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We bought a 15 year old house two months ago. We're still just moving in. Today I went into the garage and noticed a place where it looked like the tape was loose on the ceiling near the attic door. I opened the garage door for more natural light and was able to see that there is, in fact, a depression several inches long.
Since we have stored a few boxes up there, placed on the planks, my son went up to see where they were in relation to the places on the ceiling. When he stood where some of the boxes were, near the spot I described, a little place on the ceiling started cracking. He moved off that spot quickly, and moved the boxes to another part of the attic.
First of all, I hope he was standing on the framing, or the planks and not the drywall.
Is the roof trusses (wood with metal plates at junctions) or stick built (regular lumber).
Is the attic ladder or hatch installed IN-LINE with the framing, or is it CROSSWAYS to the framing?
If someone installed the ladder or access perpendicular to the framing, then they cut the bottom chord of a truss, or ceiling joist and weakened the framing.
I have included a couple photos that show stick built, trusses, and a cut truss for a ladder.
Hope this helps. Feel free to DM me for more info.
Last edited by Barking Spider; 07-20-2008 at 08:02 AM..
Reason: spelling error
Yes, he was standing on the framing and planks. That was the first thing I checked on while he was up there. I will go up to the attic and get the answers to the rest of your questions.
We are trying to put floor-boards down in our Maronda Home attic. The access was already installed, and we added a small retractable ladder. This weekend we went and purchased our plywood. Now, the problem that we're having is that the insulation is too think. it comes almost 6" above the 2x4 joists! There's nothing to screw the floor boards into at this point. I noticed one of your photos showed that you had built the floor up over the insulation by connecting 2x4s to the diagonal supports. We were concerned that this would weaken the integrity of the framing system, and or not be "to code" for insurance purposes. It also seem like a lot more work that we intially thought. On the other hand, we feel like compacting the insulation to secure the floor boards to the joists will put too much pressure on the ceiling below. Any advice would be great!
Those photos are from inspections, and not my house by the way.
OK, first of all, you will not create a problem by ADDING lumber to the trusses. Just don't remove any or cut any. Second, the attic framing is not really designed to support heavy loads, so don't plan on putting a lot of stuff up there.
You can just screw some 2x4's across the trusses above the insulation to create a platform for your plywood decking. Just like the photos.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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I have noticed that some stick-framed homes will not have very hefty ceiling joists above the garage. It isn't uncommon to just see 2X6's spanning the entire length of the garage ceiling without any bracing or supports (just the ends resting on the bearing walls). If that is the case, don't put much faith in their strength. They are only there to hold sheetrock.
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