Replace Pillar with Gallows Bracket for Garage Roof?

[gjames]

Hi,

I have an L shaped canopy roof which covers my front door and garage door.
At one end is a gallows bracket, and the other has a pillar which the downpipe runs down removed in photo.

My question is whether there is any reason I cannot replaced the pillar for a gallows do declutter and free up some space?

The pillar goes straight through the soffit and directly supports a purlin inside the roof. There is also another beam at the apex of the garage supported by the brickwork at either end (the actual garage roof behind is a flat roof).



Thanks in advance.

 

[blup]

The pillar looks to be supporting the ridge so what would removing it achieve?

Blup

 

[gjames]

It is supporting it, I'm not looking to remove the support, my question is whether a gallows bracket could provide the necessary support.
Removing the pillar allows me to back the car in far enough to get another on the driveway.

If it's best left as it is then that's what I'll do, but wanted to see what people's throughts are. Especially given that a gallows bracket is already used at the other end.

 

[noseall]

It is supporting it, I'm not looking to remove the support, my question is whether a gallows bracket could provide the necessary support.
Removing the pillar allows me to back the car in far enough to get another on the driveway.

If it's best left as it is then that's what I'll do, but wanted to see what people's throughts are. Especially given that a gallows bracket is already used at the other end.

If you can pick up the load ok with the gallows and get a decent fixing then yes. It’s the top fixing of the gallows that’s always the awkward one

 

[gjames]

Getting a fixing should be pretty easy, it's ope from the inside and you can see the pillar supporting the purlin as shown.


To me it seems a gallows would be able to take the load, especially since there is already one in place at the other end. There is just part of me that wonders why it wasn't done like this in the first place and should I be messing with it!

 

[bernardgreen]

The weight of the purlin resting on the brick column does not create any horizonal force on the pillar.

The weight of the purlin resting on a gallows bracket will exert a vertical force on the gallows bracket which will try to rotate thus exerting horizontal forces on the wall.

Is your wall strong enough to take those horizontal forces. ?

 

[noseall]

The weight of the purlin resting on the brick column does not create any horizonal force on the pillar.

The weight of the purlin resting on a gallows bracket will exert a vertical force on the gallows bracket which will try to rotate thus exerting horizontal forces on the wall.

View attachment 264715
Is your wall strong enough to take those horizontal forces. ?

Some of the downforce can be mitigated with clever use of ply or cantelevering.

 

[JohnD]

I remember seeing a case on here, with photos, of a row of newish houses that had cantilevered carport canopies.

After a heavy snowfall they all broke off, ripping out the outer skin of brickwork from the sides of the houses.

I built mine with legs, artfully spaced so not in the way of opening car doors.

 

[gjames]

The weight of the purlin resting on the brick column does not create any horizonal force on the pillar.

The weight of the purlin resting on a gallows bracket will exert a vertical force on the gallows bracket which will try to rotate thus exerting horizontal forces on the wall.

View attachment 264715
Is your wall strong enough to take those horizontal forces. ?

Yes that makes sense, that I guess that I am unsure of. The gallows would be fixed to the side wall of the garage, which aside from pillars at the front rear and centre is otherwise a single skin of brick.

The point about allowing for snow loading is a good one. Perhaps there is a gallows on the one end is because it has the house to support it, whereas the other end only has the single skin wall?

 

[JohnD]

Fixing a gallows bracket to a garage wall that is only about 2m high will have less stabilising deadweight on it, than a house wall that might be 10m high.

 

[gjames]

Thanks for the help on this one, I've decided to leave it alone for now I think!