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Default 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

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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.

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Al Bundy
 
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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.

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briz
 
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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

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v
 
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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.


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Chip C
 
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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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