Attic Support Beams

A higher pitched roof would be better for extra living space than a lower pitched roof.

Attic support beams. In the case of 2x6 joists you can pair them up with additional 2x6 joists by nailing them together side by side. Here we have a wood framed gable roof. The image below shows a cross section of our simple 12 x 13 house from the joist span tables section of this tutorial. Let s consider a basic gable wood roof framing design.

Sistering is the process of adding a new joist next to each existing joist. If your attic joists won t bear the weight necessary to finish out a living space but the engineer cleared them to support floor decking for light storage you can install inch plywood or. This is where a high pitched roof is necessary. A great deal depends on the pitch of the roof.

Drive nails through the floor directly in front of the trimmers and then go beneath the floor and look for the nail shanks to determine the exact trimmer location. Floor beam span tables of residential structural design we will now look at roof rafter and beam design. Once again a 2 by 4 inch piece of lumber is placed between the trusses and parallel to the ceiling joists. You can t beat sawn lumber for most small window headers but as spans and loads increase stronger materials are a better choice.

If the attic joists are not adequate one way to strengthen the floor for live loads is to sister the old joists. Beams need solid support all the way down to another beam or the house foundation. So if there s an attic rather than living space above the bearing wall you want to remove. The other is just used to support the trusses.