Hi, hope this is in the right place. I’m currently renovating an old house (1900ish), and looking for some advice.
I’ve recently removed the pine-clad ceiling in the bathroom with a view to replacing it with plasterboard. Half of the ceiling is sloped with the roof and the other half has been squared off with a sloping void above. On removing the ceiling I’ve noticed that these ceiling supports were either badly fixed or rotten and needed replacing, however, seeing how much additional headspace this creates in the room, it would be nice to leave these out and instead make use of the entire space. My issue now is that where the ceiling supports had been, the purlin that runs across the room has a series of notches cut into the underside, which were created to allow the ceiling supports to pass underneath them and fix to the rafters, presumably to take the height of the room up slightly.
I need some advice on whether the purlin can be considered safe long-term, or is there a method where I can support this without re-instating the ceiling supports? Someone suggested installing a new 2x4 beam on the underside of the current one? The purlin is a 2x4” beam, 3 meters across with rough notches no deeper than 3/4”, cut evenly in 7 places across the length. The purlin has remained strong since removing the ceiling but I am worried about any long-term effects.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Luke
I’ve recently removed the pine-clad ceiling in the bathroom with a view to replacing it with plasterboard. Half of the ceiling is sloped with the roof and the other half has been squared off with a sloping void above. On removing the ceiling I’ve noticed that these ceiling supports were either badly fixed or rotten and needed replacing, however, seeing how much additional headspace this creates in the room, it would be nice to leave these out and instead make use of the entire space. My issue now is that where the ceiling supports had been, the purlin that runs across the room has a series of notches cut into the underside, which were created to allow the ceiling supports to pass underneath them and fix to the rafters, presumably to take the height of the room up slightly.
I need some advice on whether the purlin can be considered safe long-term, or is there a method where I can support this without re-instating the ceiling supports? Someone suggested installing a new 2x4 beam on the underside of the current one? The purlin is a 2x4” beam, 3 meters across with rough notches no deeper than 3/4”, cut evenly in 7 places across the length. The purlin has remained strong since removing the ceiling but I am worried about any long-term effects.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Luke
