Loft trussed roof ideas

[katar83]

Who would have thunk, eh.

That was the theory, yes. In practice, the truss manufacturer was actually helpful when I spoke to them last year and pointed me in the right direction.

Always interesting when real life doesn't follow forum absolutes.

 

[noseall]

, the truss manufacturer was actually helpful

Yes. Every single one would repeat what I told you in my post.

 

[katar83]

Not quite, what you said was that they wouldn’t engage at all.

In reality, they did engage, were helpful, and pointed me in the right direction. This was an older guy that designed my roof 30 years ago, we had a half hour chat, just discussing ideas, he couldn't provide me with any calculations as no longer worked for the manufacturer, neither the manufacturer were designing or selling trusses anymore, but gave me contact details to another SE which confirmed everything and given me that possible, cheap DIY route to do it.
That’s the only point I was making.

 

[noseall]

Not quite, what you said was that they wouldn’t engage at all.

Nonsense....

truss manu's do not want anyone messing with their roofs - full stop. If you think they'll be cooperative and even bring on a SE to alter their design, you are living in cloud cuckoo land. It's the last thing they'll want to get involved in.

You have learned your lesson. Truss manu's do not engage in practices to alter their designs, post-fit - end of.
They will politely tell you to leave well alone and seek your own pro's.

I admit they are obliged to respond to enthusiastic DIYers. They're not rude.

 

[chickenlips]

So the truss manufacturer couldn't pop it into his software and let you chop chunks out of their trusses then? OMG that's a surprisLOL

Ouch.. that was a low blow.

At least after a few months you've finally got something your happy with @katar83

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

@chickenlips why did you add an 'LOL' to my quote?

 

[chickenlips]

@chickenlips why did you add an 'LOL' to my quote?

My apologies , that was meant to be in my reply.

 

[katar83]

Well not wanting to play devils advocate here (I've already said it may prove problematic when he comes to sell) but if an SE proves it works (or some version of the OP's utopia) and the modifications are carried out as necessary then the roof won't blow off or fail.

It's pointless speaking to the truss manufacturer, especially for some ancient roof, they won't be the slightest bit interested furthermore they're not structural engineers and will always outsource to a separate structural engineer for anything out of the ordinary anyway.

OPs utopia all done now, finished putting glass floor panel trim today which was the last thing to do. Already moved all the seasonal clothes and shoes and christmas decorations in.

Off to the next project.

 

[robinbanks]

There doesn't seem to be much weight sitting on these middle long webs, that I want to remove, they are quite sloppy right now

You already got there but this was the critical thing I wanted to pick up on from the initial post, that these longer ones are tension rather than compression members and essentially hold the bottom of the short ones up. Being long they will flex(if that's what you mean by sloppy) especially in the direction of bending towards other trusses(as the wood is narrow in that direction and it shouldn't be taken as an indication that they are contributing little

If you do ever sell the house it may be sensible to make the buyer aware that the room should be used as light storage only and that the roof trusses should not be altered in any way. without appropriate structural changes

As a point of curiosity, were any changes made to the floor prior to it being boarded? What cross section dimensions do the joists have?

 

[katar83]

Yeah, I meant floppy of course and they still are bit flexy but not as much as before, obviously there is a bit more weight "holding" on them now(boards and lvt flooring).
I did not alter the floor or the chords in any way, except for removing the two huuuge beams that were sitting there on top of all trusses initially as platform for the original monster boiler and water tank, there is a stupid amount of various extra cross bracing in there, presumably to hold it all in place and spread the load. The floor now does this job well too. The chords if I remember right are very slightly chunkier than the rest of the truss but not by much.
Btw that single beam was enough wood to use as extra rafters and ALL the extra bracing I needed for Velux and everything else roof related.
The other beam is now sitting on top of similar trusses in the garage.
Hope this all helps someone in the future, it's been a proper project!