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New Garage Adjacent to Existing Masonry Walls

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SinStrucEng

Structural
Nov 11, 2022
59
CA
Good evening folks.

I picked up a job assisting a homeowner rebuild a garage of theirs. The previous two-bay garage was built by the previous elderly homeowner who passed away. It was a complete mess hobbled together, and collapsed during a period of disrepair. My client, the new owner, has to rebuild the garage. The remains of the old will be removed and a new one - matching position, size and shape - will be built in its place. The new structure has to be a physical match in dimensions to the old, as any changes wont be considered grandfathered and new zoning by-laws prohibit something of this size.

My sole concern is that the previous garage had a ledger board fastened to the home's exterior brick wall using lags. The brick is strictly a veneer (single wythe). This ledger caught the rafters framing the roof. Elsewhere, the garage was typical (but poorly assembled obviously). What are the recommendations for this wall? The new garage has to abut the brick, but obviously I don't want to load the brick in ways it was not meant to be.

I have already reviewed the Simpson Strong-Tie BLVZ veneer ledger connectors, but they are not available or approved in Ontario, Canada. My other thought was to build a new stud wall tight to the brick, and have it be a bearing wall, but then I worry about how to keep it tight to the brick and how to ensure water doesn't get trapped in between (I know it will). The garage roof will be fairly flat (minor slope for drainage), angled towards the back (water running parallel to the brick wall) and covered with EPDM (or metal roofing).

Thoughts?

I guess the question boils down to - how do I fasten a ledger board to a brick veneer wall without special ledger connectors? And no, the rim board is not at the same elevation as the proposed ledger. I am leaning towards a separate stud wall built tight to the brick wall, then ensuring it's been flashed to hell and back to avoid leaks. It just seems so.... prone to failure.
 
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One method I have used successfully is to remove a few bricks every few feet, install a custom engineered bracket, and then mount the ledger to that. Sometimes you can use an existing product - look into some that are designed for houses with exterior insulation - but I went with a custom bracket due to the particular brick and air gap.
 
Can the odious ledger be abandoned if roof framing redesigned 90degs, maybe with center beam?
 
I would go with the separate bearing wall. The flashing should not be an issue, because I would imagine you are going to have to flash the connection of the garage roof to the main building anyway.
 
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