I’m remodeling a 100 year old farm house. It is a story and a-half. The upper level has a room that currently runs the whole length of the home. We are going to remodel this area into two seperate bedrooms. We were wondering if we could take the roof line all the way to the peak and do away with the attic space above these two new rooms that is currently vented. I was wanting to create more headroom by creating a cathedral ceiling. Is this a bad idea? Or do I keep the vented attic space?
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how cold is your winter
Typical northern U.S winter. January in the teens at times.
Edited 5/21/2003 5:55:07 PM ET by Geppetto
The venting in the attic space is only incidental. What is really there is your collar ties that keep the roof from spreading the walls apart and causing your house to collapse. If you want that extra head room you would have to install a new ridge beam with posts to hold each end all the way to the ground. Perhaps steel allthread continuous from wall to wall in your floor space would serve the same purpose as collar ties. You might want to talk to an engineer.
Although I somewhat agree with Myci's post, you might be able to get away without the collar ties. They do help with keeping your ridge from sagging and walls spreading, but usually only if they are installed in the lower third of your rafters. As long as your floor joists run from plate to plate and fastened together correctly, they will keep the walls from spreading. Here they are called wind ties. If your roof receives a lot of lateral force, say wind, the collar ties transfer the force to the other side of the roof. A few posts will for sure help and an engineer might too.