Laying Loft Flooring - A Slight Hitch

[Forestred]

Please forgive me if this has been asked a hundred times before but as I do not know what these beams are called I don't know what to search this forum for.

I wish to floor the loft of my house for storage purposes and have been able to floor the small centre section of the house, I wish to floor as far as I can to the outer edges of the house but over the top of my rafters runs two diagonal beams which meet in the centre which are causing a problem.

I see myself with a few options:

1) Floor where I can around them - this would leave lots of unsupported board ends just ready for someone to stand on and go through the celing below.

2) Raise the level of the rafters by screwing battoning across the top of the rafters and then boarding over that - expensive and time consuming.

3) Remove them and lay the flooring - this is the best plan BUT; what do these beams do and is it safe to remove them?

Can anyone offer me any advice?

Thanks
Forestred

 

[markie]

Do not cut anything out,

Any pics will help,

 

[masona]

3) Remove them and lay the flooring - this is the best plan BUT; what do these beams do and is it safe to remove them?

When you say rafters, do you mean ceiling joists?

If so, they called ceiling binders supporting the ceiling joists.

 

[Deluks]

Could they be struts holding up the purlins?

 

[Steve]

I think i have something similar to that the OP describes. 2 beams that run on top of the ceiling joists ("extra supports" on diagram below) from one side of our house, right across through the double wall to the other side of next door. The ceiling is the type built on site, the diagram will explain better. I assumed the 2 beams tied the roof together, to stop it "pushing" the 2 end walls of the building apart, like the ceiling joists do for the other direction.

 

[markie]

Crafty

A= PURLINS

B= HIP RAFTERS ( PURLINS )

C= RIDGE BEAM

 

[noseall]

the ridge board, (c) and the hip rafter, (b) don't actually do a lot, apart from keep the rafters in a straight line and help transfer the weight to the wall plate.

the purlin (a) that fella takes a lot of weight and is usually fixed at mid span ( 1 purlin) or on larger roofs at third spans (2 purlins).

ultimately its the rafters which carry the burden of the roof material, with the sag being collected by the purlins.

ALL the rest of roof's weight is transferred to the wall plate.

the wall plate is prevented from spreading by straps, by the ceiling joists and by the purlins. or if its an open ceiling an rsj at the ridge will prevent spread.

a ceiling binder or summil beam takes the sag out of the ceiling joists, usually fixed at centre span and is held at each end with masonry i.e. internal wall.

 

[splinter]

You cannot take anything out of a roof ,because it is all part of the structure ,as you can see a roof is basicly made up of triangles with the three sides relying on one another.To be frank aroof wouldn't be designedwith unnessary parts that could be just taken out without something replaceing it ,which would normally mean putting alot more materials back in than you take out

 

[noseall]

agree with splinter, dont mess with the roof.

 

[atpplumbing]

WAIT!!!

Dont cut anything as told YOU WILL KILL YOURSELF!!

These are main supports, if you are only flooring for storage cut round them - these supports are very important - ive carried out many loft conversions and have seen DIY ones - if you are not sure get someone in.
DO NOT TAKE THE RISK