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#1
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How to walk in Attic
Hello! I need some advice about walking on the attic. My attic access
is through a walk in closet. Because I have the cathedral ceiling, therefore I have very limited space in the attic. My house was built in 1999. I recalled that during the last home inspection, the inspector mentioned that we cannot walk on the attic directly; we have to walk on the rafter. My questions are 1) How to identify a rafter? If I get into the attic, I recall that I can see woods sloping down and merge together on the floor of the attic. In other words, when I look into the attic, I see woods with shape of "V" -- the bottom tip of "V" is on my attic floor. Are these woods called rafters ? There are many of them. Thought rafters ONLY refer to woods that support the roof. I saw some of these "V" woods not directly link to the roof. 2) Do I walk on the bottom tip of the woods "V" ? Not sure if I recall correctly, but I thought the inspector told me that not every rafter is strong enough to hold a human (I weight only 180 pounds). I need to access the attic because I see a hole at the edge of the roof-top of my house. I worry birds, or bees will get into it. I am trying to access the attic, get to the edge of the house, and seal the hole. Please Let me know if you have any other better idea. Thanks Tong |
#2
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I can't give advice on where to walk. I have never heard of any joists
that you cannot walk on. The boards you see going across the floor of the attic that you would walk on if you walked through the attic are called joists. The boards that are nailed to the underside of the roof are called rafters. However, the hole may be a problem. First, if it's letting water in, you must seal is properly to be sure water doesn't keep coming in. Second, if birds or bees can get in the hole, squirrels, rats, and mice can, too. And only a professional can tell you whether they have. And since it's now Spring, rodents are looking for places to make nests. Hire a professional rodent company. |
#3
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You might think about just working from the outside as repairs must be
made there anyway. If you decide to go look from the inside, those things the inspector told you to walk on are joists, not rafters. I don't advise walking on them directly as people do slip and end up putting a foot through the ceiling drywall and sometimes injuring themselves. If there are no floor boards up there I bring some wood to bridge across a couple joists and often crawl around moving one board in front of another to get to where I need. Bring a flashlight and any other supplies you think you will need. |
#4
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Being in the A/C install feild for the last 5 yrs I have never had an
attic that I could not get around in.And I'll tell ya I've been in some starnge attics. The crawl board is a good idea if your unsure where to put your feet. The most inportant thing to remember is DONT put weight on the drywall. If you do you will have another hole to fix. Make sure to keep your weight on the wood joist that run across the floor of the acttic. Steve |
#5
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On 9 May 2005 09:18:21 -0700, someone wrote:
I recalled that during the last home inspection, the inspector mentioned that we cannot walk on the attic directly; we have to walk on the rafter. You inspector was using inaccurate terminology. The "rafters" are the sloped faming that holds up the roof - hard to walk on those unless you can walk upside down. The level pieces the tie the lower ends of the rafters down are joists to me - ceiling joists if their primary purpose is to hold the ceiling, I suppose they could be attic floor joists if there was an attic floor. But anyway, all to picky. What are you calling "on the attic directly"??? Of course you can't walk on insulation that is only supported by the ceiling sheetrock, you'd put your foot thru the ceiling. Go up and just walk on the wood for cryin' out loud, get some common sense. (If English is your second language, I cut your more slack since informality in terminology could confuse you more.) Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file. |
#6
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v wrote: On 9 May 2005 09:18:21 -0700, someone wrote: I recalled that during the last home inspection, the inspector mentioned that we cannot walk on the attic directly; we have to walk on the rafter. You inspector was using inaccurate terminology. The "rafters" are the sloped faming that holds up the roof - hard to walk on those unless you can walk upside down. The level pieces the tie the lower ends of the rafters down are joists to me - ceiling joists if their primary purpose is to hold the ceiling, I suppose they could be attic floor joists if there was an attic floor. But anyway, all to picky. What are you calling "on the attic directly"??? Of course you can't walk on insulation that is only supported by the ceiling sheetrock, you'd put your foot thru the ceiling. Go up and just walk on the wood for cryin' out loud, get some common sense. (If English is your second language, I cut your more slack since informality in terminology could confuse you more.) Except I think he's saying the attic is over a cathedral ceiling, so the joists are the "rafters" of the sloped ceiling, and they reach a point in the middle of the attic. There would be no level joist to walk on. And depending on how they were tied together in the middle, they would not have the strength of a continuous flat joist. This would make sense of the comment about walking "on the bottom tip of the [inverted] V", referring to the cathedral ceiling joists. Also the bit about some of the V's not touching the roof. I have no idea what he should do, just trying to figure out what the situation is. Chip C |
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