"TH" wrote in message
ink.net...
Sounds like a good plan.

Glad to hear it.

It would keep the original attic cooler in the summer and provide a cold
roof for the winter - no ice dams, if they were a problem in the past.

Maybe you heard about that ice storm of last year--worst in anyone's memory
for the area? All the firewood needed for years to come is now right at
everybody's doorstep. Driving through it this spring while the trees were
yet bare, one word kept coming to mind: Tunguska!

As to the attic, yes, that's the main idea--but you should see it as it is
now, all crowded up with those 24 foot trusses spaced at 16" on center,
about which I neglected to mention the really hairy part and the reason we
got the place so cheap, why *zero value* was being assessed to the house,
which according to the realtor was "built too low"--with that drywall
ceiling only 6' 6" above the floor. Little wonder the bank that repossessed
the place saw land value alone at their price of $39,000. So, when they
finally caved to our bid of $31k, not only did we get a free log home
(worthy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) with that 20 wooded acres, but
the electric installation, the well and working submersible pump, even the
septic system to boot.

Obviously, except some caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland should happen
along to offer us a bite of something magic to raise that ceiling over our
heads, something else has to be done about those trusses, especially as it
comes to the project of providing the semi-cathedral style ceiling we want
for the place. The rafter (top chord) span is 16 feet from plate-log to
peak. They are 2x4's. Our plan (or should I say "our hope") is that we can
raise the horizontal bottom chord with its triangular webbing up to the 9'
level, three feet below the peak--without having to break up the living
space with unwanted bearing walls to keep those trusses firmly in place.

Obviously, some form of support must be had to stop those unsupported rafter
legs of the trusses from sagging, so I figure to raise two stout purlins
(paired or trebled 2x8's) to run parallel with the plates that formerly bore
support for the trusses, these would now bear that load, as bolted to 6x6
upright beams--just two per purlin, equally spaced as raised from piers
under the house up to that nine foot level.

I did this once upon a time back in the 60's for a house full of mushroom
munching dwarfs (aka "hippies") along the Avenue of Giants in the Northern
California redwood country, north of Mendocino and it seemed to work pretty
good. It was my proudest achievement of those years, as a 'hippie', that one
8 by 8 beam I installed in that house, from a hole in the ground beneath the
floor and up to the sky, to the second story they wanted to add. Initially,
I'd wanted nothing to do with the project, till I was out-voted and the
State of California came by to say there'd be no permit without that beam
should go into the ground right beside my bed.

Beside *my* bed? Yup. So said the Law. Well, all right then. Since it was
beside my bed that the law said a log had to go, I made it my project to see
to it that it should go up straight and true, so the roof should not come
down over me and my old lady's head--and I did it right, smoking nothing
more aromatic than tobacco while I was at it, mixing the cement and framing
the braces. I believe that beam still stands in the middle of the redwood
forest there in the middle of that hacienda as a monument to a moment of
sobriety in the midst of a year long orgy of nothing of the sort.
--
Mackie http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/520b8/



--

.................................................. ............
Posted thru AtlantisNews - Explore EVERY Newsgroup
http://www.AtlantisNews.com -- Lightning Fast!!!
Access the Most Content * No Limits * Best Service