loft conversion

[ethanvault]

just register, hello everyone:

I am Converting my loft into living space.
My rafters are 4x2. hold up by single purlin from wall to waal is about 7m.
The space is very tight so i am dlowering dowm ceiling below to achieve more headroom into loft.
To do this new floor joist will run from wall to wall not at eaves level (just below) so the new joists will not tie togeter the roof structure.

The arquitect seems reluctant to give a solution to this, but this will be the cheapest option for me as I dont want to take the whole roof up as he is suggested.

Is anyboby come across this problem before ??

How to we hold the roof together ??

Hope I make sense.
thanks.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You need to ask him for his reasons and include some more info on here, is it a terrace, semi, detached etc, conservation area etc, what is the likelihood of getting planning approval etc? Zero if its a terrace probably! To lower the ceilings is quite possible albeit expensive (although cheaper than raising the roof as you say) and hugely invasive/messy of course. If your architect is reluctant to go down one route or another you need to find out why. If he's not prepared to answer your queries may need to consider employing someone else. He should be able to advise on what is and is not possible although if required he'll need to consult a structural engineer (at your expense btw) although he should be friendly with an engineer or 2 to get a free 10 minutes! Thats probably all it will take a decent engineer to visualize a design principal. Maybe he's reluctant to do this? Bottom line is he should tell you what you want to know or justify why its a bad idea.

 

[ethanvault]

Its a detached house not conservation area.

He is suggested to sister rafters and upgrade them to 8x2. Strengh the ridge board with a metal beam which will decrease my headroom (not happy with this as it is already not a lot of HR). plus a post in the middle of the room holding the beam.=== a lot of money, time and effort (which i dont have).

I feel I work for this man as I usually have to give him solutions to problem he finds.

I like to know how to hold a roof in place without joist so I can put this to him .

Sound strange, does it??

thanks

 

[ethanvault]

forgot to say the house is in shell state at the moment so i feel is the rght way to go as will not be messy or invasive as you say.
thanks

 

[ethanvault]

If I remove the purlin and put in a stud/dwarf wall will carry the weigh of the roof down on to the joist/beam?

Will this stop the roof spreading??

Thanks>

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

can you post some photos, dimensions and a better description of the roof structure on here, then we can get our head round the problems.

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Ethanvault, from your desciption it sounds like you're trying to do the same thing i've just done with my loft conversion i.e. remove the existing ceiling joists (which are currently triangulating your roof construction) and replace them with floor joists below the wall plate (therefore not attached to your rafters, and not providing the triangulation)? I spoke to a structural engineer who instructed me to mechanically fix vertical timbers between 'every other' floor joist and the rafter above.

Obviously without seeing your project in the flesh i can't guarantee yours is the same situation to ours but maybe you could put this to your architect or a structural engineer and get them to confirm whether this would solve your problem or not?

 

[ethanvault]

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