Attic Support Beams

Beams need solid support all the way down to another beam or the house foundation.

Attic support beams.

You can t beat sawn lumber for most small window headers but as spans and loads increase stronger materials are a better choice. Once again a 2 by 4 inch piece of lumber is placed between the trusses and parallel to the ceiling joists. The same is true for beams like structural ridge beams and center girders. If your attic joists won t bear the weight necessary to finish out a living space but the engineer cleared them to support floor decking for light storage you can install inch plywood or.

This is where a high pitched roof is necessary. In the case of 2x6 joists you can pair them up with additional 2x6 joists by nailing them together side by side. The image below shows a cross section of our simple 12 x 13 house from the joist span tables section of this tutorial. Here we have a wood framed gable roof.

The other is just used to support the trusses. So if there s an attic rather than living space above the bearing wall you want to remove. Sistering is the process of adding a new joist next to each existing joist. A higher pitched roof would be better for extra living space than a lower pitched roof.

Floor beam span tables of residential structural design we will now look at roof rafter and beam design. Drive nails through the floor directly in front of the trimmers and then go beneath the floor and look for the nail shanks to determine the exact trimmer location. A great deal depends on the pitch of the roof. Too often builders gang together 2 inch dimension lumber to support roof and floor loads without considering other options.