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Removing diagonal truss brace?

Home Improvement Asked by ivan on November 8, 2020

Looking to put insulation, plasterboards on the garage ceiling and some down lighters,
Not a massive amount of heavy stuff is currently stored there (primarily boxes etc).
There are 5 joists, joist size approx 6m X 7.5cm x 4cm, distance apart from joists approx 56cm , garage size wall to wall 5.6 X 2.6)

I would put loft boards that spam across 2 joists and meet in the middle of the centre joist (2 loft boards across)

There are two pieces timber that travel laterally at the top and bottom of the garage and was wondering if they serve a purpose or they can be removed (it would be harder to board it along with them in place and in my eyes the loft boards that would be screwed there probably serve the same purpose?

Pictures of diagonal truss in question below :

Bottom:

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Top:

enter image description here

If something needs to be in place what is an alternative to have that doesn’t travel laterally i.e (can I put a horizontal piece of timber across like the ones in the middle

In terms of reinforcement:

Initially I was going to sister the joints but they are too long and cant find made to order so now would add herringbone struts

pic below:

enter image description here

and would also add joist hangers

enter image description here

Finally any other recommendations would be very welcome

One Answer

Hard to be definitive without more information, but as a general statement, diagonal boards like that keep the perpendicular walls square to one another. So, it's probably useful. If you had to remove it, I'd look to local analysis, but I expect you'd end up with two diagonal straps (to account for the compression/tension that the existing timber is under).

(Local analysis could also reassure you that the existing structure is suitable for the weight of plasterboard and any additional timbers you might have to add to make the plasterboard work).

The solutions (struts, brackets) you've come up with do help stabilize the joists, but don't do much to keep the structure square.

Answered by Aloysius Defenestrate on November 8, 2020

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