Need General Contracter/Construction worker help +rep

I'm trying to build a room in my attic but I have Gamble truss. I want to know if it would be safe to go trust by truss cutting out the first diagonal 2x4 from the center and replace it with a perpendicular 2x4?



I want to be able to make it look like this one. Is it to late since my house is already built?

what is the purpose of this..im just not seeing it. can you give us a straight on view of what you are stalking about.

strictly seedleSs said:

what is the purpose of this..im just not seeing it. can you give us a straight on view of what you are stalking about.

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Here is a picture of multiple trusses but the one in dead center is the one above. I want to make a room in my attic like that but I have the Gamble style already built.

he is wanting to move a brace to make headroom....

you should scab the diagonal brace before you remove it, that is, have a temporary vertical brace nailed to the side of the truss before you remove the brace.
the new vertical brace must be an exact fit, or else you will have sagging in your roof line.

to be honest, i wouldnt do this, as it will void any and all structural warranties of your roof.... but it is possible.
basically, what your doing, is making the gambrel truss into a room-in-attic truss. note how the room-in-attic truss has a header between the 2 vertical supports.... you have to try and match that frame style, with having a lateral brace between the two vertical supports. what gives a truss its strength is its ability to transfer stress across its structure, similair to an arch or an eggshell, changing the structure of the truss while its under load, can cause catastrophic failure (i.e frame collapse) if your not careful; you might want to hire a carpenter, just to be safe. like i said, it is possible, you just have to be very very careful.

How long do you usually have warranties on roofs? I've been living here for nearly 6 years.

the trusses? 50 years, some have longer.....

Well, would it be possible to build the room without removing any trusses. I can make a little room under some diagonal trusses no problem just wanted some more room.

If I did make the attic into a room-in-attic truss I wouldn't mind leaving the center 2x4 there and just make the diagonal 2x4's to the right and left of it into perpendicular 2x4's.

Thoughts?

This is what my attic looks like now...

[video=youtube;1rfHaEywNKs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rfHaEywNKs[/video]

yes u can remove them just brace horizontally to from the first vertical 2x4 from center and the add diagonal bracing above that and for added measure add some more bracing from first vert 2x4 to second from center then when i need to change it back just get some metal plates like on rest of truss and replace what u cut

WAIT u said gambel truss well one in center is not a gambel and neither matches the first pic in first post or am i stoned
but second from top middle of diagram is a gambel roof

fabfun said:

yes u can remove them just brace horizontally to from the first vertical 2x4 from center and the add diagonal bracing above that and for added measure add some more bracing from first vert 2x4 to second from center then when i need to change it back just get some metal plates like on rest of truss and replace what u cut

WAIT u said gambel truss well one in center is not a gambel and neither matches the first pic in first post or am i stoned
but second from top middle of diagram is a gambel roof

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I have a Gamble truss but want a room-in-attic truss but am a little discouraged now since iam5stoned said it was not worth the trouble and I would be better off getting a contractor. I don't have the money for the contractor.

It can be done you just need adequite bracing for any modifications you make, don't want your roof caving in. BUT if your not looking to get a contractor involved, just modify it like it is. Build around the rafters.

You can only do what you are asking by bringing in a structural engineer, getting the proper permits, and paying an ass load of money. What you want is not going to come cheap, I would build a room onto my house before I did this. I am a general contractor who specializes in electrical, so im not a structural expert, and would not even begin to tell you how to do a cut job to your trusses....maybe you dont realize how important those are....and the math and engineering that goes into them....its crazy. Dont cut a damn thing no matter what some grower on a website says about it. Get creative and build around the trusses.

xXF0RE20Xx said:

It can be done you just need adequite bracing for any modifications you make, don't want your roof caving in. BUT if your not looking to get a contractor involved, just modify it like it is. Build around the rafters.

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Yeah but I'd love to have more space, if I build around the rafters I would only be able to have about 2' grow height. I'm drafting something up to show RIU what I want... I'll give a couple options may take an hour or so.

fuck a contractor they will f u in the butthole i know because i do this work
i can walk u through it dont get discouraged if u build it the buds will come
if u add extra bracing it will be even stronger then before
those diagonal 2x4s support just the middle of a section so not as much load as the next one from center
what is the height to the top of 2x4 u want to remove and what is height of room u want to build
btw dont let others discourage u from what u want to do just figure out the right way and do it
i can help u design it

fabfun said:

btw dont let others discourage u from what u want to do just figure out the right way and do it
i can help u design it

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Im just trying to discourage the guy from listening to some body behind a screen name telling him how to put his life and his families life in danger.....this has all the making to end up on "Worlds dumbest criminals" television series. I can see some guy being brought out of the rubble from the fire department, cameras rolling from the local tv new station, guy opens his mouth "fabfun said not to be discouraged", escorted into back of cop car.

PS. I hope you own this home.

ok im not going down this road. just going to head off a potential pissing match im out of this discussion
i frame houses and build rafters but never mind i dont know shit peace out

look at this link one last thing u seen a old gambel roof barn they dont have any diagonal bracing fuuny they stand for 200 years look up this url and u will see they have a huge span http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.apmbuildings.com/Graphics/gambrel-attic-storage-truss.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.apmbuildings.com/attic-storage-truss.shtml&usg=__zC9dLDxwxr18BiBxzuhTHAOixkk=&h=146&w=267&sz=6&hl=en&start=5&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=iqI4yfr0qQrglM:&tbnh=62&tbnw=113&prev=/images?q=gambrel+barn+trusses&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbs=isch:1
bye

O.k. after 3 hours of slaving over a designing program I have some to scale sketches.

These first 2 are what it looks like outside of the house. In the second one the room below the roof is my bedroom and the access to the attic will be located in my closet.





These 2 are of the trusses and the room. You can see for yourself that it's not the whole attic I'm trying to change, just 12' of it.






These are of the other side. The far right is from the side that you see in the above pictures. This is like a little hallway over my closet into the room. The right one shows you how big the access opening will be and also shows you my room hump: not many people get to see where magic really happens)





This is just a top down look with the roof cut of so you can see how the trusses look.




This would be a big deal if I messed it up but I would only be modifying 6 trusses. If I went slow and carefully/braced everything it seams like it would work fine. The room would work just like the "room-in-attic" and the "Gamble".


What do you guys think? Doable?

Upfront here: I didn't read all replies. I'm likely repeating someone, sorry.

As a framer of just shy of 5 years, I would strongly advise against this. Very strongly.

Infrared fly-bys are common these days, for one. With your upper floor glowing red hot on their scanner you might as well call the Po's yourself, really. Two, is that your handy work needs to be nearly flawless when a roof is in question, let alone your OWN roof. Building code will be violated as well, I'd imagine.

On the plus side though, you clearly have some structural knowledge/common sense. It CAN be done, but do your research, plan heavily and work meticulously or in a few years' time you'll be dealing with all kinds of issues.

Final say: Infrared/Heat cams make it a big, fat 'bad idea' in my books.

On the plus side though, you clearly have some structural knowledge/common sense. It CAN be done, but do your research, plan heavily and work meticulously or in a few years' time you'll be dealing with all kinds of issues.

Final say: Infrared/Heat cams make it a big, fat 'bad idea' in my books.