Hi all
The idea; convert my conventional 8′ high ceiling into a vaulted ceiling.
The question; can I just yank down the existing ceiling joists and secure new drywall to the existing rafters?
Do I need eo be concerned with structural issues if I just remove the joists?
Some details:
The room in question is a single story rear section of my two story house. It is part of the orignal design. The roof structure is one half of a king post style with the wall of the two story section of the house acting as the anchor for the center beam. The room dimension is 12′ x 16′, exterior wall is brick clad.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Replies
the joists may act to keep the walls from spreading, as a counteraction to the forces exerted by gravity and the rafters to push those walls out in the middle, also creating a sag in the center of the ridge beam.
now i am assuming from your description a gable roof, if you were to reconstruct with new rafters a hip roof because of the inherent self supporting structure of a hip roof once it is sheeted and nailed you can attach drywall right to the bottom, and it will not sag or push out on the walls.
you could also rebuild the roof structure with scissor trusses in a gable design that would allow you to vault your ceiling as you wish, my vote is for the hip, it looks way cool from the inside to see the angles.
yet a third solution is to raise up the joists about 2', and then "coffer" the rest of the ceiling on the gable ends to make it appear to be hipped from the inside. this is probably the cheapest way to go.
after you have solved the structure problem i would also reccomend installing a 2" thick layer of styrafoam to the bottom of rafters, then strips of 1/2" 5ply ripped to about 3" wide on 2' centers (parallel to the walls, perpendicular to rafters) and then attaching the drywall to the strips of plywood. this accomplishes two things, 1 extra insulation to make up for lost attic insulation, and 2 it saves you from having to "back" the ridge and hip rafters so that they "plane in" with the common rafters and create a flat surface for drywall to attach to.
Thanks for the idea's.
If I wanted to avoid building a new roof structure and stay away from the hip roof idea, would a structural beam at both ends of the room keep the exterior wall from being pushed out? The beams would be 16' apart. I figure I could hide them or leave them exposed.
The kind of structural beam you need is a ridge beam in center of the room. It can be jacked into place under the existing framing and supported with posts to foundation
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pictures would help but .no you can't just yank out ceiling joists without knowing the whole nine yards.
You need to know about the shear weight...Sometimes the collar ties will be enough if they were placed proportionatly to the spans after removing the ceiling joists.
Pictures would help and so would your local engineer.
Be well proportioned
andy
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