New loft hatch making it bigger

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Hi

Just looking for a bit of info/advice

It’s a 15 year old house with the standard triangle roof trusses

I currently have a small plastic loft hatch on the landing. I am looking to get one of the larger openings with the wooden folding steps. The opening is roughly the width of the loft trusses and 1 meter long.

I can move the loft hatch and make it longer by putting it parallel to the trusses but this then means the the ladder isn’t in a great position.

I’m wondering if I could position it 90 degrees to the roof trusses. Rather than parellel

This does however mean that I would have to cut one of the trusses for the opening.

First off is it a complete no no to cut the bottom section of the truss in two ? ( the bit the plasterboard ceilling fixes too)

If I can cut that one truss back is it a case of cutting it back and making a boxing nailing the end of the cut truss into a new 4x3 maybe using a joist hanger maybe then also bracing across the several trusses where they meet in the outer triangle bits just to put the strength back to stop the truss spreading apart due to the bottom bit being cut in half.
 
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is it a complete no no to cut the bottom section of the truss in two ?
Yes it is a no no . You can't cut out any part of a roof truss without destroying the structural integrity of the truss. Structural alterations to a house require building regulations approval and structural engineer's calculations anyway but you certainly shouldn't start cutting up roof trusses.
 
The horizontal of the triangle forming the roof truss is under tension and there, to prevent the weight of the roof spreading out from the walls which support them.
 
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Thats great thank you for the replies. I had a feeling that this would be the case that the horizontal is stopping the roof from spreading. I just wanted to check if this was something that could have been altered. I will go ahead and not cut any out and instead install the hatch parallel to the horizontal braces.

Thanks
 

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