Interesting attic framing

[John Gromkoski]

Came across this framing addition in the attic of a 80+ year old home. I'm not sure what to make of it. I didn't really see too much wrong with it - other than those joist hangers hanging on by a couple of nails. It appeared the structure may have been added to help support the roof, but there were no obvious settlement issues with the roof. The framing also provided a floor system in the center of the attic. I'm trying to determine if the reason for the work was to support the roof or to have some floor structure for storage. Thoughts?

[Randy L. Mayo, PE]

John

My guess is it was installed to help support the roof system.

[Michael J. Parker]

Structure looks good. Maybe problems in the past. How's the insulation and venting?

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Looks like a great job.

[John Gromkoski]

Originally Posted by mparker1

Structure looks good. Maybe problems in the past. How's the insulation and venting?

Venting was good. Large gable vents at the front and rear. What insulation!? As you can see there was absolutely no insulation in the ceiling.

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Whenever I see this in old homes, my first question is: What type and how many layers of roof covering are there? The age of the work doesn't appear to be that old, so the issue is probably fairly recent. The original roof sheathing was probably 1x6 or 8 boards. It is very common to see roofers install OSB or Plywood on top of these, adding a lot of weight to the structure. Were you able to see if this was the case, and how many layers of roofing material? As others have already stated, structure looks fine, for what we can see of it.

[Jeffery L. Haynes]

It's engineered...... I've had to fix older roof systems like that.

The LVL's are used to spread the point load across interior walls....you should look for
new piers in the crawl where the ends of the lvls rest.

Jeff

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Obvious that it was meant to support the roof, correct roof sag, and /or help with the rafter spread. The small bolted gusset is definitely not engineered. The h2.5 hangers added for uplift is not doing anything because the struts are only toe nailed on top of the beam created.

Whether that beam support is LVL is questionable from the pictures.

Looks like an upgrade to fix a roof problem and as Jeff mentioned, there might be more than one roof covering on the roof.

Hopefully this load is being transferred to bearing walls below.
Having plastered ceilings, means the walls have it too, and the addittional load may cause cracks in the walls below.

[John Gromkoski]

Originally Posted by mcyr

Obvious that it was meant to support the roof, correct roof sag, and /or help with the rafter spread. The small bolted gusset is definitely not engineered. The h2.5 hangers added for uplift is not doing anything because the struts are only toe nailed on top of the beam created.

Whether that beam support is LVL is questionable from the pictures.

Looks like an upgrade to fix a roof problem and as Jeff mentioned, there might be more than one roof covering on the roof.

Hopefully this load is being transferred to bearing walls below.
Having plastered ceilings, means the walls have it too, and the addittional load may cause cracks in the walls below.

I agree. After further consideration it definitely is intended to support the roof load, and in my opinion was done as a result of rafter spread. I don't know if you can tell from the pics but the way it was constructed is quite interesting. There were two beams created on either side of the roof which sit on the outside wall and an interior bearing partition. Then the joists where attached with the joist hangers you see, across the attic space to each of the beams. The supporting wall for the ridge at the center of the attic rests on the new joists. There were no LVL's used.