Should I attempt to remove about 1/3 of a roof rafter myself?

[CraigT]

I just bought a foreclosed house and need to do some work in the back part of the house and to do so I'd sure like to have access to that part of the attic of which there is no access now. The back part of the house seems to be an addition. The original roof has the ridge beam running side to side and then they installed a ridge beam running perpendicular off that to cover the addition. When they did this they didn't cut a portion of the old roof out to give access to the attic over the addition. I'd like to cut out an access opening. I assume this would be similar to framing in a door where you sister in some jack[rafters], put in a header, and some cripple [rafters]. I'm not too sure what the configuration for the header should look like on these 2X8's or if I should attempt to do this myself? All this will be done with a permit and the city inspector's oversight. However, I'm not going to walk in to pull a permit and sound like an idiot, but on the face of it, it doesn't look overwhelming or outside of my capabilities. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[trader4]

Some pictures would go a long way to getting good answers.

[buffalobill]

it's a messy job. maybe you need an access panel or a pull down folding stairway. uninhabitable crawl spaces and attics may just need a ceiling access panel to check the underside of the roof and the attic insulation while you install the new bathroom exhaust fan to a proper vent.

[aemeijers]

How close are the rafters, and how wide are you? What you essentially have is a dormer, and the opening would be headered and framed in a similar fashion. Unless the rafters were too close together to shinny through, I'd just sawzall out the decking between 2 of them for an access hole. Or are you trying to use the attic space in the addition for storage? If so, I'd go with pull-down stairs or ceiling hatch in the addition.

-- aem sends...