Headers, jambs and cripples sized for the span

Every opening gets full-height jamb posts, a header sized by its clear span, cripples above it and a window sill — all drawn and all on the order.

What it is

The real post-frame door and window package: full-height jamb posts each side of the rough opening running grade to eave (doubled into a laminated column past a 9ft span), a header from a span band (2x8 single, 2x10 two-ply, 2x12 two-ply, then LVL), cripples above the header on 2ft centres bearing on it, and a 2x6 sill under windows.

Also called: header sizing · jamb posts · cripple studs · rough opening · door framing

See it
Headers, jambs and cripples sized for the span
Prepared for
Sutter Kline
1140 Ridge Line Rd · Fair Play
Shell package$31,285
Concrete & site$9,083
Doors & windows$6,055
Trim & finish$4,037
Total
$50,460
Signature
Frame view around a 14x12 overhead door: doubled jamb posts, a two-ply 2x12 header, cripples above it, girt rows terminating at the jamb faces. Sample data — no customer information appears here.
How it works
  1. 1roughOpening() adds a per-type framing pad around the unit; overhead doors are called out AT their RO by convention, walk doors and windows get a pad.
  2. 2headerBandFor(span) picks the depth, ply count and nominal; plies stack through the wall and bear fully on the jambs.
  3. 3Jamb posts never run up the gable — a 6x6 does not exist at 50ft — so they stop at the eave and cripples carry to the roofline.
  4. 4Girt rows crossing an opening are interrupted at the jamb-post faces, so girts never run through a doorway.
  5. 5The takeoff splits jamb posts out from grid posts, notes how many are laminated two-ply, and groups headers by nominal with LVL flagged as special order.
Why we built it

Headers and jamb posts are the two items most likely to be missing from a material order and the two most expensive to be short of, because they are what a grid post turns into when an opening removes it. A post falling inside an opening is dropped and its load is carried by the header into the jambs, and that whole package is modelled and counted. The load path is visible on the drawing and paid for on the order.

The problem
  • Header sizing guessed per opening.
  • Jamb posts and cripples omitted from the order.
  • Girt runs drawn through openings.
Sound familiar?
What you get
Header size follows the span automatically and LVL is flagged as special order.
Every jamb, cripple and sill is counted.
Girt cuts are per-bay real lengths that stop at the jambs.

See it on your own jobs

Twenty minutes, your numbers, no slide deck. We’ll build one of your real buildings in front of you and send you the estimate link at the end — yours to keep either way.

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