Timber frame house. Attic?

oneillk

Hi,
I live in a timber frame (block outer leaf, timer inner leaf), mid terrace house. The seperating walls are also timber frame. I currently use the attic to store a load of crap, but I reckon there is enough space for good sized room up there, but im not sure if its possible to convert.
It is a prefabricated trussed roof, so obviously most of these timbers would be removed etc, but my main question is can I covert the attic seen as my house is timber frame with timber seperating walls(its a 2 bed 2 story house, and the seperating walls would have to become the load bearing wall for any purlins etc, OR DO THEY?
Any info, anyone know the practicality of this?

rooferPete

Hi,

You may need the services of a Structural Engineer to tell you if you can interfere with the trusses.

I believe timber frame dividing walls should never be allowed and I doubt if these walls are capable of carrying any loads outside what they were designed for.

Before you allow a cowboy to start removing any parts of pre-engineered trusses bear in mind that roof tiles weight on average 5 tonnes per thousand.

You wouldn't be the first to find his roof collapsing due to the trusses having important sections removed.

Most developers will have advertised your attic as being suitable for conversion if the truss was designed for an conversion, they usuall fit the minimum required to hold up the roof.

.

loyatemu

rooferPete wrote:

I believe timber frame dividing walls should never be allowed

what else would you have in a timber-framed house?

if you living in a mid-terrace then presumably the whole estate is timber-framed. see if you can find someone else in the estate who has had their attic converted.

rooferPete

loyatemu wrote:

what else would you have in a timber-framed house?

if you living in a mid-terrace then presumably the whole estate is timber-framed. see if you can find someone else in the estate who has had their attic converted.

Hi,

Before the terrible building regulations came in the dividing wall between houses and factory's had to be 9" solid concrete, usually made up by building 4" solid blocks on flat.

The reason was fire prevention, I expect a large part of the noise problems between houses is caused by timber frame dividing walls, the only purpose they serve is if you buy the house next door it will be easier to break through for a bigger house.

I call this type of construction sub standard (sorry to all who have them) even the dividing walls in factory buildings had to pass through the roofs to meet the fire regulations, now they stop under roof sheets.

.

loyatemu

don't know much about building regulations but i do know I had much worse problems with noise from neighbours when I lived in my previous concrete-built house. In the timber framed one I'm in now, I never hear a thing from next door.

obviously ymmv etc.

Breezzzzze

Hi,

Usually timber frame terraced houses have timber frame party walls, comprising two separate frames, with a cavity between. Sometimes, 215 block party walls are used instead. I reckon you'd want to find out who supplied the timber framing on the project, probably Century Homes or Younger Homes, and ask their advice. They're the only ones who will know what members are in the timber frame, because the frames arrive on site already slabbed, so the verticals are hidden.

I wouldn't get my hopes up. As floor joists will typically span from front to rear, the party wall doesn't carry very much apart from the stair and stair trimmer joists.

Bz