How To Convert Existing Truss Roof Flat Ceiling To Vaulted Ceiling Using Rafters, Post and Beam

in this video I'm going to show you how you can convert a truss ceiling way into a cathedral ceiling and basically use conventional rafters and a post and a beam type of setup to do it now first thing I want to do is just go over the kind of show you how the truss system is usually going to be framed we have truss engineered trusses with blocks usually going to have blocks at the ridge blocks at the over the walls lookouts two by fours cut in and then a usually a 1 by 4 2 by 4 something too evenly spaced these sections that aren't going to be braced with blocks let's go ahead and remove some of the trusses we will work with one truss I think this will be the best way to give you you know wood sometimes we have walls and stuff in the way let's go ahead and remove the walls and we will work with one trust to give you a better view let's go ahead and cut our rafters we will get one rafter on each side and you can see here that the seat cut usually doesn't work out and I'm going to try and make another video to go into more detail on this to show you some of the problems you could have or the reason why you would actually frame it like this you would need to first thing I'd like to point out is you need to leave the trusses where they're at you cannot cut the trusses without supporting the rafters just to give you an idea there you're going to need to install the rafters and you're going to need to leave a gap for the beam to go into if this is how your going to be framing it the other side of the truss and usually the rafter or the truss nails into depending on the engineer would call out for maybe 12 inch basing staggered nailing something like that you again you will not be cutting the trusses until it the building is supported with the conventional framing how are we going to support the conventional framing until we get the ridge beam set in because we are going to need to cut a section of the trusses out eventually because we got to get the beam in so what we're going to do is support the roof rafters for the conventionally framed rafters with a 2x4 wall but we don't need to really build a wall underneath it you can if you want to build a different type of support system something like this usually works you can take the support studs and nail them fasten them to the truss you could screw them to the trusses eventually you're going to be cutting all of this stuff out anyway I will leave that up to you you can screw them to the framing use straps whatever you feel like you need you know you could always install a strap here or a flat a35 and again use screws until you need to take the wall down now let's take a look at what it would look like more of a realistic view after you have installed the rafters and all of the rafters and the blocks I didn't have the blocks in last time you can see here this is usually it all depends you could actually have a block on top of the wall and you might need to remove the block or depending upon the finish on the outside you might need to notch this back an inch and a half but that would be between you and the engineer remember these are just exam temples they aren't going to work for every situation depends on how the original framing is so here's a block the beam is going to go underneath the truss gives you an idea of how that what the truss system would look like with the blocks the walls we can see put a nailer on the bottom and then we have a section here that will need to be removed and I will leave it up to you how you remove it remember now that the wall is the wall and the Raptors are now supporting the roof so you can safely remove the truss and I wouldn't recommend removing all of the truss and I wouldn't recommend removing a lot of this either if it's going to be in your way go ahead but will actually just remove a little section something like this is going to give us enough room this way we can slide our beam on top of the bottom chord of the trust that we can actually use it to our benefit and you know remember the wall is also going to be supported by the bottom chord and even maybe some of the bracing so you might not need to you might not want to get too carried away removing this until you actually have the beam set next you'll need to cut a section out and the reason why I removed the center was because normally we have the truss clips and they're usually sticking up you know you can always just cut a section here and then cut the braces if you have any braces here I mean you might have a truss it just has one 2x4 coming down you'll cut this right here and then remove the 2x4 and you're good you won't have to remove any braces but you can actually put this cut anywhere you can put the cut over here if it's going to be easier for you and and then to get the Beaman but the reason why we're cutting this out right now is to actually side the beam into the sealing or into the attic area what we would have so you are going to need to cut a space somewhere in there unless you have another access another way to get the beam in I mean you might have an open side of the building here might be a remodel you're doing you can actually just like the slide the beam in here and you wouldn't need to remove any of this next step would be to install some type of a 2x4 and you can use a 2 by 6 2 by 8 depending on if you need to raise it up like I said sometimes you might have a truss clip that's sticking up if you're not going to remove the center you might have a truss clip in your way and that would require you to use a 2 by 6 or even a 2 by 8 to raise this up a little higher but either way you're going to need to put a support board here so that you can actually move the beam into place after you have after you have installed it next on the list will be to move the beam over and get it into position the if you can always use a level you know take and put your level on on the rafter and bring it straight down you can always make a mark on the 2x4 then you're going to need to install some two by fours now what these do and this is an excellent way I'm going to try and make another video and I'll put a link in here if I remember I'm going to try and make another video on showing you how to use this type of a system to raise beams and it really works out great because it creates a saddle creates something to where the beams not going to be going all over the place if you're just going to try the jack of this beam up into place without using support with supports like this could be a nightmare so this is an excellent way to keep the beam in the center and raise it up then using this method for quite some time I think the first time I used this method I had to raise a glulam beams that was about 35 feet long it was 23 inches tall and about 8 inches wide and I did it with a jack and no forklift didn't have the room couldn't get the forklift in there and it worked out great top view again I'm trying to give you different angles here to give you a better idea you might need to stop the video here and there pause it to examine some of these areas a little better this ought to give you an idea of how you can use the jack with a 4x4 a couple of two by fours supported underneath the beam any type of jack will do just fine hydraulic jack leave that up to you and wouldn't be a bad idea to put some type of a strap on here just a couple of screws and each thing the post and the beam I can't tell you how many times I go to raise this up and then I go to work on the other side and this whole thing falls apart once you start moving the beam beam around so they I'm going to leave this up to you if you want to do something like this or come up with some some other method here's what it would look like after it is completed you would have your 4x4 post or whatever size post you are using your beam would be in position and of course you would have a supporting post underneath you can always use a continuous post here also remember a lot of this stuff's going to depend upon the engineer and what they require another view here beam connected to the rafters rafters touching the beam and whatever type of support whether this is going to attach with nails hangers some type of framing anchors something like that that will be up to the engineer in and you can always knotch these rafters to go over the beam to sit on top it can always be tight I don't think it's a big deal you do something like this it might just be a little easier you're getting the connection with the existing roof trusses once you nail the rafters to the trusses you're getting the connection to go all the way through and these blocks right here are also part of your roof sheathing diaphragm nailing so I don't recommend removing these blocks unless you are going to remove the plywood also and re nail the plywood so that you can get your roof sheathing diaphragm nailing and this is it for this you can see right here this is not an easy job I didn't cover every possible problem you are going to run into but like I said I am going to make another video to this to give you a few more tips on some other things or some reasons why it's actually built this way so don't forget to hit the old thumbs up button if you liked the video and if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comment area or email us directly you

Channel: gregvancom

Views: 833,015

Keywords: how to, convert, existing truss roof, engineered roof system, flat ceiling, to vaulted ceiling, using conventional framing, roof rafters, post, beam, structural engineering, remodeling, house framing, education

Id: BMSo-avByjY

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Wed May 04 2016