Roof above bathroom window

[photogav]

Hello

This is my first time posting on here, although in the past I have seen some good advice.

I have an cottage (circa 1840s), which has had quite a bit of playing around done to it over the last 60 years or so (most of it bad). I'm not working through trying to fix the bad stuff and make it good. Things like lime plaster on the walls and fixing and repairing interior woodwork is all within my sill base, but when I moved into the main bathroom I hit a snag. The plaster was blown in quite a few places so I took it off the ceiling and walls. Underneath the joists were mostly sound. A few had rotten and where necessary I've replaced them.

The real problem came in the roof over the (newish) upvc double glazed window.

The rafters are sitting on a piece of old timber (with bark still on it) that isn't straight and then was covered with hardboard. I have created an album with some images to show what I mean.

My question is what to do about it. My initial thought was to get a piece of thicker timber and replace the old with new which will sit on the stone block and rubble wall at one end and then on a new brick built plinth on the other.

Trouble is the rafters are not straight (as the timber they sit on now isn't).

Can I cut down the couple of rafters that are too long and replace my old timber with a new piece of 45mm thick timber?

Or am I going to endanger the roof and am therefore best getting a builder in to do the repair?

Any advice would be much appreciated.[/img]

 

[ladylola]

Not a huge problem to be honest.
Firstly fix a piece of timber across the rafters higher up and spanning wider than the window to act as a sort of tempoary trimmer and stop the rafters moving. next remove the old lintel for want of a better word.
The next step will be much easier if you can remove the tiles and lift the felt a bit.Looking at the photos it should be fairly simple to slide in a new piece of timber from the bathroom side cutting the rafter ends to suit. A reciprocating saw or a hardpoint will be useful to rub the joints here to ensure they sit down nicely.
I'd also go for something deeper than 45mm, 100mm would look about right or maybe just 75mm at a push.
To be honest I'd also consider changing the window too, a upvc in a 1840's cottage ? Not what I'd call a sympathic renovation.

 

[photogav]

Thanks for the advice.

Yes the uPVC windows are not the best option, but they were already installed when I bought the place. They were put in pretty poorly and have caused so many problems.

The whole place needed the plastered walls sorting out and so much of the wood had been left poorly maintained.

But again. Thanks for the advice. I'll get a thicker piece of wood to go in there. Once I have the structure sorted I'll look at the window a bit closer as I have to fit an extractor fan somewhere as well. It has never had one, which is why so much of the wood and lime plaster has deteriorated.

Many thanks

gavin

 

[^woody^]

It looks like the timber lintel was damaged by wet rot - a roof leak or penetrating damp from below the eaves, so be sure to have rectified that first.

It looks like you could slot something like a 6x3 timber section back in either flat as it is now or vertically if you set it back a bit. If vertical, trim this beam to allow the rafters to sit on it, rather than notching the rafters. You should be able to do this from the inside

Treat all that exposed timber with a preservative first

Or you can use a smaller timber section with some angle iron fixed to it if space is tight

 

[photogav]

I can't thank you guys enough for the advice. Just to let you know the bathroom roof is now safe and secure as I used a bit of most of the posts here. The hole outside is covered with brick and mortar now and the new wood (treated) is in place with some angle iron. I had to strengthen a couple of the perlins as well. But I'm not ready to tackle the floor before plasterboarding.

So I big thank you to everyone who helped.

I will now view the forum for skills I can help with and offer my help to others.

Many thanks

Gavin

 

[ladylola]

Thanks for letting us know how your problem went, it's always good to have a follow up.