I wanted a bit of advice - just an idea really of what might be
possible/ involved in my loft conversion.

Currently the space in the loft is open - 1935 brick terraced house.
The beams (about 2" square) and maybe 10 of them that run between the
gutter line and the top/centre/middle of the roof are supported 1/2
way up by a substantial wooden beam running left to right probably
about 4" x 1 foot in size to stop the beams saging 'in' i guess.

The whole of the space in the loft is empty.

Since this beam would intrudes into the living space quite a bit what
are the options of replacing it? - what is normally done?

405 TD Estate wrote:

I wanted a bit of advice - just an idea really of what might be
possible/ involved in my loft conversion.

Currently the space in the loft is open - 1935 brick terraced house.
The beams (about 2" square) and maybe 10 of them that run between the
gutter line and the top/centre/middle of the roof are supported 1/2

Rafters - 2x2 sounds quite small - 4x2 would be more typical.

way up by a substantial wooden beam running left to right probably
about 4" x 1 foot in size to stop the beams saging 'in' i guess.

Purlin. Yup they support the rafters mid (ish) span - or on large roofs
sometimes there are two per side at 1/3rd and 2/3rds positions.

For examples see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?...f_construction

The whole of the space in the loft is empty.

Since this beam would intrudes into the living space quite a bit what
are the options of replacing it? - what is normally done?

Are you planning on adding a dormer on one side or both? Typically you
would replace the purlin with a dwarf wall.

See about half way down the page:

http://www.internode.co.uk/loft/superstructure.htm

--
Cheers,

John.

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On Aug 11, 3:12*pm, 405 TD Estate wrote:
I wanted a bit of advice - just an idea really of what might be
possible/ involved in my loft conversion.

Currently the space in the loft is open - 1935 brick terraced house.
The beams (about 2" square) and maybe 10 of them that run between the
gutter line and the top/centre/middle of the roof are supported 1/2
way up by a substantial wooden beam running left to right probably
about 4" x 1 foot in size to stop the beams saging 'in' i guess.

The whole of the space in the loft is empty.

Since this beam would intrudes into the living space quite a bit what
are the options of replacing it? - what is normally done?

Thats a very light roof stucture, are you sure about those dimensions?
If so, is the place really tiny? Or are they very close spaced?

You're not going to replace a purlin with anything even smaller than
4" - if anything the opposite.

If head height is borderline there is in principle the option of
replacing the floor structure altogether at a lower height, and this
can go as thin as 3" if necessary (3" solid floor, no joists), but of
course it all adds to the cost.


NT