Roof only supported on external walls?

[WoOt]

Hi All,

I know that it is a long shot to get a conclusive answer to this, but I thought I’d try anyway and see what I could get.

I looked at a bungalow yesterday, which has a couple of things going for it. It is in the right location, it looks like it has plenty of potential and most importantly… it’s within our budget.

Unfortunately, the internal layout doesn’t work at all. I don’t mind knocking down some walls to make it work, but I can see that the cost and complexity of doing that would rapidly mount if I have to replace them by RSJ’s or the like.

So with that in mind, I went to the loft to see at how the roof is constructed (see attached picture). What I found most interesting is that none of the “V’s” coming down are sat on the internal walls. Some come down in the middle of a room and some come down 300mm next to a wall.

So on to my question(s):

1. Does this mean that the roof is only supported on the external walls, with beams running side to side across the entire length?
2. How do I find out whether any of the internal walls are supporting the roof (and which ones)? If this is something I can do myself, or atleast get an idea of.

If I can just knock down all, or the majority of the internal walls without compromising the structure, then this seems like a go-er. If not, I should probably walk away.

Much appreciated!

 

[matlob]

Hi,

I'm no expert but the roof is supported by the trusses that are attached to beams that run along the floor. My garage has the same configuration and there are no walls at all other than outside walls and is 6m x 7m

 

[^woody^]

Trusses span from wall to wall and don't need internal wall supports.

 

[WoOt]

...the roof is supported by the trusses that are attached to beams that run along the floor. My garage has the same configuration and there are no walls at all other than outside walls and is 6m x 7m

Thanks matlob, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. As an FYI, the bungalow is smaller than your garage.

Trusses span from wall to wall and don't need internal wall supports.

Excellent. In your description though, you say they span from wall to wall. Would they ever span from an external wall to an internal wall? As in, is it possible that they wouldn't span the whole width of the house? Is there any way of checking this?

 

[^woody^]

The walls at each end of the truss. The whole idea of having a truss is that it self supports, and is not designed for intermediate supports.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

What they all said. Downside with trussed roof- if you were thinking about putting a nice big room in the attic, forget it- all those struts are needed.