Our trusses in our roof are circa 71. They are all 2×4 and have gussets glued up at the rafter tails, and top and bottom of a king post. And thats all! The living area of the home has a 24 foot span of this. Here’s the kicker: We have 3 layers of roofing on top! Any idea what load such a set up can carry? We wanted to put a layer of new sheet rock over the asbestos popcorn ceiling, but I see a sagging ceiling in my future if I do. Any experience with this?
“Democracy is when the people know exactly what they want, and get it good and hard.” HL Mencken
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Sounds way under-designed to me. I wouldn't suggest adding any more weight on it until you have it evaluated on site.
We have an engineer coming to look. It sounds like pulling down the old ceiling will be a must. We think we will also use the open ceiling as a chance to knock in some hurricane ties and reinforce what is there. Its interesting, as most of the house has some sort of wierd cantilever everywhere. The center of the roof support straddles 2 walls that run the length of the house, instead of using a central bearing wall. I think the idea was to support either side of the king post and gussett. Either that or they were just smoking a lot of weed!"Democracy is when the people know exactly what they want, and get it good and hard." HL Mencken
3 layers of roofing is not good. Snow load may be a factor. If popcorn is applied to drywall it can be scraped off and ready for new texture. If it really is asbestos, I think that it is the airbourne dust that is the problem. I have sistered 2x4 and 2x6's next to old trusses with metal tie plates at the joints. Very strong. To many nails in plates may cause spliting.
I'm sure you are overloaded already and should no tadd more weight, but I'm curious why you think the cieling is asbestos. has it been tested?
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My popcorn ceiling was applied to sheetrock. I used a sponge mop to dampen the popcorn spray and a spackling knife to scrape it from my ceiling. the beads are composed of sterofoam and not asbestos. Afterwards I slick finished the ceiling and painted it. Looks great!
cperry
Like this?
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Just went thru the sorta the same deal. Rafters were 6" , but 28 ft span with center post. We made a "W" truss on each half, fastening with gussets and lots of const glue. Now we are able to remove a wall under the new truss system and open up a living room/kitchen area. After rolling around on our backs in the attic in 18" of bat insulation with glue and gussets my son & I looked like a couple of furry orangutans.
Yup. thats the design! Was this common? We tested the popcorn and its asbestos. The idea is that its better to pull down the drywall and start over. Skimming over old fasteners and tape is penny wise and pound foolish. In 5 years the roofing will be dead and we will take off the 3 layers. We my add w supports as well. Not much snow in Seattle, but when it does snow, its wet and heavy. "Democracy is when the people know exactly what they want, and get it good and hard." HL Mencken
I'm not sure that I agree with that idea at all.you can remove the asbestos more safely by keeping it misted and damp to prevent migration of the fibres around the house. misting is also the method used to soften the mud that keeps this popcorn clinging and easy to scrape off. You put down a couple plies of plastic, mist the cieling and keep it misted so no dust flies, scrape the popcorn off, and then bag up the slush and roll up the plastic. No more aasbestos. But if you try tearing down the SR boarding dry, you will triple the amt of asbestos fibres floating free in the air of this house for the next ten years.
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Piffin, the abatement folks said they indeed wet the stuff down and then pull the drywall. Sounds as if they have to line the room with plastic as well. Hmmmm........"Democracy is when the people know exactly what they want, and get it good and hard." HL Mencken
OK, this is the fiorst I'd heard you were using abatement pros. Still keep in mind that air quality tests done in schools where professional removal is done aften shows higher free airborne asbestos particles three years after "abatement" than before.If it were me, this would only be part of a mahjor total renovation where EVERYTHING is removed or encapsulated before moving back in fopr a family with kids.Other side of the issue, this is just ifo for you to consider in decision making. I personally have worked with quite a bit of asbestos and believe the whole issue is generally overblown. I have had three chest exrays over the years looking for any signs of scarring and they tell me that if it has not shown up by now, it never will. Most all of the people who suffered from esbestos exposure are those with long term exposure who also smoked cigarettes. The tars ion the smoke made it easier for the fibres to lock in and made it harder for the lungs to heal themselves. Shorter term exposure for non-smokers is generally not a serious concern
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Piffin,
I agree 100% with your coments about exposure & risk; also about just keeping it wet and scraping vs. full tear-out. HOWEVER, given the current legal climate you forgot the 3 paragraphs of fine print disclaimer :-)
Wayne
I think Taunton has that covered - you know, the part when you sign up where you agree that you will never actually believe anything you read here or put any of it into practice before consulting a legal beagle...it's all in the fine print, LOL
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When I grew up in the UK trusses were non-existant. Instead we used minimal-sized rafters and ceiling joists...the former supported by purlins, the latter by ledgers, supported off interior walls with braces, the purlins ties to each other with ties. Thus, you could run 2x's across the midspans, propping up the rafters with bracing down to the interior (load-bearing) walls, sized to the actual distance between bracing. The ceiling joists you'd use metal strapping or 2x2 nailed to all members. As to how you get 16' lengths into your attic...well! (hint - gable vent)
Ciao for niao
To both Piko and Piffin
Piko: Aha! a Brit! The fellow who built our home was ostensibly an Argentinian and was by way of the UK if I remember the history. That would explain the design. The headscratcher is earthquake here in Seattle. Every project we do we reinforce, but its hard to know how much tying up to do. I still don't like the three layers of roofing, but it went through one wet snow. The carpenter helping me is going to go to an engineer to be safe, as he got the heebee jeebees when he saw the design.
Piffen, Sad story. One of my most favorite uncles was a builder. During the war he build Liberty ships in Oakland and did lots of asbestos work. Then he did tons of work with HVAC in old coal burning furnaces(more asbestos). Then back to construction. He died of mesothelioma. I then hosted his son through a bone marrow procedure at Fred Hutch. He died two years ago. I have seen enough industrial related disease for my life, thank you. I am looking at a quince tree in my yard that I planted for them to remember them by.
We are in a big renovation, and the carpet will go, walls get skimmed, ceiling done, cabinets, windows etc. The pro guys say they have to put a meter in the home to measure for residual fibers in the air to get a pass from the EPA. Have you heard of this and how often a fail shows up? "Democracy is when the people know exactly what they want, and get it good and hard." HL Mencken
We just had the asbestos-covered HVAC ducting removed from our crawl space. They sealed all openings, set up a containment entrance and did the removal in 4 hours. Later the same day an independant lab (part of the packaced service from the abatement company) came by and left a monitoring device. It's got a fan to pull in the crawl space air. Let it run for 2 hours then picked it up and did the reading same day. We came out clean so were able to open up the space imediately. If there were any issues the abatement company would have to return and fix the problem. I suspect a similar process for popcorn removal. Hope that helps.
I know they have to test before and after, but not necessarily a year or two later. how they test is beyond my ken. I know wone thing that can get missed is ducts. If therre is a ducted system such as AC and/or heat it must be very well sealed and not used during the process. What has happened before is that a duct regiuster or two gets missed and enough fibre gets to lay in the ducting, settling in dormant until the next seasopn when it is recirculated into the home. So be adamant about getting all the cracks and crevices that can harbor particles sealed ahead of time.
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Sounds good. Only 4 of them to deal with."Democracy is when the people know exactly what they want, and get it good and hard." HL Mencken
Maybe only four vents, but other nooks and crannies - cabinets, back of refrer, under range, dryer in laundry, any dropped cieilg in basement..........
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Noted!"Democracy is when the people know exactly what they want, and get it good and hard." HL Mencken