and using the stairwell tool to make the opening?

Am I missing a setting somewhere to tell Chief not to rebuild the exterior wall?

Is there a way to do it so the stairs and the stairwell tool can be used without rebuilding my exterior wall to as mentioned previously?

Thanks for your help,
Mark

Make sure you have a second floor level

[Gene Davis]

He does not want the balloon framing adjacent the stairs, if I am reading his post correctly. His prob is that Chief does that for him when it has an open below shaft adjoining an exterior wall. Many framers would rim across there and build the above wall when doing the rest of the second.

Framers ink it is "easier" that way. And they are not paying for the lumber.

[dshall]

He does not want the balloon framing adjacent the stairs, if I am reading his post correctly. His prob is that Chief does that for him when it has an open below shaft adjoining an exterior wall. Many framers would rim across there and build the above wall when doing the rest of the second.

Framers ink it is "easier" that way. And they are not paying for the lumber.

Change the open below at stairs to a dining room, then reframe walls, then select those side walls, open dbx and designate as RETAIN WALL FRAMING, then redesignate the stairwell as open below, rebuild floor and walls, you will no have no f.j. at stairwell, the walls will be framed as 2 separate walls, however you will need to drag a rim joist under those two walls, or better yet, frame a joist outside of building and the relocate under those walls, this way when floor auto builds again you will still have rim in place.

[Gene Davis]

Note to Mark about this: the balloon framing here is good in a few ways. Less lumber, better insulating. What is gained by putting a rim and plates across that opening?

The tall wall can be built and stood up separately from the shorter walls that flank it. One would want doubled wall studs at these junctions anyway, because of the stairwell opening headers framing into the rim ends there.

Good luck with the project.

[mojo6t5]

Thanks for the replies and suggestion.

I am pretty sure, per ordinance, I am not allowed to use balloon framing.

I do want to keep western framing as my design.

Here is my design so you can what I am talking about. In this picture I just did my own framing around the stairwell instead of having Chief do it. I think it came out great.

Thanks for the help,

If anyone comes up with a way to have Chief do what I want, please post it because manual framing blows. The auto build of Chief architect is one of the reasons I got away from AutoCAD. Got tired of constantly manual framing a whole project.

Mark

[Gene Davis]

Balloon it if you want. Per code, one will fire block as required, and proper staircase framing will call for some, anyhow.

Furthermore, none of the builders or framers hereabouts expect or get prints that show them how to frame walls, except for where to post with clusters, and that is shown on floor plans, structural.