I have been in my current house about 2 years and many problems have cropped up in that time, mostly from the previous occupant - a bodger!
Whilst speaking to the neighbour I was horrified when I found out that he did the loft conversion? (well more like a daylight storage place) by himself!!!!!
I know nothing about roofs, however my house is a 1940's 3 bed semi, with a hip style roof. I've had a look myself and compared it to my brothers house down the road. The brace has been removed and T'd off with a lump of wood which is secured to floor joist and roof joist. At roughtly head height a similar sized lump of wood has been secured to the other side. On the side where part of the brace is still intact there is still a length of wood supporting part of the "massivly thick ring of wood" which goes round the loft to the floor.
If I stripped the loft and took some pictures would someone here? or my council office be able to tell me if its done right?
I have been in my current house about 2 years and many problems have cropped up in that time, mostly from the previous occupant - a bodger!
Whilst speaking to the neighbour I was horrified when I found out that he did the loft conversion (well more like a daylight storage area) by himself!!!!!
Nothing was picked up on the survey we had, although this was not a full survey so in retrospect pretty damn useless!
I know nothing about roofs, however my house is a 1940's 3 bed semi, with a hip style roof.
I've done a bit of a diagram to try and show you what's gone on.
formatting link
the council office be able to tell me if its done right?
Does somebody have any plans of theirs with a similar type of roof they could show me ?
I have been in my current house about 2 years and many problems have cropped up in that time, mostly from the previous occupant - a bodger!
Whilst speaking to the neighbour I was horrified when I found out that he did the loft conversion (well more like a daylight storage area) by himself!!!!!
Nothing was picked up on the survey we had, although this was not a full survey so in retrospect pretty damn useless!
I know nothing about roofs, however my house is a 1940's 3 bed semi, with a hip style roof.
I've done a bit of a diagram to try and show you what's gone on.
formatting link
the council office be able to tell me if its done right?
Does somebody have any plans of theirs with a similar type of roof they could show me ?
Probably a pointless question, but do you have the completion certificate from the building control department?
Nothing new there then ;-)
Some dimensions on the timber would also help.
Did he do anything with the floor or is that still supported by the original ceiling joists?
Do you know where the load bearing walls are in the house?
Can we have some photos of the loft?
There is a fair chance that a building notice ought to have been submitted prior to the work being done. If this is the case and he did not do so, then it is almost automatically "wrong" even if structurally sound. Hence it might be better to piece together more of the story so you are aware of any implications before alerting the building control bods.
Surely the surveyor mentioned the 'loft' extension and the surveyor would have checked the necessary building warrants had been obtained during conveyancing?
I had to do a lot of convincing to my buyers solicitor/surveyor that the garage attached to my house was part of the original build.
I would contact the council, your solicitor etc straight away and get the necessary checks done.
Agreed... if you go along to your building control office, you should be able to ask what, if any, building notices have been submitted on any property within the last X years (freedom of information) although I don't think you can get to see the actual details (data protection?). You can do that anonymously, ie without alerting building control there's a potential issue.
Right that tells us a bit more... Firstly, look on your diagram where you now have an inverted triangle (part solid, part dotted). Is there a wall that runs under the point of your inverted triangle?
If so, then that is/was a supporting wall.
The beams you show that run across the rafters (i.e. sloping beams that form the underside of the roof), are coloured green on your diagram and hence you have under the "new stuff" category. However they look like they could be original "purlins" which support the rafters mid span. The weight of the rafters and the purlin would usually be taken to the centre wall of the house via a strut ("Arm" in your diagram). Often also these struts would meet at the floor helping to counterbalance the lateral load they place on the wall.
Like:
formatting link
the photo the small strip light is mounted on the purlin, and the strut can be seen running down to the supporting wall in the top right of the photo)
The lumps of wood that span the loft floor also look typical of tie beams. These provide some extra lateral rigidity to the floor beams and also help share loads to adjacent beams. They are not really designed to carry direct loads, although they will obviously be far stronger than using any one floor joist on its own. (if there was a floor in the loft that was screwed down they would serve less purpose.
Here is one I cut through earlier!
formatting link
to the left of the shot - in this photo it is nailed to the plank that hangs it temporarily from the purlin)
No, stud walls can be (and often are) load bearing.
So based on what we see now, the cut horizontal brace (red) looks less significant since it would not have done that much in the first place (the "arm"s taking the bulk of the load). The left hand side also looks OK given that the loads are still being transferred to the floor (which probably has a wall under it). The right hand side is a little more iffy since it depends on the collective strength of the floor joists. Normally if these had been replaced with something more like typical floor joists then the design ought to be fine, as it is, it may also still be ok but some sums are really needed to be sure).
(In fact it is what I did at the front of my loft:
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.