Cutting Trusses For Attic Access

Unfortunately it is common to see trusses which have had webs and chords cut to accommodate attic access skylights or hvac ductwork.

Cutting trusses for attic access. He she not talking about hacking his roof joist just making an opening in his ceiling. Our home has 2x4 roof trusses spanning 25 ft. X 54 in with the long dimension perpendicular to the trusses. Attic ladder kits are made to fit between existing framing in the ceiling that is the floor of the attic.

Most common attic trusses for homes and garages are made with 2x4 s. A few cut trusses spaced two foot on center don t necessarily lead to catastrophic roof failure because the roof acts like a large diaphragm and because partition walls if any below usually pick up some. I remember on one house he told me that you never ever ever ever cut a truss. Currently there is limited attic storage on a plywood subfloor on the bottom chords accessed via a small hatch in a closet.

If the roof slope is steeper than 9 inches in 12 inches of run it doesn t take much width to end up with a nice room 12 feet wide with an 8 foot. Do the same at the other end and then cut your ceiling to match the opening. Trusses are similar to roof rafters. Homeowners should avoid cutting or modifying their roof trusses.

One use of trusses is for the support of a roof. Attic trusses have a rectangular shape inside each truss. We would like to install a fold down attic stair with a rough opening size of 25 5 in. I asked him if any of the joists were actually part of a truss and the answer was oh yeah.

These trusses are usually engineered by a structural engineering company in order to carry a specific roof load. In some cases the ladder may fit into an existing attic access hatch. While they look the same you probably didn t notice the subtle differences. You can easily cut your ceiling joists and use the off cut if big enough to but end where the cut was and fix appropriately on the two adjoining joists trusses whatever.

When a truss becomes damaged cut or modified there is a. Where possible choose a size and location for your attic ladder that allows it to fit between existing ceiling joists or trusses. Cutting the bottom chord of an attic truss i worked for an old school new england carpenter for a couple years when i was 15 16 years old. The sad fact is your builder could have installed attic trusses over this garage for just slightly more than what the existing trusses cost.