Cutting Trusses For Attic Access

Just last night i was talking with an associate who picked up a small job cutting in an attic access pull down door and placing a bunch of sheets of plywood on the ceiling joists.

Cutting trusses for attic access.

Our home has 2x4 roof trusses spanning 25 ft. Let s compare common roof trusses with the roof framing materials that were used in your parent s house. Attic trusses have a rectangular shape inside each truss. The sad fact is your builder could have installed attic trusses over this garage for just slightly more than what the existing trusses cost.

We would like to install a fold down attic stair with a rough opening size of 25 5 in. Cutting the bottom chord of an attic truss i worked for an old school new england carpenter for a couple years when i was 15 16 years old. I asked him if any of the joists were actually part of a truss and the answer was oh yeah. These trusses are usually engineered by a structural engineering company in order to carry a specific roof load.

Where possible choose a size and location for your attic ladder that allows it to fit between existing ceiling joists or trusses. Your parents roof rafters were probably made from 2x8 s and could have been 2x10 s or. You can easily cut your ceiling joists and use the off cut if big enough to but end where the cut was and fix appropriately on the two adjoining joists trusses whatever. He she not talking about hacking his roof joist just making an opening in his ceiling.

Homeowners should avoid cutting or modifying their roof trusses. One use of trusses is for the support of a roof. Most common attic trusses for homes and garages are made with 2x4 s. I remember on one house he told me that you never ever ever ever cut a truss.

If the roof slope is steeper than 9 inches in 12 inches of run it doesn t take much width to end up with a nice room 12 feet wide with an 8 foot. Attic ladder kits are made to fit between existing framing in the ceiling that is the floor of the attic. Unfortunately it is common to see trusses which have had webs and chords cut to accommodate attic access skylights or hvac ductwork. A few cut trusses spaced two foot on center don t necessarily lead to catastrophic roof failure because the roof acts like a large diaphragm and because partition walls if any below usually pick up some.

When a truss becomes damaged cut or modified there is a. While they look the same you probably didn t notice the subtle differences. Currently there is limited attic storage on a plywood subfloor on the bottom chords accessed via a small hatch in a closet. Trusses are similar to roof rafters.