recently up in an attic of a house that was built about 85 years ago. Well built house I might ad. But I was looking to see if a particular wall was load bearing and noticed that it was a type of suspension framing. I have never seen it before. I am green of course and a little wet behind the ears.
The rafters wer 2×6 but the joists were 2×4, both layed out on 16″. The ceiling sheetrcok was nailed to 1×4 sleepers that were nailed to the underside of the 2×4 joists. In order to support the load of the ceiling, the joist were connected to the 2×6 rafters with a vertical 1×4, probably putting alot of load on the rafter middles. So then there were 2×6 bracing next to the vertical 1×4 helping the laod and carriying it to a wall that ran the length of the house. I warned the cliet that he should never let anyone “jack” with that wall. In essence, most of the walls in the house were non-load bearing. the ceiling was supported from above instead of from below. This is the first time I have seen it before and was wondering if there was a name for this type of roof framing. It looked alot like a truss, in picture and design.
Replies
Sounds like a primitive truss.
Members in tension and compression taking the load back to a support point.
Some old carpenter, who understood how a structure works, saw what was needed and made it happen.
85 years later, his proof is in the puddin, It is still doing what he wanted it to!
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am a trained professional!
I saw something a bit like you described once - It was in the one room country school that my Mom went to. It was also a sort of a primitive truss, as Mr. T said.
The ceiling was sloped. The ceiling joists crossed, and ran up to the rafter on the opposite side. Another radiused member was added on the bottom to form a rounded ceiling. Pretty impressive.
I'll check around and see if I can come up with a picture. Any chance you have a pic of the setup you saw?
I watched the Indy 500, and I was thinking that if they left earlier they wouldn't have to go so fast.
I will get one