Cutting out redundant roof woodwork?

[Duncan Di Saudelli]

Hello

Please can someone help with some advice?

our house has a standard tile roof, where the tiles are supported by sloping wooden rafters spaced maybe 18" apart, and there's a layer of back mesh underneath the tiles ("felt"). The rafters run from the eaves up to the ridgeline of the roof.

At some point in the past, a roof extension at 90 degrees to the ridgeline means another section of roof projecting out of the back of the house. This means that, if you go into our loft, there's the main original loft with another newer section of loft partitioned off from the original by a section of now-enclosed "old" roof rafters.

bits labelled "hipped end" and "valley" etc. are the new part of the roof - the stuff that is now contained within the "valley" region is the surplus stuff which divides my loft.

This partitioning piece of roof work has no tiles on it any more (because it's now "inside" the roof) and the felt has been taken off. What is still in place, however, is the now-redundant rafters. If I could saw one or two of them out, then I could easily board from the original loft area to the new area. Trouble is, I have no knowledge of roofs (as you might have noticed) and I fear that one sawcut and the whole lot will collapse into tens of thousands of poundsworth of repair.

1) How many rafters can I cut out without worrying?

2) Do I need to cut only one or two out at the most and then buttress the resultant gap with extra wood of some sort?

Thanks

DDS

[NT]

I wouldnt expect that theyre carrying no load, far from.

The usual way is 2), to support the cut out section with a horizontal timber. That's easy enough to do.

NT

[robgraham]

There will be a load on these rafters in the form of thrust from the roof on the other side. You could cut out one and link the top end to the two on either side with a trimmer. I would suggest however from what you've indicated so far that you get a good joiner to look at it and do the work.

Rob

[Andrew Gabriel]

and also the weight of the extension roof beyond the end of its wall plates, where its rafters transfer the weight to the original rafters under the valley lines.

Like you would if you were fitting a velux.