Re-roofing with attic trusses For a while I’ve been throwing the idea around about re-roofing my house with attic trusses to add extra living space upstairs. I’m at least 18 months away from wanting to start construction, but I thought I better start organizing things.
My house is brick veneer, concrete tiled roof (22.5 degree pitch), timber sub floor on concrete stumps. In the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. I’ve attached a small sketch of the dimensions of the house. The plan would be to re-roof the house and over the existing deck. I guess the best way would be to go steel trusses clad with colourbond. I’ve considered a conventional 2nd story but aesthetically I’m not a massive fan of that look, but it’s still an option.
My main question is where do I start? I’ve got quite a few sketches of ideas. Should I be talking to the council first, or get things drawn up and then take them to council? Do I need to get my own engineer? Or does the draftsman use their own?
Some other main questions are:
My current ceiling height is 8foot. I’d love to lift this to 9 foot. Is it possible to marry on a small wall frame on top of the existing hardwood frame, or do I need to replace the wall frames completely?
With a major reno like this, I’m guessing you need to bring the whole structure up to today’s standards? Will I have to replace all the existing windows to double-glazed to meet the energy requirements? Will I have to retrofit some sort of termite protection?
With the roof coming off, the existing power and phone cables will need to be disconnected. Can I get a temporary connection during construction?
Any ideas, advice or recommendations welcome.
I thought about this a while ago and discussed the pros and cons of going up, the advice I got was that going up would cost almost twice as much as the same floor area built on the ground.
Stud walls would be strong enough but all the penetrations, windows and doors would need lintels etc.
No idea about increasing the wall height with a small wall on top, I'd say it would be expensive, better perhaps to simply build a new house
you're plan of attack is to get your plans drafted... a good draftsman/architect should be able to give you an estimated cost, and some idea of the engineering involved. from there you will have to consult an engineer, then send your plans off to the surveyor/council for approval. i'm not sure that you can simply stack dwarf walls on top of existing frames to lift ceiling height, particularly when you're upping the load by making more livable area above. engineer will have more to say on that. i reckon you're studs, at least some of them, will have to be full length. as moondog suggested, you will also have to up you're load bearing capacity with you're existing lintels and frames too. i'm pretty sure that anything that requires permit(liveable area) has to comply to the new green ratings. unless you really love the area, maybe starting from scratch is the better option???
hope this helps.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've started discussions with a drafting\architect crowd, I have a price for designs, reviews, and working drawings, so I've got a starting point. I need to do more research before I give them the go ahead, if I start changing direction once they have started, that will run into unnecessary costs. I've picked up an owner builder info kit from them so I've got some reading to do. BTW, yes at the end of the project, the whole build will need to meet 6star energy rating, one way or another.
Not interested in selling and moving. I've considered the knock-down rebuild approach but that will ruin quite a bit of the landscaping that I've already done. Plus it seems a bit overkill, but I guess time will tell.
I'm also not convinced on the idea of a small wall frame to extend the walls. If I have to replace the wall frames then I would probably just go the whole hog and retro-fit a compete steel frame like this, (wow... I'm just dreaming now)
http://www.truecore.com.au/case-stud...re-steel-frame
Is there a set weight per sq\m of living space in domestic applications that structural engineers allow for?
Thanks again for the input
The word I hear is that if one needs to do any changes to steel frames on site the offending frames have to go back to the plant. Timber, well make the changes on the spot. Trusses of course would be a different matter, regardless of the material they are made of.
Dont think I would try and add a bit to the top of a wall, but thats just me.
When I die, bury me in the hardware store
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