Advice required on roof frame carpentry..

[stef]

here are a few pictures of the house i recently bought.
I found the roof frame a little strange, but then again, i am not qualified to say it's right or wrong.
can someone enlighten me ?
so, the house is L shaped, and most of my queries relate to the square at the intersect of the two L branches.
Here is a panning sequence showing that square

The beams in the middle look good in my opinion, except half way down the corners...like on the last picture of the sequence, or on the following one:

(this one is from the oposite corner)
Does this setup look right to you ?

Also, the windows are setup this way:

or:

and the small triangular ones:

I am not used to see this type of setup. does it look right ?

 

[Jacob]

Looks like somebody has gone to a lot of effort to turn a difficult roof space into a habitable room.
Is it right? Have a look outside, are there signs of slumping, collapse, tile movements etc. If not then it's probably all right.
If in doubt try cutting through a few of them and see what happens!

 

[stef]

Looks like somebody has gone to a lot of effort to turn a difficult roof space into a habitable room.
Is it right? Have a look outside, are there signs of slumping, collapse, tile movements etc. If not then it's probably all right.
If in doubt try cutting through a few of them and see what happens!

well, it doesnt look like it's moved for the last 30 years, so i guess it's fine.
it just looks odd the way the middle horizontal support look like they are held only by the nails, when they are joined in the corners.
its a bit like looking at a pyramid, with 4 beams, one in each corner and joining at the top, and then horizontal braces, butt joined and nailed to the 4 corner beams..

personally i would have had the 4 corner beams forming a slightly smaller pyramid, and the horizontal beams resting on top of them, rather than in between.

 

[andersonec]

A proper roofer, and I bet all his compound angles were worked out using a roofing square.

Andy

 

[lincs1963]

Hi Stef, the horizontal beams look like they are the original purlins, often in loft conversions these are removed and replaced with a purlin wall. this is a stud wall that goes down onto the joists, however by doing this you lose a lot of space within your conversion. As suggested it looks as though someone has gone to a lot of trouble to keep as much of the original as possible. The purlins spread the loading of the rafters along to the adjacent rafters so that if one rafter becomes overloaded the weight is shared. Sometimes you will see props under the purlins in a loft but unless it is an exceptionally large roof these props were put into place to support the timber while the roof is constructed and are actually adding nothing or very little to the integrity of the structure. I wouldn't worry too much about it if you see the size of the timber used in modern roof truss construction you wonder how they can carry the weight of the tiles!
Hope this is of interest, regards, Neil.

 

[stef]

Ok,
I am reassured since noone screamed at me to get out of this house fast !

i understand the rolw of the pulins now..
thanks for this !

 

[Benchwayze]

If you want to be bamboozled by roofing, take a squint up the steeple, at Salisbury Cathedral!

It's like a game of 'Jenga' or 'KerPlunk' gone wrong! But it's been there a long time. :mrgreen:

http://www.carpentersfellowship.co.uk/f ... =410&st=15

http://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/dy ... ne2009.pdf

Have a look at the PDF. Great picture of the spire looking up inside the construction. Makes you wonder.

:mrgreen:

 

[AndyT]

Thanks for that about Salisbury, John.

I knew a little bit about the spire, from reading this book - Building Construction Before Mechanisation by John Fitchen. Look at pages 150-153 if Google lets you. He explains how the internal timberwork serves as permanent scaffolding for construction and repair, but also makes most of the spire's weight hang from the very tip - the central timberwork is in tension - making the amazing tall slender spire able to resist bending forces from the wind.

But now I know it's possible to get up inside it, I'll have to try and schedule a day out!

(Sorry for wandering further off topic, but it is still about wood.)

 

[Benchwayze]

My pleasure Andy.
I think I first saw this in one of the 'Woodie' mags.
It might have been BW.

I'd love to get up amongst it, but my stair-climbing days (on that scale) are over I fear. I'm sure you'd find it an absorbing day or two out!
I'll hand the thread back, not being in a position to advise the OP!

 

[dedee]

Stef, looks like normal french building standards to me If it hasn't fallen down yet I would not worry


Cheers

Andy