I have a small problem at our northern retreat, the snowload on the roof is getting to be too much. The cottage is about 40 years old and is framed with 2×4 rafters (1 3/4″ x 3 3/4″). The roof is a hip roof with a span of 20′ inline with the ceiling joists and about 30′ across. I would like ot reinforce this by placing 2x6s forming a W truss affect. I am not sure if this will be a good idea? I am wondering if this will just move the load to the wrong place. We get about 4′ of snow in this part of Ontario, the building is unheated as we use it only in the summer months. I thought I would tie th bottom portion of the W to the bearing wall that runs the 30′ dimesion of the cottage. Any thought would be greatly appreciated.
A northern neighbour Chas
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I doubt you'd gain anything by making a "W". You best bet would most likely be transferring weight down to the bearing wall you mentioned.
I think you're better off having someone have a look at it than to have us guessing about it here.
Minnie Mouse is a slow maze learner.
Thanks for the info I agree that the bearing wall is the key and I will have someone look at it froma structural point of view.
Can you post a sketch of the roof structure and location of the bearing walls? It'd be a bit easier to figure something out from that.
My initial general reaction would be to get a big shovel in there and tear off the roof and replace it. A lot of those old cabins were owner designed and built, and span tables were not consulted as often as might be considered desireable. Still, 2x4 rafters seem a bit skimpy. My old roof was framed with 2x6s, but a cathedral ceiling so no ceiling joists. The only thing that saved it from wall spreading and total collapse was its small footprint (20x24), I think, and a 6x6 ridge beam transferring down to a 2x3 partition wall sitting on a used Hydro pole under the floor joists in the crawl space. Sometimes it's amazing what will stand up, after all....
Where is your place--up near Haliburton? I don't know the snow load factor up there off hand. Here it's 2.6 so I'm using spans from the 3.0 column which is pretty well up there.
Dinosaur
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