The loft area of my new house contains hefty wooden beams (perhaps 3x8") to support the roof rafters part-way up.
These beams are 3-4 feet above the floor of the loft (ie. above the ceiling below).
Below each beam, on each side, is a wooden joist running perpendicular to, and on top of, the main ceiling joists, perhaps 3x2".
Between the thick wooden beams, and the extra joists below, have been nailed a series of thin wooden slats (4" wide, maybe 3/8" thick). Several feet apart, half a dozen on each side, nailed to the sides of the beams with a couple of nails each end.
They don't appear to be carrying any load (which would be borne by the nails); so what are they for?
(I'm asking because I'm boarding the entire loft, and they're in the way.)
Below each beam, on each side, is a wooden joist running perpendicular to,
Binder, spaces the ceiling joists apart and stiffens the structure.
Hangers, the ceiling hangs from them and are used to allow smaller ceiling joists to be used. If you remove them the ceiling will sag.
They're not carrying much load - just the ceiling - but that's not the same as not carrying any load. And if you're intending boarding the loft that implies placing things on the floor and increasing the load.
You /may/ be able to put replacement hangers further into the eves, but you /will/ have to do engineering calculations to work out if that would be suitable. Essentially, as hangers are there to allow smaller joists to be used, you're likely to need to replace or suppliement the joists with thicker ones.
In yer typical Victorian terrace the hangers form the uprights for the attic walls.
Do you need standing space within the eves - behind the hangers? Board the floor perpendicular to the joists and the boards will but up to the hangers. Cut notches in more boards to board behind the hangers.
As a rule of thumb, a span of "x" feet needs standard-sized joists of "x square inches" at 16" spacing to cross the span without support. eg, 15 feet needs 8"x2" joists. As it's a loft it's likely the ceiling joists are just that and are 3"x2".
The loft area of my new house contains hefty wooden beams (perhaps 3x8") to
Purlins - support the rafters mid span and stop them sagging under the weight of tiles.
Probably strappers or tie beams helping to prevent lateral or twisting movement of the ceiling joists.
Adding a bit of support to the strapper, which in turn will add a bit of support to the ceiling. Without them, you will probably get a bit more sag in the ceilings. As you say the strappers are only fixed to the joists by nails in tension, so they won't be carrying much load.
My previous place had them (2nd picture down):
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they were not strapped to the purlins (although you can see from the pictures, we fitted temporary straps to the purlins when we needed to cut sections out). Ultimately (last picture) we used noggings on the new joists to replace them.
Having said that, a few inches of sag is not really visible from the room below. Look at the one before last picture - you can see the sag in the middle of the room below is about 3" at the centre of span. Yet you can't see this from in the room. Its only noticeable when one runs a straight edge along the ceiling as I did here! Needless to say if you currently don't have much sag, and you chop them out you may get more and in quite a short time frame. This might damage the decorative finish below.
What are the spans of the joists and what size are they?
Chances are you are unlikely to have a major problem taking out *some* of the vertical straps. Obviously we can't really give a more conclusive answer without loads more information, photos etc.
Thanks for the replies. Wouldn't have guessed that these things were under tension, but they seem insubstantial for a compressive force.
So it looks like I need to keep them, and have to work around them, which is a bit more fiddly. Although, apart from them, this loft is surprisingly uncluttered compared with some previous houses with wooden struts and beams everywhere.
They would be trussed rafters and are what the majority of new houses use. They use less materials and arrive factory made so are quicker to erect. Never cut one unless you have already replaced it with something to hold the roof together.
What a coincidence! I only started yesterday putting walk boards (slats) down and, lo! Here is a thread about them.
I'm not going to do the entire loft floor area, but will space out the boards so that there is one every foot or so. I only had one plank to start with yesterday (142mm x 17mm), so I could only get three boards from it, but already those three take me to the centre of the loft with perfect ease, rather than balance on the narrow joists.
This was brought about by my clambering around to sort out the TV aerial cable!
Mine was covered with over a foot of insulation (three generations' worth,
1" + 4" + 8") and it was like trying to walk on clouds, with the joists completely buried.
142mm (about the same width as a DVD) doesn't sound much wider. A single pack of three loft panels, under £6, will be a foot wide and give a 12' run.
Also, I just don't need the whole area done. Even only a few slats would be enough, but I'm going to place them at 1-ft intevals, so they should be all I'll ever need. I only need to get to the tanks, the overflow and the aerial booster.
I know, and I've used it on a previous property in which I stored a heck of a lot of stuff in the loft and was always going up there to rummage around. In my current house I don't have anything stored in the loft, so I've only been up there a few times in six years. Chipboarding the entire floor would be overkill. I just need something to help me bridge the gaps between the joists, that's all. One plank every foot is absolutely fine. I've tried it with the three planks I got from the length I had lying around and the three are more than enough to take me from the loft ladder to the centre of the loft without having to bother where I'm putting my feet.
Cutting *one* will not cause the roof to collapse. The usual order is to cut one and then add the new material, e.g. to support the cut ends. It's a bit difficult to do this *before* you make the first cut.
Anyone with sense supports it before the first cut. Those that don't have stuff fall down. If you don't know how to support it before the first cut then find someone that does.
My words say what you have to do, support it. Yours said you didn't need to support it. You were wrong to say that you can "cut one and then add the new material" (your words BTW). There was nothing wrong with what I said.
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