Door Headers for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCCXXXV

Header framing terminology

Early on, the freelancers who plied their trade at content farms such as eHow.com and WiseGEEK.com (and the many others that left a stain on the internet's collective knowledge) found that by grabbing a slew of closely-related topics they could leverage their "research" into more bucks in a shorter time. Good for the, not so good for us if their accuracy was suspect... as it so often was. One such freelancer who picked (at least) two niches at wiseGEEK is S. E. Smith, later known as Mary McMahon. Mary's grasp of her chosen topics, however, has won her a shelf full of DotD awards; two of which are for framing carpentry. Mary's herein receiving a third nomination in the category, for the AboutMechanics.com post "What is a Door Header?"

McMahon has already been tapped for posts related to framing an opening, one purporting to explain king studs and the other and attempt to define a trimmer. This time, though, she shared her misunderstanding of the central feature of framing an opening for a window or door, the header.

McMahon managed to pass along critical information about framing openings in her introduction:

"...doors and windows are points of structural weakness, because studs must be omitted or moved to accommodate the opening."

Well, yeah: What Mary doesn't seem to understand is that the header's purpose is to bridge the gap and transmit the structural load to supporting framing. Mary's misunderstanding of the mechanics is obvious from one of her first sentences:

"Classically, a door header is about twice as thick as the surrounding framing, and it is supported by the king studs..."

We say "misunderstanding" because of Mary's nonsensical claim about header thickness and her erroneous statement that headers are supported by king studs. They're not; they're supported by jack studs. McMahon ignorance continues throughout the post in such statements as,

"Many building codes have specific regulations about how doors should be framed." 

No, Mary, all building codes have regulations, but they're not about "how doors should be framed; they are about the dimensions and construction of a header.

"...the door header bridges the top of the door, supported by the king studs..." 

She's claimed that before, but in fact a header rests on one or more pair of jack studs.

"Some door headers are solid beams which have been chosen for their thickness, while others are made by attaching several pieces of lumber."

We don't even know what this "attaching several pieces of lumber" is supposed to mean.

McMahon said nothing useful about sizing headers, an art that depends on numerous variables including the width of the opening, the live and dead load the framing must support, and the species of lumber. That omission alone is enough to qualify her as Dumbass of the Day (again), but the misinformation and misstatements included in her post reach the level of dangerous stupidity. Feh.

DDIY - FRAMING