Extending loft hatch in trussed roof

[arunman]

Hi. I have just bought a house and need to extend the loft hatch so I can get some of my stuff up there. I''ve been looking on here how to extend and cant find any post on how to do it. its a 70's house and has gang nail trusses.

Is it easy to do or even doable?

I wont be storing anything heavy up there, I just need bigger access area so I carry stuff over to the one side of the house where the extension is as that bit is boarded and has bigger 6" joists in the loft.

 

[Deluks]

How far apart are the existing trusses? Does the current hatch cut through any of them or does it go up in between the joists (bottom chords).

 

[arunman]

the trusses are 60cm apart (centre) and the existing hatch is between two joists - none are cut.

 

[Deluks]

Well you could probably widen it within the trusses without much fuss. Cutting the truss itself is a no-no without getting it checked out by an engineer, experienced chippie, or the company that made the truss.

Modern houses are designed to use the lightest trusses that can be got away with, to save weight and timber cost, they can't be played about with like chunky timbers in older properties.

 

[arunman]

to make it wider, could I add (bolt or something) another piece, say 6ft, of identical size next to it and then cut about 3ft of the original timber in the middle. I need a few inches of extra space to get my stuff up there.
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cheers, h

 

[JohnD]

you can very easily make the hatch longer, by just cutting the plasterboard more between the two existing trusses, then putting trimmers on at each end. Would that be any help?

 

[arunman]

I'm okay with the length, its the width, trying to get a patch cabinet up there and its 60cm x 60cm - just over the current width

 

[JohnD]

?take the cabinet apart?

?Put a new hatch in your cut-roof section which is not made of trusses?

 

[MasterAbacus]

Im asuming your meaning a patch cabinet as in for Data points?

I had a simlar problem on a job, and i had to find another cabinet.... tried and tried but nothing, so ended up making my own, in sections, using an orig cabinet and some alloy pannels.... Once up in loft space, used rivet gun to put it all together. Far easier than making loft hatch bigger...

 

[kidjenson6]

Easy, as most joist centres are 600mm, I would recommend moving noggins to desired length to suit one of the premanufactured loft hatches or even a made to measure item, available from loads of manaufacturers for example:

http://www.jupiterblue.co.uk/category/1

or

http://www.accessbuildingproducts.co.uk/lofthatches.html

Etc

 

[Shytalkz]

If it's just one truss that you want to chonk (giving you about 1100 clear width), you can usually get away with it, but it needs purlins and binders to pick it up and transfer load back to the adjacent trusses. You need an SE to take a look at it.